The Moon into Blood

"And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come" (Acts 2:19 -20).

These words of Peter on "the day of Pentecost" following the ascension of the Lord have recently come into vogue with tomorrow's anticipated total eclipse of the sun. Some allege it forebodes the second coming of Christ, the Rapture, or manifestations of Armageddon? Let's examine some of the biblical texts that have given impetus to these conclusions.

And before "a cloud received him out of their sight" they asked of Him "wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). "And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts 1:7).

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come... there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house... And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven... every man heard them speak in his own language" (cf. Acts 2:1-6).

"But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you... this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (cf. Acts 2:14 -16)." and then Peter in a lengthy message offered the Nation of Israel the long ago promised New Covenant with its indwelling Spirit that would initiate the "Day of the Lord,"  the precursor of Israel's long awaited Kingdom.

"The same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." However, the Nation of Israel in totality did not repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Was Peter correct saying "this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel," in retrospect, apparently not, but had Israel as a nation received Peter's plea and repented, the prophecy of Joel would have been fulfilled!

The final words of the final Old Testament prophet begin: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD." Jesus later speaking of John the Baptist said, "if ye will receive it, this is Elias [Elijah], who is to come."

Jesus extended a bona fide offer of the kingdom incumbent on Israel's acceptance of His gospel, Israel as a nation rejected the offer and the kingdom was deferred.

On the day of Pentecost Peter once again extended Israel a bona fide offer of the kingdom incumbent on her acceptance of the gospel. Israel as a nation again rejected the offer and the kingdom was again deferred.

The confluence of mankind's choices will never alter what God has ordained, but it appears that the "how" and "when" of that which is ordained is contingent on mankind's choices, "good and evil"!



By Abhranil Kundu (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABlood_Moon.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Blood_Moon.jpg