Let Them Be For Signs and For Seasons (Part 2)

In my previous post, I referred to David Dolan’s article about the rapture possibly occurring on April 14, 2014.  If you believe there will be a seven-year tribulation period following the rapture, that would bring us to the year 2021 for the possible return of Christ Jesus for the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19:11).  This period on the prophetic timeline is known as The Lord’s Day or the Day of the Lord.

Joel 3:15 tells us:

For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵The sun and moon will be darkened,
 and the stars no longer shine. ¹⁶The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the heavens will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. (emphasis mine)

There will be only one total solar eclipse in 2021, which will occur on December 4.  What’s unusual about this eclipse is that it will move from the east to the west.  Psalm 103:12 tells us:

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

The east is significant in Scripture in that the entrance to the tabernacle faces east.  Ezekiel 43:2 also tells us:

And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.

December 4, 2021 occurs during Chanukah (or Hanukkah), which begins on November 29, 2021.  Chanukah is the eight-day festival of light that celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, and spirituality over materiality, according to Chabad.org.  It also commemorates the rededication of the second Holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century B.C.E.

In his "Gospel of the Stars" study, the late J.R. Church writes that Virgo points to the first coming of Jesus Christ and Leo to His second advent.  During the solar eclipse of December 4, 2021, the sun will be in the constellation Ophiuchus, which is depicted as a man grasping a serpent.  We know Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent in the Garden of Eden.  The Greek poet Aratus describes Ophiuchus as trampling on Scorpio with his feet.  But I am not convinced that this celestial event is related to the coming of our Lord.

I also looked ahead to the dates of the other two lunar eclipses in the tetrad that will occur on the Jewish feasts of Passover and Tabernacles in 2015, but there will not be any total solar eclipses in 2022.

I still think that the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 may have some significance.  Could that be a possible date for the rapture?  Unlike the Day of Lord, Scripture does not provide any celestial clues about the rapture.  Fast-forward seven years and there will be a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.  It is interesting that the path of this eclipse crosses the path of the prior total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.  The sun, however, will be in Pisces, and not Leo.

What about the book of Joel’s reference to the stars no longer shining? Unlike the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, Regulus will not be covered by the moon.  Unfortunately, the stargazing software I am using is limited and does not reveal whether other stars will — or will not — be visible on April 8, 2024.

For now, we will have to continue to look up with eager anticipation and wait and see.