Does a total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024 mean that the end is coming? The answer is found in Jesus’ teachings in the Olivette Discourse just before he died. The answer is No and yet there is an element of looking to the sky that we will examine so that we gain awareness that the end of the Age is near. The Olivette discourse is a set of teachings by Jesus to His disciples that are not easily understood and that took place during the Passion week of our Lord and right before he was to die on the cross. This teaching is found in the Bible books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke but for this examination, we will cross-section Matthew and Luke since examining Mark is redundant and would be easier on the human brain to understand to only cross-section two sections of teachings. The teachings took place as Jesus walked away from the Temple (one of the Wonders of the World) where he had been exercising power and control over it all week. The spark of the teachings was exhibited by discovery inquiry when Jesus claimed that one of the Temple stones would not be left upon another and the disciples took this to be (as understood in their culture) that the great upheaval of an earthquake would mean that Messiah was coming and ready to set up His eternal Kingdom. As Jesus sat down on the Mount of Olives to answer patiently his disciple’s questions, he also gave them more information concerning his Kingdom and the end of the Age that they were in. The Age that the disciples were living in is considered the Age of the Gentiles and began during the Exile of the Jews by Babylonians in and around the 500s BC and does not technically end until the end of a seven-year tribulation period on Earth while the church had been Raptured up to heaven. The significance of the teaching of the Olivette Discourse for us today is that Jesus gave us signs and indicators of what we should look for that the end of the Age is winding down. For reference, I have attached a picture of Stephen Armstrong’s questions and answers both asked and answered during this exchange, and listed in their ordinal sequence.
It follows that we would have no interest in the first-century fulfillment of any of these questions and it goes without saying that we need not focus much on what is not the sign of Jesus coming: only to say that we need to weed out ordinary events that happen in the world between extra-ordinary events. NO: What I am interested in is “What are the signs of the end of the age?” Matthew 24:8 gives us a directive when it uses the beginning of sorrows or “birth contractions”. (Mat 24:7-8) “7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.” [1]
To further break down my interest in writing this today, I can ask the question that is on everyone’s mind given that on April 8th, 2024 we are about to experience a total solar eclipse in the United States of America: Is this total eclipse path a sign of the coming of the Messiah and the end of the Age, especially since if falls in a line that some have sought after a pattern concerning judgment and Nineveh? The short answer to that question is no. The long answer is that we should look for signs in the heavens. (Luke 21:10-11) 10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: 11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. While a solar eclipse may not live up to the level of great signs and fearful sights from the heavens, it does begin a conversation of what we should be looking for to know that as Jesus put it, “we are reaching the end of the Age.” Ok, so here is the shortlist and easy to look at in one place answer that I have dug out of these Scriptures for you. We should look at kingdom-against-kingdom kinds of wars (not just regular wars and rumors of wars). Think World Wars. We should look for Famine. We should look for Pestilences (Pandemics). We should look for earthquakes (everywhere). And while a Total Solar eclipse may not be “Fearful sights and Great Signs from the Heavens”, we need to continue to look up for something that can literally frighten us. Oh and one more thing that is probably the most important thing that Jesus mentioned in this list: We should be taking note of the intensity and frequency of these events happening in the News cycles because Jesus said these would be like contractions just before childbirth that comes closer and closer together before the actual event and as I have watched and been told, with more pain and intensity. So be ready because the end of this age is concluding, and the birth of a New Kingdom Age is on its way.
References
Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the King James Bible(1769). . (Oxford University Press.
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