We do not apprehend that this circumstance will occur as a sign of Christ’s coming, but rather that it will constitute one of the events of his coming, the same as the features mentioned in the next verse. An evident distinction may be drawn between the _signs_ of the advent and the circumstances of it. With the falling of the stars, the former cease; and with the next event the latter commence. This event, the shaking of the powers of heaven, we must regard as being future. It holds the same place in the events of this chapter, that the departing of the heavens as a scroll does in the events of the sixth seal of Revelation 6. Both follow the falling stars. The Scriptures plainly teach that, prior to the resurrection of the just by the voice of the Son of God, the voice of God the Father will shake the heavens and the earth, when will be fulfilled the shaking of the powers of the heaven. This is not the voice of the Son of God as he descends to raise the dead. It comes from the throne of God in the temple of heaven. “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Joel 3:16. “Therefore will I shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.” Isa. 13:13. Paul quotes from the words of the Lord by Haggai and comments as follows:— “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken.” Heb. 12:26, 27. “Sign Of The Son Of Man.” Neither is this one of the signs showing that the coming of the Son of man is near, but “the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” It is that which indicates his position. When Christ ascended from the mount of Olivet, “a cloud received him” from the sight of his disciples. They still gazed at the cloud as it rolled upward, bearing the Saviour toward the Father’s throne but they could not see his person. When he comes “in like manner” as he was taken up to heaven, the cloud will appear, small in the distance, but as it draws near, it will signify to those who are looking for his return, that he is there, and soon his presence will fill the earth with matchless glory. In Rev. 14:14, the holy seer records his view of the coming Saviour in the following words: “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man.”