Page 157 - Maranatha (1976)

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Signs in the Heavens, May 22
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
Joel 2:31
.
In the Saviour’s conversation with His disciples upon Olivet, after
describing the long period of trial for the church—the 1260 years of papal
persecution, concerning which He had promised that the tribulation should
be shortened—He thus mentioned certain events to precede His coming,
and fixed the time when the first of these should be witnessed: “In those
days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light.” The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798. A quarter
of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Following this
persecution, according to the words of Christ, the sun was to be darkened.
On the 19th of May, 1780, this prophecy was fulfilled.
“Almost if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet
unexplained phenomenon of its kind, ... stands the dark day of May 19,
1780—a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and
atmosphere in New England.”—R. M. Devens,
Our First Century
, 89....
The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before
evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was still
obscured by the black, heavy mist. “After sundown, the clouds came again
overhead, and it grew dark very fast.” “Nor was the darkness of the night
less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there
was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some
artificial light....”—Isaiah Thomas,
Massachusetts Spy
: or,
American Oracle
of Liberty
, vol. 10, No. 472 (May 25, 1780)....
The description of this event, as given by eyewitnesses, is but an echo
of the words of the Lord, recorded by the prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred
years previous to their fulfilment: “The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord
come.”
Christ had bidden His people watch for the signs of His advent, and
rejoice as they should behold the tokens of their coming King.
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