Solar eclipses in themselves do not portend anything related
to the end of this age. When people make
comments about the solar eclipse being a harbinger of the end times, they end
up looking silly. More importantly, they
make the truth of Bible prophecy look silly.
This is no small matter because making a wrong case for coming judgment
leads people to doubt coming judgment at all.
Some try to look at verses like Joel 2:10, 30-31 to say that
they refer to eclipses. But these verses
(and others like them in the Bible) are not referring to common astronomical
phenomena. They refer to unusual, never
seen before astronomical events. They do
not refer to eclipses, since in eclipses, there is no loss of star light nor a
change of the status of the moon.
In point of fact, there is a total eclipse of the sun about
every 18 months somewhere on the earth. To
suggest that this coming one, because it is happening in the USA, is special or
a special part of Bible prophecy, is self-centered. We assume that we are more important than we
really are and that if something is happening here, it must be of all-consuming
importance.
So, enjoy the eclipse and the wonders of God’s created
universe. The people that are making a
big prophetic deal out of the eclipse are the same kind of folks that sincerely
thought Y2K was the end of the world too.
They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.
There will be an end to this age, and people do need
awakened to the coming judgment of God.
But making a big deal of this eclipse is not the way to do that. Let’s let the Bible speak plainly instead, “The
times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to
repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge
the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has
given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31 We do not know that day, so the call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is for all and for right now, and the eclipse makes no difference at all to that.
