The Sun and Moon Prophecies and Chain of Events, Part 7 of 9

Part 6 covered Mark 13:24-27 and Luke 21:25-28.

Both of those tied what happens in the heavens to a chain of bigger events around them, events that would be impossible to miss and impossible to leave out of the record, and the record does not have them.

In Part 7 we keep doing the same thing. Read the passage in full, list the chain of events in the order the text gives them, then check history and see if that chain ever happened.

Part 7 has Acts 2:17-21 and Revelation 6:12-17. In Acts, Peter stands up in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and quotes the Joel passage Part 4 already read. In Revelation, John sees the sixth seal opened, and the sun turns black and the full moon turns to blood over a shaking earth.

No teachers, no doctrines from outside. Just the Bible, and the historical record.

1. Acts 2:17-21

"“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;"

"even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy."

"And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;"

"the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day."

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’"

The chain in this passage, in the order it is given:

1. In the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh
2. Sons and daughters will prophesy, young men will see visions, and old men will dream dreams
3. Even on the male servants and female servants, God will pour out His Spirit, and they will prophesy
4. God will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below: blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke
5. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day
6. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved

Peter spoke these words in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Some in the crowd thought the disciples were drunk, and Peter stood up with the eleven and answered them with Joel's passage.

The quote opens in the last days, with God pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. Sons and daughters prophesy, young men see visions, old men dream dreams, and even servants receive the Spirit and prophesy.

Then the signs widen, from people to the heavens above and the earth below. Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke, and the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood, all of it before the day of the Lord comes.

The quote ends on the ground it started on: everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Luke wrote the record of that day himself, in this same chapter. His account tells of a sound like a mighty rushing wind that filled the house where they were sitting.

It tells of tongues, as of fire, resting on each of them, and the disciples speaking in other languages, so the crowd from every nation heard them in their own language.

It tells of Peter preaching to the crowd, and about three thousand people baptized that day.

What his account does not tell of is the rest of the chain Peter quoted. There is no sun turned to darkness over Jerusalem that day, and no moon turned to blood.

There is no blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke standing over the city in his account either. And no other record from those years tells of those signs over Jerusalem that day.

That day is in the record, down to the number baptized. The whole chain Peter quoted is not.

2. Revelation 6:12-17

"When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,"

"and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale."

"The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place."

"Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,"

"calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,"

"for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”"

The chain in this passage, in the order it is given:

1. When he opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake
2. The sun became black as sackcloth, and the full moon became like blood
3. The stars of the sky fell to the earth, as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale
4. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up
5. Every mountain and island was removed from its place
6. The kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains
7. They called to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb”
8. The great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand

John sees the Lamb open the sixth seal, and the shaking starts in the heavens and on the earth at the same time.

A great earthquake hits, the sun becomes black as sackcloth, and the full moon becomes like blood. Then the stars of the sky fall to the earth, the way a fig tree drops its winter fruit when a gale shakes it.

The sky itself vanishes like a scroll being rolled up. Every mountain and every island is removed from its place.

Then the people run. Kings and great ones, generals, the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hide in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

They beg the mountains and the rocks to fall on them and hide them. What they want to be hidden from is the face of him who is seated on the throne, and the wrath of the Lamb.

Earthquakes are in the record, and some of them are huge. The biggest one ever measured hit the coast of Chile in 1960, at magnitude 9.5, and tore up about a thousand kilometers of that one coastline.

Whole cities were flattened and two million people were left without homes. It is still the strongest earthquake in the measured record.

But even that quake shook one stretch of one coast. It did not blacken the sun, it did not turn the full moon to blood, and it did not move every mountain and island on the earth.

No year in the record holds a quake like John's: every mountain and island removed from its place, stars falling, the sky rolled up, and every level of people hiding in caves at the same time.

Great earthquakes are in the record. This chain is not.

And the standing point of this series stands over Revelation too. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in AD 70, and no temple has stood in the city since that day.

The temple of the last days has not been built yet. Part 5 said it in full, and it stands here too.

That is two more chains. Acts 2 has the Spirit poured out on all flesh, with the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord, and the record of that Pentecost day does not hold the whole chain.

Revelation 6 has the great earthquake, the sun black as sackcloth, the full moon like blood, and every mountain and island moved, and no year in the record holds that chain either.

Part 8 picks up at Revelation 7 and Revelation 8, and the chains keep going from there, until the last part lines them all up together.