|
Summary: Recent events like solar and lunar eclipses and the nuclear talks with Iran have biblical significance. What do they signify, or do they have any relevance for us? Einstein said, “Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.” Two weeks ago, we saw a “rare” solar eclipse falling on the spring equinox accompanied by a supermoon when the moon was as close as possible to the earth. Saturday night we may see a “blood moon” due to a full lunar eclipse. So what do such signs mean? A library would likely have the information and here's where the Spanish language can help us. The word for library in Spanish is biblioteca—Bible tech! That's right. The Bible has answers, but sometimes we have to be like a librarian to find them. And the more we use the library, the easier it gets as we become familiar with card catalogues or computer searches. We can do the same with the Bible. Any word or phrase we want to find in the Bible can be found with the use of an online concordance. For example, if we type “sun, moon” into a concordance search, it gives 35 results. Because I'm familiar with this “library,” I find Joel 2:31 helpful: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.” The concordance also shows the Hebrew words and what they mean. For example, the word “before” comes from paniym, meaning face or “ in the face of”--impending! But what does the “day of the Lord” mean? Many people think it means the day Christ comes again, but using the online concordance, we find the phrase 23 times and again Joel has five references to it—more than any other book. Here's an example: “The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark...the day of the LORD is great” Joel 2:10,11. The chapter has many other “events,” but not the “2nd coming.” Nevertheless, serious events may be impending. This week we saw more coincidences. When the US, UK, China, France, Germany and Russia have been concerned for 12 years and been negotiating with Iran for 18 months re a nuclear program that came to a head this week, maybe it's just a coincidence, but what does our library—Bible tech suggest? “The day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night, For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes” 1Thessalonians 5:2,3. If we are honest, we would have to characterize those talks as “Peace and safety.” This could heighten our expectations for serious events. We might not know exactly, but maybe this is the reason for the blood moon. As Israel put blood on their doorpost and prayed that God would pass over them in judgment, we can believe God is putting blood on the moon--Who else could arrange that phenomena we are seeing? Why not ask God to pass over us in any judgments that come. It's not just Jewish. Christ did the same, asking his followers to “watch and pray.” Wouldn't that be a more Christian way to celebrate this time than looking for Easter eggs? We won't likely hear any voices or see any visions, but people who ask God for things testify that while they don't always get what they want, they are convinced that He's there and sometimes they are later glad they didn't get what [or who] they wanted! That could also be God's way of remaining anonymous, and for us, it's an opportunity to build character based on choices to include or exclude Him—He leaves the choice to us. After all, if He stood over us with a big stick, forcing us to do it His way, we would have no freedom—but He didn't wanted robots, so He the freedom of choice that He gave us. Dr. Richard Ruhling is a physician whose greatest interest in retirement is non-denominational Bible prophecy and he offers more information at http://ow.ly/L4aUc and his ebook, Apocalypse 2015, at http://TheBridegroomComes.com
Related Articles -
Secular Signs Spiritual Significance, Coincidence, Blood Moon, Passover, Judgment, Day of the LORD,
|
