Since the Eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Blaine said: "I find it too coincidental to say that the above tragedies are merely random events. God is speaking to us through His judgments. The question is are we listening?"

Brother, have you ever read the Book of Daniel and/or Ezekiel/Jeremiah at the same time?

Take notice of the fact that Daniel through out the book gives us the 10,000 foot view, seeing kingdoms coming and going, kings rising and falling, God's people saved and vindicated, God's coming Messiah making an end of Sin and the sacrifice for sin. Judgment upon Kings, decrees of God made against some pagan kings; and other pagan kings declaring the might, power, dominion and mercies of God. Some pagan kings humbled and then put to death, others humbled like and animal and yet restored.

Jeremiah, face to face with sinful kings, a sinful nation, false prophets, false priests, leaders who are corrupt.
The power of falsehood to corrupt a nation and all the dirt and pain suffered by God's people. Idols named and condemned, kings named and condemned, great pagan nations named and judged, yet, new covenants promised, new life prophesied, new hope and new beginnings decreed.

You see one prophet in the thick of the sins of God's people and another prophet in the thick of the foolishness and vanity of pagan kings. You see God's grace upon the obedient man, you see God's kindness toward the worst of sinners who are also God's people.

Here are two yea three books that show God working simultaneously with God's people to redeem them yet judge them for their sins. God's sending prophets to warn and to welcome the repentant, and yet promises made that God's people will know him obey him and serve him forevermore.

We are no different, we are not so much as a millimeter away from the sovereign hand of God and yet the lost feel a million miles away from God. Jesus Christ dwells in his people and yet so many of his people are affected with the worldly attitudes and sinful desires of the pagans around all of us.
God is this moment, I believe with all my heart making a pure spotless bride, making his people holy, separating unto himself a holy people desirous of God's presence and willing to lay down their lives for the lost.

When they killed John the Baptist what did Jesus do? He continued to show compassion on a blind and foolish people because his demonstration of who the Father is and who the Son is was not finished. We are not finished no matter how bad things get. In fact, looking at the persecuted Church, I see how serious they are about Jesus Christ, we too have no less the Spirit of God to demonstrate the love and power of God through us.

I can prophecy the wages of sin is death and I would be 100% right, I can prophecy the blessings and promises of God and the loving fatherliness of our God and I would be 100% right.

There are 7 cited events where people were killed or died due to the extremes of this present world. There were probably a 1000 such events the world over and God attended everyone of them. What matters is not that we can repeat the horrible news of calamity, what matter is "What is God saying"? Well, I do want to know what God is saying in these calamities. If you were to say judgment, I would say I agree, but is judgment God's last word in those events? Not according to any prophet I read in scripture.

The end of an event maybe pain, death and calamity. But the end of God's lesson is more than the event itself, it must be the wisdom of God revealed in his word rightly applied to the events of life to give sense and meaning to extremely painful tragedy. I want to know the meaning in some small way to build where God has judged and torn down.
I am not in contradiction, What God destroyed by Babylon, God had rebuilt under Cyrus, God is never finished with his work in the world merely because an event shocked us in its degree of suffering. God is everyday working toward the final redemption work through Jesus Christ.

Everyday is a day of God's continued working in his own beloved Church, even one so tainted by its culture. God has a way of fixing the problems we make for ourselves. Humanism, capitalism, communism or any other ism will not impeded what we both desire deep in our hearts...God's glory and love expressed in the world through God's people.

All of this has happened since the eclipse.

Check out the winter in Boston a couple of years ago.

And what about the blizzard of 79

So a mocker is someone who doesn't allow you to make outlandish statements about weather, trying to tie it all into a recent eclipse that was set in motion thousands and thousands of years ago?

Sorry Bear, can't let you get away with such outlandishness.

Of course every weather event we have today, good or bad, is a tad closer to Christ's return than the weather events yesterday.

Of course the same could have been said 2000 years ago.

You are trying to shoehorn very normal weather events into this eclipse nonsense. Nor'easters have blown and caused havoc on the eastern coast of the US since time immemorial.

Even Paul's ship in the Mediterranean was wrecked by a nor'easter. Wonder if an eclipse had just happened back then?

As an aside, it's a beautiful morning here in NC.

/It seems that the biggest mockers of the return of Jesus Christ are in our own evangelical ranks./

It doesn't seem that way to me. Every Christian I know and go to church with firmly believes in the second coming of Christ and that it may be relatively soon. I'm quite sure it is the same across the true church and the body of Christ. Perhaps the mockers being referred to are people of the world who don't have faith and don't believe in Christ in the first place.

Is there anything good you may have to say about God's true church bear? The word tells me that what God has begun He is well able to finish as regards His people. The church needs to be built up and edified through instruction from the word and not constantly brow beat and condemned.

Besides, certain things must occur before the day of the Lord which is the day of the second coming.

1 Now, brethren, concerning the COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST and our GATHERING TOGETHER TO HIM, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the DAY OF CHRIST had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for THAT DAY WILL NOT COME UNLESS the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

Most if not every Christian I know are aware of these signs you point to. And are aware that persecution has increased. Again you denounce this forum as if you know right exactly where everyone is at and exactly what they believe. What is the church doing right? Do you have any words of edification and thankfulness or will the church, God's people, continue to be your favorite whipping boy? Come on bear.

//But if I were to speak of the increase of drought, famine, plague, earthquakes, etc. This forum would argue that we have always had such since the beginning of creation.//

Why in the world would I argue this?

1) they are not increasing
2) we have always had a these things since the beginning of creation.

I argue it because it is the truth.

You are cherry picking anecdotal events to shoehorn them into your paradigm.

There is no doubt that the Lord is coming and it may be tomorrow. But as to the weather events you mention, there is nothing new under the sun.

What has increased is live 24/7 news coverage of these events and the population growth where these things happen.

I just wish I could figure out just what Bear wants. Why are we here on SI being accused of not wanting or thinking Jesus could come back soon. Wouldn’t his message be better, posted out somewhere in the secular world? I’m glad some of you here understand his mission, With this broken record being played over and over, I’m totally clueless at the point.

The catching away of the church is in the Greek a sudden forceful event. It carries with it the idea that one could be in one place and suddenly taken by force to another.
Years ago I awoke to what I believe this event will be like, it was as if a person was standing beside a railroad track and the train was coming with the horn blowing from a distance and constantly coming closer, the nature of this event was as the sound came closer it was as if I was being filled up as it were and by the time it was upon me I was caught up with it. At that point I woke from my sleep.
Jesus said to the Father ,of all that was entrusted to Me I have lost none. We are His precious possessions, we have been bought by a price and we belong to Him, let us all strive to be found, laboring for His glory when that day comes.

Brothers,

I do not believe that Bear is speaking about the whole Church. Many of the saints here on Sermon Index are well aware of what is going on in the world, and are watching and praying so that the day of the Lord would not come upon us like a thief. However, much of the Church in America is still asleep, and is in great need of awakening.

Also, Bear prays for the persecuted Church, and he is well aware of the persecution that is going on in many countries throughout the world.

I do believe that we should watch and pray, be aware of what is going on, but also we should not live as if there is no hope for us or for America. We have been called to be overcomers, and to be joyful in the midst of trials and tribulation.

God is long suffering, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and the knowledge of the truth. We should be doing more that just telling people that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but we should be standing in the gap, making up the hedge, and praying for revival, because many great revivals have come in the midst of great darkness and moral depravity. We should be praying that God's Kingdom would come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

An eclipse is not a supernatural sign. It is, however, certainly a celestial event.

Each eclipse is calculated by worldly scientists -- certainly not prophets -- who calculate the trajectories of the Earth and Moon as they move along the elliptical plane around the Sun. In fact, each and every natural solar and lunar eclipse is forecast for the next, well, thousands of years.

In fact, it would take supernatural event for one of those aforementioned predicted eclipses to be wrong.

I would also argue that it might even be sinful to accuse anyone who doesn't accept the claim that one of those natural eclipse events is some sort of supernatural or Biblical precursor pointing to terrible events. We should never have so much hubris in our feeble understanding of what we think we know that is outside of the indisputable truth of God's Word.

We know that the end is coming. That isn't in dispute. Most of us believe that we are in the last days. That isn't really in dispute either. Of course, we all know that persecution is coming too. The true Church has always been persecuted and that persecution will only get worse before the end.

However, the notion that terrestrial and celestial phenomenon are "supernatural signs" is certainly open for debate.

I would argue that no "sign" should be the catalyst for our "watching and praying." We should ALREADY be watching and praying. After all, a wicked and adulterous generation seeks signs.

I would argue that it doesn't make any difference whether someone fancies himself/herself aware of "signs" or even supernatural preludes to greater "persecution." The more important question is: What do you do with such knowledge? Are you doing what you can to harvest more fervently because of what you know or think that you know about coming darkness?

Eclipse or no eclipse: The world around us is going to Hell. The people of this world have only one hope -- the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Are we willing to reach out to others with that good news? Are we content at spending our days looking for signs or reading news about people who are persecuted for the cause of Christ?

Two things matter most in the grand scheme of eternity:
1.) Knowing Him.
2.) Introducing Him to others.

There will be another total solar eclipse across North America on April 8, 2024. That is in 73 months.

Over the period of that time (and according to current international mortality estimates), more than 330 Million people will be dead by then. How many of this vast number believe in Jesus? How many of them are we motivated to introduce to the one true Living God?

Josef Stalin, the infamously brutal communist, once quipped, "If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”

Stalin couldn't be more wrong. In the eyes of God, a million deaths without God are a million eternal tragedies. Christ has equipped us -- no, commissioned us -- to prevent such tragedies.

What are we doing? Are we redeeming the time because the days are evil? If we think that we are, what is the fruit of our labor? Are we merely burying our talent through hours of internet squabbling or "research?" Or, do we tell our neighbors about the Good News of Jesus Christ? Or, do we sit in our desk chairs, type away on keyboards and comfort ourselves for being a "victim" when someone argues with us in an online Christian forum?

Are we fishing for men or fishing for the approval of men? Worse: Are we merely throwing out nets to increase our knowledge or wasting the days through divisive arguments while the world around us grows closer to judgment?

I think that one thing is clear: Instead of pointing people to one of the many, many eclipses that happen, we should be pointing them to the Creator of all things.

Whoa Chris that was awesome and very thought provoking.