Suggestions that the Great American Eclipse is a sign of God's judgment on the United States continue to emerge, with one pastor saying it means Christians should be repenting, given when it falls on the Jewish calendar.
Mark Blitz, pastor of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Washington, noted that solar eclipses are often seen in the Jewish world as a sign of God's judgment on the Gentiles. As CP reported last week, Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of world renowned evangelist Billy Graham, said something very similar in a blog post. Conversely, the nation of Israel operates by a lunar calendar, and lunar eclipses represent coming judgment for them.
"And the fascinating thing for me is, God is not interested in the heathen to repent as much as he wants the Church to repent. Judgment always begins with the House of God," he said.
The Great American Eclipse is a "warning" that Christians need to take the lead and repent, Blitz continued.
This particular transcontinental solar eclipse will occur on Monday and happens to fall (on the biblical calendar) on the first day of the Jewish month of Elul, which is known as the "month of repentance," Blitz explained.
"It was on Elul 1 that Jonah left for 40 days to tell Nineveh to repent. It was Elul 1 that Moses went up to Mount Sinai after the sin of the golden calf to make atonement while Israel was repenting for that. It was on Elul 1 that Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days, coming back out on Yom Kippur," Blitz said.
"To have this solar eclipse happening at this time," he added, has "huge" significance.
He went on to say that he believes the Aug. 21 eclipse signifies that the American Church has 40 days to repent.
Just as Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah for the few righteous people that might be there, Blitz said he wondered how many righteous would be needed to spare the United States.
In addition to the biblical examples Blitz cited, the history of the 20th century bears out the principle, he explained.
"People don't realize this but World War I started in August of 1914 and there was a total solar eclipse over Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire."
The path of that particular eclipse even went over Nineveh where the prophet Jonah went and the Ottoman Empire was destroyed, he said.
God was "preparing the ground" for Jonah's arrival in Nineveh with this eclipse, Blitz asserted. And cuneiform tablets from that era show that a major plague in the land occurred three years before Jonah came. A civil war followed shortly after that plague, and yet another plague occurred after that.
One month before Jonah came on June 15, 763 B.C., a solar eclipse occurred over Nineveh, which is now famously known as the "Assyrian eclipse" or the "Bur-Sagale eclipse."
The Ninevites were ready to repent in light of all of this, Blitz said. And because they did repent they did not receive judgment, "it didn't' happen for a while," he added.
"Just like I never set dates for anything, but what I do say is, 'Look at the events that happen on God's calendar so you can know if it's God who is speaking or not. And then hopefully we repent and judgment is stayed.'"
"But I believe judgment, because it is falling on Elul 1 — and this is the first time a solar eclipse has ever gone over the entire United States and nowhere else in over 100 years."
Interestingly, the 1914 total solar eclipse that occurred just after World War I began and crossed over the entirety of the continent of Europe, Nineveh, and farther into Asia also occurred on Aug. 21.
Blitz is the author of God's Day Timer: The Believer's Guide to Divine Appointments.
**********************************************
With all the false teachers, false evangelists, false doctrine out there which has crept into the Church teaching that additional works performed by our weak, sinful flesh...it is past time for true repentance. Are we harboring any unforgiveness toward anyone? Holding any grudges? We may have only 40 days brothers and sisters...let's use the time wisely. Let's pray as David prayed...............
1Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
4Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.
5Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
6Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
7Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
13Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.
14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
15O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
16For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51:1-17
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:8
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:6
Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12
