Bryan, hi! Long time no chat with!
Hey, I’ve heard that you’re kind of worried about a completely natural and predictable (and long-predicted) astrological phenomenon indicating Something’s Satanic in the World Today. That’s kind of … um … an interesting and challenging point of view. So let’s go look at it.
(Look at the story. Not the eclipse. That could be dangerous.)
Does God have a message for us in the total eclipse of the sun?
If so, I think it would be, “Hey, look, astronomy works. Science works. You can predict when things like this are going to happen thousands of years in advance. There is order to the universe, isn’t that cool?” Which I think is a pretty awesome thing.
The Bible makes it clear that God created the sun and the moon to serve as “signs.” “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens…and let them be for signs and for seasons…’” (Genesis 1:14).
So what is a “sign?” It is something that points beyond itself. It is not reality itself, but simply points to it, like a sign out in front of a restaurant that lets you know you’ve reached your destination. A sign is a symbol, a pointer, a indication, a token of something beyond itself.
Peter echoes Genesis 1 in Acts 2, where he quotes Joel at length. “And I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below…the sun shall be turned to darkness…” (Acts 2:19-20a).
So what happens with the interplanetary bodies, particularly the sun and the moon, are intended to signify things beyond themselves, which invites us to consider what those things might be.
That’s really interesting, Bryan. Especially since we can predict what they are going to do, so we can therefore predict … the signifying of things?
I mean, there’s going to be a total solar eclipse in Australia in 2030. What does that signify? Or does the US alone get portents and prophesies?
Now in the thoughts I express here, I am not all pretending that I have received some form of revelation from God about the meaning he wants us to attach to a total eclipse of the sun.
But I’ll bet you’re going to try, Bryan.
This is simply an effort to ponder this sign in the heavens and speculate as to its possible spiritual implications.
Why does it have to have spiritual implications? I mean, the sun and the moon are frequently in the sky doing interesting stuff. Is there a spiritual implication around each phase of the moon, or each crater, or each sun spot or solar flare, or how the sun rises and lowers in the sky due to the Earth’s wobble?
Which phenomena are worth spiritual implication pondering, Bryan?
God knew that this precise event would come at this precise moment in our nation’s history, and it is entirely appropriate for us to ponder its significance.
Science knew that this precise event would come at this precise moment in our nation’s history, too. So …
It is intriguing that when God speaks of the role of the sun and the moon in Genesis, the sun is identified as the heavenly body designed to “rule the day,” while the moon is designed to “rule the night” (Genesis 1:19).
Yes, it is intriguing. Because when the sun is up, it’s “day” and when the sun is down it’s “night.” And even though the moon isn’t up all the time at night, it can be up during the day, but it is far less bright than the sun during the day.
Come to think of it, how is that intriguing?
The sun, if it is a symbol of anything, is certainly a symbol of God’s radiant truth, which is intended to reveal, to illuminate, and to enlighten every soul on planet earth. John uses this as a metaphor to describe the advent of Christ. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Jesus is further described as “the true light, which enlightens everyone coming into the world” (John 1:9).
Well, “light” certainly seems to be an important metaphor here. It’s not clear that we’re talking about the sun as the same metaphor as the Son (unless we’re watching an old Star Trek episode)
The night, on the other hand, is a symbol of spiritual darkness, deception, and error. Jesus himself used this metaphor when he said, “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19).
Again, Jesus is talking about light and darkness, not day and night.
And, um, as you note, it’s a metaphor. Light in the day is important because it provides heat and lets us grow food and helps us see when we’re walking. Darkness means cold, it means danger, it means tripping hazards.
So, yeah, light and darkness are frequent metaphors (and not just in Scripture, Bryan). Day and night are sometimes used as analogous metaphors. But I suspect you’re going to try to make that even, um, clearer.
The path of this total eclipse of the sun is remarkable, in that it crosses over the entire continental United States, almost perfectly bisecting America from the Northwest to the Southeast. And in that path, the sun will be perfectly blotted out, by the ruler of the night, plunging all of America in its path into virtual total darkness.
The path is remarkable because total eclipses are so rare and so often happen where it does. But the path its not remarkable per se, as it is predictable by the motion of the Moon, Sun, and Earth.
Now, what would be remarkable, perhaps even miraculous, would be if the eclipse started precisely on the shore of the United States, and ended similarly on the other shore. Or maybe on the international territory line out at sea. But … it doesn’t. It just does what it does because that’s how it’s set up to do it.
And the sun will not be “perfectly blotted out” or lead to “virtual darkness.” It will get dark, certainly, but it’s not like folk will be going blind or something.
This is a metaphor, or a sign, of the work of the Prince of Darkness in obscuring the light of God’s truth. Satan, and those who unwittingly serve as his accomplices by resisting the public acknowledgement of God and seeking to repress the expression of Christian faith in our land, are bringing on us a dark night of the national soul.
And here I thought you were just going to “speculate as to its possible spiritual implications” (or even that it had any).
I mean, there was a total solar eclipse in March 2016 that was visible across the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and into Australia. Was that a sign of the Prince of Darkness and his servants repressing Christianity in those areas?
We, as God’s people, must resist this eclipsing of God’s light by engaging in spiritual warfare against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” of which Ephesians 6:12 speaks. We must fight, using the weapons of our warfare, which are “not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4), to resist the encroaching darkness through prayer and proclamation.
We must fight the darkness that we may return this nation to an unapologetic acknowledgement and embrace of the God of the Founders and his transcendent standard for human behavior as enshrined in the Ten Commandments. It is through these two classic, foundational American ideals – reverence for God and for his standards for life – that we can reclaim this land from spiritual darkness.
If you wait for a few minutes, the darkness will go away, Bryan.
Also, we’ve gone from (a) speculation, to (b) assertion, to (c) call to spiritual arms.
I see what you did there, Bryan.
As the Creator of the universe, God has designed the movement of the heavenly bodies such that an eclipse of the sun lasts only for a short season, after which the sun emerges once again in all of its powerful, resplendent, and unquenchable glory. What God will do in the heavenly world we can see can and must be mirrored in the heavenly world we cannot see.
Frankly, I think God designed all of this to flush out the folk who are so insecure in their faith that they feel obliged to apply their personal metaphors to any natural phenomena that occur.
By his grace, may his glorious truth emerge once again from the darkness and fill this land with his pure, unfiltered,and radiant light.
Until the next eclipse. Or, you know, sunset each day. Or even cloudiness.
I mean, really, Bryan. The problem with applying spiritual divination to natural phenomena is that you then have to assert that there have been similar messages in analogous phenomena (all the other total eclipses), or else explain away why not. Also, you have to wrestle with other folk who have their own spiritual interpretations. E.g., “This eclipse is an assurance that the darkness which is passing over this nation through the election and presidency of such a man as Donald Trump will, in the natural course of things, pass, and we’ll be able to stop throwing shade on and mooning our governmental institutions.”
Why is my “speculation” any less valid than yours?
If you are sincere about your prophesying here, Bryan — that God intentionally set up this particular eclipse, in this particular configuration, at this particular moment in our history, for your particular message — I really do think you’re a dolt.
If you are insincere, and are instead simply prophesying falsely, putting into it what you want it to mean … well, I think the Bible has something to say about that, too.