This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
ISRAEL – An unusual total solar eclipse that will traverse North America in April has some biblical experts pointing to a deeper significance of the event, especially in light of today’s extremely unsettled times.
With a deep understanding of classical Jewish and Christian sources, Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries is sharing his insights into the upcoming solar eclipse that will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024.
The total eclipse will pass over Mexico from the Pacific Ocean at around 11:07 a.m. PDT and continue over the United States, starting in the Southwest and moving northeast until it passes over the shore of the northeast U.S. in northern Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. NDT.
It will be the first solar eclipse visible in the continental U.S. since Aug. 21, 2017, and the only total solar eclipse in the 21st century where the totality will be visible in Mexico, the United States, and Canada. It will also be the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States for the next two decades – until Aug. 23, 2044.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, thereby obscuring the image of the sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon's apparent diameter (as seen from Earth) is larger than the sun's, blocking all direct sunlight and turning day into darkness. As it happens, the moon will make the month’s closest approach to Earth (just 223,000 miles) one day before the total solar eclipse, thereby appearing at its largest on the day it crosses between the Earth and the sun. A total eclipse occurs only in a narrow path across the earth's surface, with a partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of miles wide.
In the Bible, solar events are recorded as having a remarkable and sometimes supernatural significance. Control over the sun was demonstrated by God in the three-day Plague of Darkness and is prophesied to be an essential part of the End Times. The Prophet Joel (2:31) predicted, “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The Prophet Amos makes a similar prediction: “And in that day – declares my God – I will make the sun set at noon, I will darken the earth on a sunny day.”
In giving rebuke to Hezekiah to inform him that he would die from his illness, the prophet Isaiah (13:9) wrote, “The stars and constellations of heaven shall not give off their light; The sun shall be dark when it rises, And the moon shall diffuse no glow.” As Isaiah predicted – and as much later calculated by NASA – on March 5 702 BC, the 16th year before Hezekiah’s death, a prominent solar eclipse appeared over the Middle East. Its path crossed the Arabian Peninsula and the obscuration of the sun over Israel was more than 60 percent.
A similar darkness is described in the New Testament after Jesus’ crucifixion (Mark 15: 32-33) and again in Revelation 6:12 as a sign of the End Times.
Biltz, the author of "Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs," is an expert in both Christian and Jewish sources, and correlates solar and lunar eclipses with biblical prophecy. He went to great lengths to explain the prophetic implications of the 2017 solar eclipse, though, at the time, skeptics scoffed at his explanations.
However, in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, far fewer objections are to be heard in advance of the upcoming 2024 solar eclipse.
“From a biblical point of view, a solar eclipse is meant to be a sign from God,” said Biltz, citing Genesis 1:14. “It is a sign that is beyond man’s control, something he cannot manipulate.”
Biltz has a love of both the Bible and astronomy and takes on this biblical verse as a personal service, struggling to understand the celestial signs. In 2008, he was studying the dates of the solar eclipses:
“If you refer to NASA’s data, there's been a total of 12,000 total solar eclipses all over the world listed over 5,000 years,” said Biltz. “I don't know if you realize this, but … then there are several different types of solar eclipses and lunar eclipses – your total, your partial, your penumbral, yeah, no hybrid, different types. And so, I did the math, and it's pretty simple to do.”
“And so, when I saw those, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, when was the last time this happened?”
With a bit of research, Biltz discovered that a solar eclipse took place in 1948, the year Israel declared itself a nation, and again in 1967 when Israel emerged victorious from the Six-Day War and unified Jerusalem. With a little more research, he discovered another solar eclipse in 1492, the year the Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal. Remarkably, a partial solar eclipse appeared above both Rome and Jerusalem in 67 AD. One year later, Nero committed suicide and in the year 70, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
Intrigued by these convergent facts, Pastor Biltz was puzzled by the appearance of four blood moons in 2014-2015. If the celestial events were signs, what did the blood moons signify? In an epiphany, he realized that the celestial signs were part of a much larger cycle based on the Hebrew calendar. The Hebrew year that began on Rosh Hashanah in September 2014 marked the beginning of a seven-year Shemitah (sabbatical) cycle.
“This is not a random seven-year cycle,” Biltz emphasized. “Rosh Hashanah in 2014 marked the beginning of the Hebrew year 5775. The Shemittah years all go back to Creation. If you divide 5775 by 7, it is precisely 825. September 2014, or, more accurately, the first of Tishrei 5775, was the 825th Shemittah cycle since God created the world.”
After connecting the blood moons to the Shemitah cycle, Biltz realized they had prophetic significance: They came as a sign to herald war.
“The Yom Kippur War in 1973 was followed by four blood moons in 1968 and happened on the very day of the beginning of the 50-year Jubilee cycle,” Biltz said. “In 2014, we had four blood moons which preceded the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, exactly one Shemitah cycle later. It fell on the holy day of Shemini Atzeret and the last day of the High Holidays. Hamas attacked Israel and started the Iron Swords War. That was the last day of that 50-year Jubilee cycle that began in 1973 with the Yom Kippur War.”
Pastor Biltz noted the upcoming solar eclipse will take place on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the new moon marking the beginning of the month which is referred to in the Bible as “the first month.”
“That is the very beginning of the religious calendar,” he said. “It is the very day God's glory fell on Moses' Tabernacle. It's the Inauguration Day of Moses’ Tabernacle. It's also the same day, though, that day Nadav and Avihu died for offering strange incense.
“The first of Nisan has a huge biblical meaning. It's the beginning. And just like it's the beginning of the inauguration of the Tabernacle, I believe it's going to be the beginning of judgment upon America.”
“And Rosh Chodesh Nisan was the beginning of the three days of darkness in Egypt,” Biltz added. “The nice thing about eclipses is that no false prophet can fake it like Pharaoh in Egypt trying to have his magicians multiply the frogs. An eclipse speaks in every language. It doesn't have to be translated. It is a uniquely powerful sign from God.”
Pastor Biltz referred to the Talmud in its discussion of eclipses (Sukkot 29a) which specifically described solar eclipses as being a bad omen for the nations who base their calendars on the solar cycle. The Talmud states that if an eclipse appeared in the West, it was a sign that idol worship had prevailed.
At the end of its section describing the omens contained within eclipses, the Talmud states a disclaimer: “When Israel does the will of God, they have nothing to fear from all of this,” citing the Prophet Jeremiah as a source.
“Do not learn to go the way of the nations, And do not be dismayed by portents in the sky; Let the nations be dismayed by them!” (Jeremiah 10:2)
“Nisan is the very beginning of the religious calendar,” Biltz said. “It is the very day God's glory fell on Moses' tabernacle, and the glory failed. It's the Inauguration Day of Moses’ Tabernacle. It's also the same day, though, that day Nadav and Avihu died for offering strange incense. So it has a huge biblical meaning. It's the beginning. And just like it's the beginning of the inauguration of the Tabernacle, I believe it's going to be the beginning of judgment upon America.”
Eclipse path to converge on ‘Little Egypt’
Interestingly, April’s eclipse will have a narrow path roughly 115 miles wide which will cross the path of the total solar eclipse of 2017, with the intersection of the two paths being in southern Illinois – in the town of Makanda, just south of Carbondale. The spectacle will last up to 4 minutes, and 28 seconds in the path of total darkness – twice as long as the total solar eclipse of 2017.
The paths of the two eclipses form a transcontinental ‘X.’ In a strange coincidence, the only spot in the path of both eclipses, receiving a double dose of this modern plague of darkness, and the point of the longest duration for both eclipses, is a particular part of southern Illinois, known appropriately enough as Little Egypt.
