Now cosmic catastrophes are coming into view. Again, a parallel exists between Jesus’ discourse on the last things, at the Mount of Olives,1 about signs in the sun, the moon and the stars—the shaking and staggering of the very Creation itself.2 The end of the world appears to have come. The whole of the Old Testament prophetic descriptions of the Day of the Lord reverberate through all this. Didn’t Joel prophesy that “the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord”?3 The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine.4 The Lord will roar from Zion. Jeremiah looks and says: “I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty” (‘tohu wa bohu’, just like at the beginning of creation, in Genesis 1:2). “I looked at the Heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying… This is what the Lord says: ‘The whole land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the earth will mourn and the Heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent, I have decided and will not turn back.’”5
These are terrifying words. They mean no more postponement and no more divine repentance, as at Nineveh when the city repented.6 Following the oppression7 and the persecution of the believers, after the blood of the martyrs, there will no longer be any escape. Even ‘heaven’ leaves corrupt and depraved mankind in the lurch. Signs of the Zodiac and astrology can no longer help their adherents, because the stars and their constellations no longer shine. Isaiah already knew that these signs of the Zodiac, and astrology and horoscopes do not help anyone. “The sun is darkened at dawn and the moon does not shine,” Isaiah says.8 Mockingly he continues, “Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. They are like stubble for sure; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.”9 The night in which no one can work10 has begun. The ‘time of grace’ is past. Patient waiting is past. God’s judgment is setting in.11 Repentance is no longer possible. There are conditional and unconditional judgments by God in Scripture. Repentance was still possible in Nineveh, indeed, even in Sodom and Gomorrah, if ten righteous men were to be found there.12
But that is no longer the case. Praise God, we are not there yet. Do we make use of the time of grace God is still giving us to put our life in order with Him? There is but one safe place of refuge in the coming catastrophes. It is in the hiding place of our salvation, in the complete and finished work of the Saviour.13
• Peter also refers to these signs in Heaven and on earth in his discourse on the Day of Pentecost.14 There he quotes the prophecy from Joel 2:28–32. The section about the outpouring of the Spirit was partly fulfilled at that time in Jerusalem. But these apocalyptic signs did not occur on that day of Pentecost.
• Still to come is the coming of the Lord’s Day of judgment with ‘wonders in the Heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.’ Does this also refer to a final outpouring of the Holy Spirit for Israel, just before the ‘Day of the Lord’ commences, so that Joel’s prophecy can be fulfilled in full? The early rains in Acts 2 and the latter rain, to which Joel 2:23 and Hosea 6:1–3 refer?
• And then all Israel shall be saved, Paul says in Romans 11:25-26. Not just the 120 Jews (Acts 1:15) that were present in Acts 2 in Jerusalem at the Feast of Shavuot/Pentecost. Yes, 120 Jews present in Jerusalem from the diaspora received the Holy Spirit. But not the over one million Jews who were present at that time to celebrate the Temple Feast of Shavuot coming from all parts of the Roman Empire.
Bible References:
1.Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21 2.Matthew 24:29 3.Joel 2:30–31 4.Joel 3:15–16 5.Jeremiah 4:23–28 6.Jonah 3 7.Matthew 24:21–22 8.Isaiah 13:9–10 9.Isaiah 47:13–14 10.John 9:4 11.Comp. Romans 2:2–11 12.Genesis 18:22–23 Psalm 91; Matthew 23:37–38 13.Acts 2:14–21 14.Zechariah 12:10–14
