On August 21, much of the
United States will see a solar eclipse. In some areas, the eclipse will be
total. Prophecy prognosticators are already making claims about the prophetic
significance of this solar event. What is there to it?
For the uninformed, there is
nothing unusual about an eclipse. They happen on a regular basis around the
world. Here’s a site where
you can see a list of the various eclipses (lunar and solar) for the next ten
years. What makes this one unusual is that it will traverse much of the United
States.
An eclipse is about positioning
and timing. There will be a point in time when the moon will pass between the
sun and the earth and block the sun from our eyes. How is this possible since
the sun is 400 times the size of the moon’s diameter? There is also a 400
times difference in distance. We can make the moon disappear by
positioning one of our thumbs between our eyes and the moon. This is a
good way to explain an eclipse to young children without harm to their eyes.
What also is not unusual is for
prophecy prognosticators to make claims about the prophetic significance of
solar events. The recent blood moon phenomenon is one example. Anne
Graham Lotz, the daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, has written, “Is God’s Judgment Coming on
America?” She’s basing her opinion, although not being dogmatic
about it, that the eclipse could be a warning of our nation’s judgment:
In light of Ezekiel 33:1-6 that commands a watchman to be
faithful to warn others of the danger coming against the land, I feel compelled
to issue the warning once again. The warning is triggered by the total solar
eclipse of August 21, 2017, nicknamed America’s Eclipse. For the first time in
almost 100 years, a total solar eclipse will be seen from coast to coast in our
nation.
People are preparing to mark this
significant event with viewing parties at exclusive prime sites. The
celebratory nature regarding the eclipse brings to my mind the Babylonian King
Belshazzar who threw a drunken feast the night the Medes and Persians crept
under the city gate. While Belshazzar and his friends partied, they were
oblivious to the impending danger. Belshazzar wound up dead the next day,
and the Babylonian empire was destroyed.
Jewish rabbis have historically
viewed solar eclipses as warnings from God to Gentile nations. Therefore, my
perspective on the upcoming phenomenon is not celebratory. While no one can
know for sure if judgment is coming on America, it does seem that God is
signaling us about something. Time will tell what that something is.
Americans do not need a solar
eclipse to know that America is headed for judgment for its many sins against
God and His laws if they do not repent. The warning signs are everywhere. The
Bible is filled with such warnings. But is this eclipse a specific sign of
judgment? Anne Lotz says we’ll have to wait and see. That’s not the way
biblical signs work.
Prophecy speculators have been
cashing in on apocalyptic scare tactics for centuries. I have twelve book cases
filled with literature related to prophecy and prophetic speculation. While
we’re looking at the sun, moon, and stars, our culture is being stolen from us.
Christians need to stop with the speculation and get to work applying the
principles of the Bible to our world rather than prophetic speculation.
Here’s one prophetic speculator
that the media are quoting:
“I believe it is a prophetic
sign,” said Paul Begley, host of
the Coming Apocalypse radio show. Begley said the eclipse
could possibly fulfill a Bible prophecy recorded in the book of Joel, which
says, “the sun shall be turned to darkness” before
the “Day of the Lord come.” Begley said, “Somebody sound the trumpet,” because
the eclipse may mean, “we are living in the last days.”
Here’s another one:
Mark Biltz, author of the 2016
book God’s Day Timer, said
the fact that the eclipse’s path falls exclusively on the United States means it
is a sign that God’s judgment is coming to America. “From a biblical point of
view, a solar eclipse is meant as a sign from God,” he said. “When there is a
total solar eclipse, it is a warning to a specific nation or nations depending
on its path. … Could God be giving us a warning that we need to repent or
judgment will be coming to the United States? The timing couldn’t be clearer!”
One more:
“[T]his solar eclipse will be a
warning of impending natural catastrophe and also will involve the warning of a
war that the United States and Israel will be entangled in,” wrote Michael
Parker, who runs the Prophecies of the End Times website.
Parker believes the eclipse is connected to America’s attempts to devise a
two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. (The Trumpet)
Since there have been and will be
total eclipses of the sun and moon in other parts of the world, why is Anne
Lotz only now making a connection between an eclipse and God’s judgment? It’s
hardly reasonable to have an event like an eclipse be a prophetic sign when
eclipses are predictable, as they have been for centuries.
In 1504, while Christopher
Columbus was shipwrecked in Jamaica, the Spaniards were having a tough time
trading with the natives for food. Their food supply was fast coming to an end,
and the natives were becoming tired of the hawk bells and trinkets that
Columbus’ crew were trading. Columbus knew he had to take drastic measures. He
told the natives that if they did not keep his crew supplied with food, his God
would get angry and make the moon “die.”
Coming to the admiral’s rescue
was Johannes Müller von Königsberg (1436-1476), known by his Latin pseudonym,
Regiomontanus. He was a highly regarded German mathematician, astronomer and
astrologer. Before his death, Regiomontanus published an almanac containing
astronomical tables covering the years 1475-1506.
Regiomontanus’ almanac turned out
to be of great value, for his astronomical tables provided detailed information
about the sun, moon and planets, as well as the more important stars and
constellations to navigate by. After it was published, no sailor dared set out
without a copy. With its help, explorers were able to leave their customary
routes and venture out into the unknown seas in search of new frontiers.
Columbus, of course, had a copy
of the almanac with him when he was stranded on Jamaica. And he soon discovered
from studying its tables that on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 29, 1504,
a total lunar eclipse would
occur, beginning around the time of moonrise.
*****
Just moments before the end of
the total phase Columbus reappeared, announcing to the Arawaks that his god had
pardoned them and would now allow the moon to gradually return. And at that
moment, true to Columbus’ word, the moon slowly
began to reappear, and as it emerged from the Earth’s shadow, the grateful
Arawaks hurried away. They then kept Columbus and his men well supplied and
well fed until a relief caravel from Hispaniola arrived on June 29, 1504.
Columbus and his men returned to Spain on Nov. 7. (Space.com)
To bolster her claim, Anne
Lotz cites Joel 2:31: “The sun will be turned to darkness
… before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The sun is not
turned to darkness during an eclipse. The same passage also states that the
moon will turn “into blood.” Since there have been many eclipses and many times
the moon looked red (it never has nor ever will turn into literal blood), why
didn’t Joel 2:31 apply then? Why is it only applying
now? Peter quotes Joel in Acts 2:19-20 and applies it to his day when
there was neither an eclipse nor a red moon.
James Jordan gets to the heart of
the meaning of the moon turning into blood passage:
[T]he turning of the moon to
“blood” points, I believe, to something particularly Jewish: the sacrificial
system. If they will not accept the blood of Jesus Christ, the final Sacrifice,
then they themselves will be turned into blood. They will become the
sacrifices…. That is what the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was all about.
But Joel is issuing a warning.
Those who listen can escape. “And it will come about that whoever calls on the
name of Yahweh will be delivered; for ‘on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there
will be those who escape,’ as Yahweh has said, even among the survivors whom
Yahweh calls” (Joel 2:32). Just as
Isaac escaped death on Mount Zion because of the substitute ram that God
provided (Genesis 22:14), so those who trust in the Lamb
of God will escape the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Such is Joel’s
warning, reiterated by Peter on the day of Pentecost [Acts 2:19-21].
Neither Joel nor Peter had solar
eclipses and red-looking moons in mind. God’s Judgment was based on the
reckless abandonment of God’s law and the rejection of God’s Son.
The Bible records that at Jesus’
crucifixion there was darkness over the land. Some have speculated that this
was due to a lunar eclipse (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33). Luke adds that the sun was
“obscured,” but he does not say how (Luke 23:44-45). It could have been thick cloud
coverage or changing atmospheric conditions. It could not have been a solar
eclipse since they are of much shorter duration, no longer than seven minutes.
The darkness at the time of the crucifixion lasted three hours. Lunar eclipses
occur when the moon is full and visible at night and the earth passes between
the sun and the moon. Jesus was crucified during the day.
Too many people are fixated on
the end of history rather than on the One who made history nearly 2,000 year
ago on the cross of redemption and the empty tomb. When the dust settles and
the light returns and nothing prophetic happens, how many people will drift
away from the faith because of another prophetic false alarm? Fortunately, not
many people are proclaiming the upcoming solar event an apocalyptic event. But
hold your breath, there’s the Revelation 12 Sign/September 23, 2017, Alignment
prediction on the horizon.
For more on a truer understanding
of Bible Prophecy, the sun, moon, and stars, and much more, see my Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church
and American Vision’s many other books on Bible prophecy.
