“Look! Up In The Sky!”

Thursday, September 27, 2012

I have read where there will be a cross in the sky.  Some people say you are to go into your house and light a bless candle.  I could not find that in the Bible.  I found where it says in Matt 24:29 the three days of darkness.  I also found in Acts 2:21 that everyone that calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  Please shed some holy light.  God Bless.

Sincerely,
Verse Vexed

Dear Verse Vexed,

To be fair, we aren’t exactly sure what you are asking, so we will handle your three concerns (cross in the sky, days of darkness, and calling on the name of the Lord) separately.

There is nothing in the Bible that talks about seeing a cross in the sky.  There is also nothing in the Bible that says you should light a candle for spiritual purposes.  Anything that you have heard along those lines should be totally disregarded as silliness and superstition.

Matt 24:29 mentions the “sun being turned into darkness”, which is a figurative phrase used throughout the Bible to describe “a dark time” or a time of great trial for a nation.  The same language is used to describe the destruction of Babylon (Isa 13:1, Isa 13:10).  In the case of Matthew chapter twenty-four, the tribulation that is being discussed is the fall of Jerusalem.  Jesus was discussing with his disciples how Jerusalem was soon to be destroyed, and not one stone of the temple would be left unturned (Matt 24:1-3).  All of the events that Jesus discussed with them in chapter twenty-four took place in 70 ad.  Titus, a Roman general, encircled Jerusalem and destroyed it.  Well over one million people died in the destruction of Jerusalem.  It truly was a dark time.

Last but not least, Acts 2:19-21 is talking about the change from a Jewish reign to the Christian era.  The same type of figurative language is used.  That type of language describes a tumultuous time when a nation will be destroyed… and another nation shall take its place.  In this case, it is describing how Christianity would take the place of Judaism.  This is not describing some future event because Peter very clearly states that these prophecies were being fulfilled as he spoke (Acts 2:15-17).

None of these verses are dealing with an end-of-days prophecy.  They each spoke of events that have already come to pass.

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