The Valley Revisited

As many of you know, on April 8, 2024 the United States will witness the second of a pair of total solar eclipses, the first of which occurred seven years ago on August 21, 2017. The first eclipse swept downward across America from the northwest to the southeast, and the second will sweep upward from the southwest to the northeast, and together they will mark a big "X" on the country. Naturally, the watch community has been buzzing about it for a number of years now.

I devoted an article to these two eclipses about a year and a half ago entitled "The Valley of the Shadow of Death" (OCT '22) and in that article I examine the prophetic significance of the fact that the path of totality of the first eclipse in 2017 passed over seven towns named Salem, while the path of totality of the second will pass over 12 such towns, one of them being one of the seven Salems that was in the path of the first eclipse. Not only that, but the area where the paths of the two eclipses intersect is the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the Mississippi River near St. Louis, site of the three most powerful earthquakes in American history east of the Rocky Mountains in 1811–12.

All together, these two eclipses and the Salems they pass over combine to form a powerfully graphic prophetic statement concerning God's salvation for those who come to Him in faith and judgment for those who reject Him. And I thought I had it all pretty well sorted out, even if I say so myself.

But just a few weeks ago, I read something about a stunning new aspect of these eclipses that almost made me hit the floor. Apparently the 2024 eclipse doesn't just pass over a bunch of cities named Salem:

The 2024 eclipse will also pass over seven U.S. cities named Nineveh!

(And it's eight if you count one in Canada, but we'll get to that later.)

Yes, Nineveh...the infamously wicked city that God was prepared to judge, but that was given a reprieve when they repented at the preaching of Jonah (who finally showed up in obedience to God, albeit possibly still bearing distinct odor of whale innards).

The next thing I knew I got walloped with one of those WRITE THIS NOW! memos from the Holy Spirit (who in addition to being my Comforter who works to convict me of sin and conform me to the image of Christ, also happens to double as my Editor in Chief).

I would encourage you to read my original OCT '22 article that I linked to above on the subject of the two eclipses for a more complete background (and to that end I opted to make that article this month's Blast from the Past). But for the sake of clarity some of the key points of that first article will end up getting briefly rehashed here as I discuss how I now interpret the composite picture of these eclipses passing over both the Salems and the Ninevehs.

I admit that I was tempted to call this article "The Valley of the Shadow of Death Part 2," but in the end I thought better of it. I tend to dislike multi-part articles (in over 12 years I have only written one, and if I had it to do over I would probably condense it to a single article). I'd rather just rehash a bit and let the second article stand on its own two feet.

Speaking of my OCT '22 article, note that I still stand by pretty much everything I wrote—I went back and reread it and I don't feel as though I got anything bad wrong. Now it's just deeper, since the addition of this string of Ninevehs adds a whole new dimension to this topic that no one saw coming and that must be incorporated into the overall prophetic picture represented by these eclipses. These Ninevehs add a whole new level of meaning that allows God to communicate a more complete and comprehensive end-time picture to those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

And that means somebody's got work to do.

I just pray the same thing I prayed when I wrote that first article—that God will show me what He wants me to see and then help me explain it clearly.

Well, since the new element in the 2024 eclipse is a series of cities named Nineveh, let's take a quick look at the real Nineveh and a bit of its history to better understand its significance in this current astronomical context.

The real Nineveh (and its real eclipse)

The ancient city of Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire (which was a powerful enemy of Israel), and was located in northern Iraq in what is today the city of Mosul. It was a huge, flourishing city during the general time period under discussion, which is the seventh and eighth centuries BC.

Nineveh was an extremely wicked, idolatrous city, and I would describe some of the ways they tortured people, but straight up: It's just too sickening. God told the prophet Jonah to go there to preach to the people of Nineveh that they might have faith in the God of Israel and be saved from His judgment.

And Jonah didn't like it one little bit:

Jonah represents the national [i.e. Israel's] feelings which he shared. Why did he refuse to go to Nineveh? Not because he was afraid of his life, or thought the task hopeless. He refused because he feared success. God's goodness was being stretched rather too far, if it was going to take in Nineveh. Jonah did not want it to escape. If he had been sent to destroy it, he would probably have gone gladly. He grudged that heathen should share Israel's privileges, and probably thought that gain to Nineveh would be loss to Israel. It was exactly the spirit of the prodigal's elder brother.

(emphasis & [comments] added)

— Expositions of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren [Source]

God told Jonah to zig...and he zagged. He caught a ship headed to a destination that in those days was about as far as you could go in the opposite direction: Tarshish, which was located in the southern part of Spain. In other words, God had to deal with one very stubborn, contrary prophet.

On the ship, the crew learns that they have a rebellious prophet in their midst, and then they run into a major storm. They cast lots to discover who among them has so angered the gods, and the lot falls on Jonah. Since Jonah knows this is all on him, he tells the men to cast him overboard to save themselves—and he is promptly swallowed by a "large fish" (traditionally a whale).

HA!! Right...three days in the belly of a whale!! People who mock the Bible delight in pointing to the story of Jonah and gleefully exclaiming, "Nobody could survive in the belly of a whale for three days!! That's ridiculous, and it's just more proof that that Bible of yours is nothing but a bunch of myths invented by Bronze Age Bedouins! Get over it!"

Oh yeah? Read it again:

²He [Jonah] said, "I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. [Sheol is the abode of the dead...and Jonah was in the belly of it...h-e-l-l-o.] You heard my voice. [...]

⁵The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. [The waters surrounded his soul...in other words, he was dead.] The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head.

6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever; yet you have brought my life up from the pit, Yahweh my God. [Does any of this make it sound like he survived?? God brought Jonah's life up from the pit, i.e. Sheol—in other words, God resurrected Jonah from the dead.]

(Jonah 2:2, 5–6 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Even a cursory reading of Jonah 4 makes it quite clear that Jonah was dead inside the belly of the whale and God restored him back to life. Oh, those are just figures of speech, you say? This doesn't prove anything, you insist? You challenge me to provide some other confirmation? I'm so glad you asked:

³⁸Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you." ³⁹But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. ⁴⁰For as Jonah was [physically dead] three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be [physically dead] three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

(Matthew 12:38–40 / emphasis & [comments] added)

The "sign of Jonah" Jesus is referring to here is the fact that He would be physically dead and in the grave for three days and three nights before being resurrected back to life...just like Jonah in the belly of the whale. And the fact that Jesus' lifeless body was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb dead as a doornail for three days and three nights is no figure of speech.

Get over that.

So God causes the whale to barf up onto the beach a Jonah who is now alive and kicking (experts argue about where, so I'll pass), and then told him again to go to Nineveh—and this time a markedly more cooperative Jonah obeyed.

So Jonah arrives in Nineveh, and various clues point to roughly 760 BC, give or take. Nineveh experienced a severe plague in 765 BC, a total solar eclipse in 763 BC, and another plague in 759 BC, all of which would have certainly put the Ninevites in the mood to repent and turn to God. One could argue that this might favor a time frame of about 758–757 BC for Jonah's arrival, but it's something about which scholars hold differing opinions.

Yes, a solar eclipse...my, what a coincidence. Experts confirm that Nineveh was in the path of totality of a solar eclipse on June 15, 763 BC, and in those days a solar eclipse was universally interpreted as a sign of impending judgment from God (or the god of one's choice). It is known as the Assyrian eclipse (aka the Bur-Sagale eclipse), and as I said, it would certainly have been interpreted by the Ninevites as a sign that they were about to fall under divine judgment. And along with the two plagues that sandwiched it, that would go a long way in explaining their willingness to repent in response to the preaching of Jonah.

Although the people of Nineveh did indeed repent and seek God in response to Jonah's preaching, it only spared the city from God's judgment temporarily. As time passed, it wasn't long before many of them began to slide back into wickedness and idolatry, and in fact it was only a few years later (740 BC) that Assyria began their conquest of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom. God finally had no choice but to begin to unleash His judgment, but He did it gradually, step by step. Finally, about 140 years after Jonah first led them to repentance, Nineveh was destroyed by the Babylonians in 621 BC.

And it remains an archaeological dig to this day.

So that's the real Nineveh and their dramatic eclipse-related experience back in the eighth century BC. But today, another solar eclipse is about to affect a number of cities named Nineveh—and if you're anything like me, you just know God is trying to show us something.

Same shadow—different outcomes

Before I get into more details about how I interpret the two eclipses and the gaggle of Salems and Ninevehs they pass over, there is an important point I want to make clear. As I went back and reread my OCT '22 article, I saw that what I wrote indirectly spoke to this idea, but I never got around to coming right out and stating it clearly as an interpretive principle.

I mentioned in my first article about how the 12 Salems that the 2024 eclipse passes over include one Salem that also happened to be in the path of the 2017 eclipse, and I believe that lone Salem represents the believing Jewish remnant that is protected throughout the Tribulation. The other 11 Salems (11 being the number of sin and chaos) represent the hardened, unbelieving portion of Israel that perishes in their unbelief during the Tribulation.

But the fact that they are all in the same "shadow of death" in 2024 relates to the idea that those in this shadow can experience different outcomes. I didn't flesh out this idea in 2022, but I feel compelled to do so now because it will also come into play in regard to the Ninevehs.

Let's go back to Psalm 23 for just a moment:

⁴Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

(Psalm 23:4 KJV)

It's extremely easy to cruise right by this; but as is often the case, there is something important lying just below the surface here—and it comes into play in the topic under discussion.

First, note that the speaker is walking through "the valley of the shadow of death." And he fears no evil. And obviously he lives. Now, does everyone walking through this valley fear no evil? No—some are no doubt trembling in their boots. Does everyone walking through this valley live? No—some will perish. Why? Because God is not with them. Why? Because they have rejected Him and spurned His grace and mercy. Thus they are not comforted by His rod (strength and protection) and His staff (guidance and loving-kindness). They perish as a result of falling under God's judgment without God's strength to protect them from it and His loving-kindness to guide them through it. So just make note of this:

Same shadow—different outcomes.

And that outcome depends on the response. As we shall see, the shadows of these two eclipses speak prophetically in different ways to different groups at different times within the general time frame of the end-time scenario, and the outcomes depend on the response of the groups represented by the cities being passed over—be they in or out of the path of totality.

C'mon, don't read so much into things: Some might argue that the "valley" here should be left with a broader, more generalized interpretation—it's just the trials and tribulations of life, and maybe I'm trying to force it to mean too many different things to too many different groups. To this, I would politely respond: "Yeah, I get it...but not this time." Both of these eclipses and the cities they pass over have been revealed to us by God at a specific time and in a specific manner in order to lay before us a specific, multi-layered prophetic message involving several specific aspects of the end-time scenario that affect specific groups of people. I'm sorry, but this is not something to generalize—the time for generalization is over, because we are staring down the barrels of the detailed fulfillment of end-time prophecy like never before, and in my humble opinion well-intentioned but myopic generalization will do nothing but obscure and obfuscate what God is trying to show us right now.

So with that said, let's take a look at the big picture formed by these two eclipses and all the Salems and Ninevehs they pass over, and see if we can make some sense of what I believe God is trying to show us.

A look at both eclipses

As I said, I almost kissed the linoleum when I saw the first screaming headline on social media about how the 2024 eclipse was going to pass over seven cities named Nineveh! Then I saw another. And another. But then things started to change. Suddenly it was something about how it was really eight cities, one of which was in Canada. Hmm... Then it was something about how a few of these cities were not in the path of totality! What?! Then it was something about how the path of totality only included two of the Ninevehs! Say it ain't so!!

For a moment, I felt like sending that memo back to the Holy Spirit with a couple of question marks frantically scrawled on it.

But I know better. I knew in my spirit there was something going on here that warranted attention, and so I calmly set out to do what I normally do:

1. Get the facts.

2. Sort 'em out.

3. Let the chips fall where they may.

That's pretty much what I did in my first eclipse-related article in October of 2022. I set out to do the grunt work, and discovered that two of the advertised Salems that were supposedly passed over by the 2017 eclipse according to many on social media were not in the path of totality at all. Salem, Missouri was just a flat-out miss, and Salem, Wyoming no longer exists and wouldn't have been in the path of totality even it did. But I stuck to it, and ended up discovering two additional Salems others had apparently missed that completed the group of seven. Then I kept on trucking and found a total of 12 Salems in the path of totality of the 2024 eclipse.

Then the only problem was how to make sense of what I found. And with God's help, I believe I did just that. Here is the graphic from that previous article that displays the results of my efforts back in 2022 in regard to all the Salems passed over in the eclipses of 2017 and 2024:

(Adapted from an image made freely available courtesy of NationalEclipse.com)

But as I said, only a few weeks ago I read the 2024 eclipse passed over seven cities named Nineveh in the United States and one in Canada, with a few skeptics claiming that many of them were not in the path of totality. So, the first thing I did was verify the facts.

As it turns out, the skeptics were right. I verified the existence of the seven U.S. communities named Nineveh that were mentioned in various social media pieces, and one community in Nova Scotia, Canada. I also verified that only two of these eight communities are actually in the path of totality—some are very close, and others...not so much. Here is a map showing the results:

(Adapted from an image made freely available courtesy of NationalEclipse.com)

As you can see, unlike the Salems, the Ninevehs are fairly scattered about in the general vicinity of the path of totality. Initially I was a bit disappointed because—like many people, it seems—I was all hepped up about the idea of having a nice, neat string of Ninevehs all in the path of totality, just like the Salems. I mean, how cool is that?

But I got over that minor initial disappointment in a flash and began asking myself the only question that matters:

God is clearly trying to show us something.

So what exactly is He trying to show us?

And I started praying. As I have often done in the past (actually, just about every month for the last 12 years), I simply asked God to show me what He wanted to show us so I could show a few others.

And I believe He did just that...as He normally does.

So let's plow through this and see what we've got.

1. The eclipse of 2017.

I believe the first eclipse in 2017 gives us a picture of things that occur prior to the launching of the Tribulation. Now, as I have discussed previously, the 2017 eclipse itself (nothing in regard to any cities it passes over) represents the first stroke of the "X" God marks on America, and it is essentially a shot across America's bow that warns that God's judgment is on the horizon. And as we have witnessed what has transpired in our country over the last seven years, I wouldn't expect to get too much argument there.

In the last seven years, we have seen America increasingly hamstrung by the demonically inspired designs of people who hate everything this country stands for and who are committed to seeing it reduced to a smoldering pile of left-wing rubble that will meekly go along with efforts to install a global government under a global leader. From one force-fed agenda to the next and one manmade hoax to another, this country is rapidly being pushed to the brink of a date with God's judgment.

Ain't happening: I don't mean to rain on anyone's political parade, but I don't see any scriptural reason why we shouldn't expect that judgment to fall...and fall soon. I plan to have more to say about this in a future article; but even though I have long been generally supportive of Donald Trump and respect him for what he's actually done, he is not our savior in any sense of the word and rather than being sent by God to save America, he is being manipulated and ego-stroked by people who claim to speak for God but who don't know sound biblical doctrine from a banana daiquiri. So, I fear that those who believe God will place Trump back in the White House in 2024 to save America are setting themselves up for a crushing disappointment. Voter fraud à la 2020? Always a possibility, but it could be trickier this time. My point is simply this: The powers that lie coiled behind the façade of the Biden administration would call in an airstrike on Mar-a-Lago and blame it on a radio transmission that was garbled due to climate change if need be to prevent Trump from ever getting back in the White House. They. Will. Stop. At. Nothing.

And on that cheery note... Now, as for the seven Salems in the path of this 2017 eclipse, I believe these seven cities represent the entire nation of Israel as it is protected by God in the attack of Gog-Magog. This is Israel's first date with the valley of the shadow of death that is featured in this pair of eclipses, and as a complete nation (seven being the number of divine completion) they will turn to God as a result of His miraculous intervention on their behalf in this attack. After God fights for His people and crushes their enemies, an empowered Israel will seek to restore their covenant relationship with Him. They will pass through this first valley of the shadow of death...and they will fear no evil. They will live. His rod and His staff, they will comfort them.

God's stunning intervention on behalf of His People Israel will launch a sequence of events that will soon culminate in the confirmation of a landmark treaty by a rising global leader—a treaty that will appear to make the world's dream come true at long last:

Peace in the Middle East.

But that treaty won't bring peace to anyone. What it will do is kick off the most horrifying seven years of judgment the world will ever know.

2. The eclipse of 2024.

In the second eclipse in 2024, things get a bit more complicated because this eclipse appears to be speaking to several different groups of people.

First of all, as a complement to the first eclipse in 2017, the second eclipse itself (not the cities it passes over) represents the second stroke of the "X" over America, and I believe this points to the imminent arrival of God's judgment that is set to befall the United States.

Now, I do not know exactly what shape it will take or what all it will involve, but I am convinced from Scripture that it will fall and fall hard.

But it's certainly not difficult to speculate as to some of the factors that may come into play in America's fall (New Madrid Seismic Zone? Hmm...). And personally I'm convinced the Rapture will play a role—in fact, I believe that's the kill shot. I believe the Rapture will be America's coup de grâce, and will play a major role in America's plunge into chaos and allow the sequence of events that will culminate in the launching of the Tribulation to get underway with Satan and his wannabe global dictator the Antichrist behind the wheel.

OK, so much for America. Now it's on to the Salems. As I describe in my OCT '22 article, I believe that the 12 Salems in the 2024 eclipse again speak to Israel, except now what we are being shown occurs during the Tribulation.

Just like the seven Salems of 2017, these 12 Salems also lie in the valley of the shadow of death; however, they experience two very different outcomes. As you can see in the graphic I included above, one of those 12 Salems lies in the path of both eclipses, and that's in Livingston County, Kentucky. I believe this lone Salem that lies in the intersection of the two eclipses now represents the believing Jewish remnant, who ultimately responds to the preaching of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and finally comes to faith in the real Messiah.

They live through this shadow and fear

no evil because the LORD is with them:

His rod and His staff will comfort them.

This believing remnant of Israel comprises one-third of the Jews according to Zechariah 13:8–9. The other 11 Salems, however, are a very different story.

The other 11 Salems are passing through the same valley as the believing remnant that is prophetically singled out by being in the intersection of both eclipses, but these 11 Salems represent the hardened, unbelieving portion of Israel that refuses to trust or believe God. They reject His grace and His mercy, and so God sends upon them a strong delusion that causes them to embrace Satan's man the Antichrist as their promised Messiah. As a result, they experience a very different outcome:

They perish in this shadow and will fear

greatly, because the LORD is not with them:

His rod and His staff will not comfort them.

This portion of Israel (i.e. the unbelieving two-thirds) will perish at the hands of the Antichrist (in spite of their belief in him as their Messiah), and they will be hunted down and killed in Satan's vain attempt to cancel the Second Coming by wiping out the entire Jewish population so there will be none left to implore the Lord to save them at the climax of the Tribulation.

OK, so much for the Salems and for Israel, and that leaves us with the Ninevehs. Of course, Nineveh was the Gentile capital of a Gentile Empire, so it's pretty clear that these Ninevehs represent Gentiles. The fact that one of these Ninevehs lies in a different country (Canada) stresses the idea that we're no longer talking about any individual nation such as America or Israel—now the focus is global. Now the emphasis is on Gentiles from all over the world.

I believe the time frame in regard to these Ninevehs is the same as with the 12 Salems: during the judgments of the Tribulation. And as I mentioned, there are two key facts about the Ninevehs to deal with, and both are important to understanding what God is showing us:

1. Some of the Ninevehs are in the path of totality, and some are not.

2. There are a total of eight of them.

Before I continue, I want to state something up front that some might disagree with, because it's something that I'm sure could be interpreted differently. I agonized over this to no end, and continued praying that God would help me see this the way He wanted me to see it. And in the end, this is the interpretation that I was most at peace with:

Even though the Ninevehs in this 2024 eclipse clearly represent Gentiles from all over the world, I am inclined to view these eight Ninevehs as representing only those Gentiles of the world who come to believe the gospel after the Rapture and during the Tribulation. In other words, I do not see these Ninevehs as representing the entire Gentile population of the earth. I do not see this as including those Gentiles who are deceived by the Antichrist and willingly agree to take his mark and worship him as God, thus completely rejecting everything they hear from the 144,000 Jewish evangelists that God seals and sends out to preach the gospel to them. These people have completely shut God out of their lives, and during the Tribulation the Righteous Judge will have no choice but to give them over to the foolish decisions and desires of their hardened hearts. Thus they have no part of this prophetic picture God is revealing to us concerning His dealings with various groups during the Tribulation.

These Ninevehs, both inside and outside the path of totality, paint a picture of all those Gentiles around the world who come to profess faith in the gospel after the Rapture and during the Tribulation, and as a result at least have enough sense to refuse to worship the Antichrist and take his mark.

I've written about this before, but these Gentiles who profess faith in the gospel after the Rapture and during the Tribulation are divided into two groups:

(a) Those who go all in and avail themselves of the power of the Holy Spirit and maintain a faithful witness by aiding other believers at great risk to themselves. Although many will be martyred (Rev. 7:9–17), those who survive the Tribulation will constitute the sheep at the Sheep and Goat Judgment (Matt. 25:31–46), and they will be welcomed into the kingdom.

These are represented by the two Ninevehs

that lie inside the path of totality.

(b) Those who fail to avail themselves of the power of the Holy Spirit, and fail to maintain a faithful witness and fail to aid other believers. They give in to the fear that overwhelms them: Instead of aiding other believers at great risk to themselves, they cave and look out for number one. Although some will perish during the Tribulation, those who survive until the end of it will constitute the goats at the Sheep and Goat Judgment, and they will be denied entrance into the kingdom and will be sent off to judgment.

These are represented by the six Ninevehs

that lie outside the path of totality.

"Whoa, hold up there, Bible Dude. So according to you, the 11 Salems that are in the path of totality in the 2024 eclipse are the unbelieving two-thirds of Israel that will perish during the Tribulation. But the two Ninevehs that are in that same path of totality represent Gentiles who are saved during the Tribulation and who will ultimately enter the kingdom. Kinda inconsistent, dontcha think?"

You're forgetting who Israel is. This relates to the fact that Israel has always been, is today, and will always be God's Chosen People. Both the Old and New Covenants were cut for Israel, not for the Gentiles. It was only through God's plan of redemption that was established before the foundation of the world that Gentiles were grafted into the New Covenant after Israel rejected their Messiah and persuaded their Roman masters to brutally execute the promised Redeemer God had sent them. This earned Israel a two-thousand-year round of judgment, but in spite that they never stopped being God's Chosen People and the apple of His eye. And they were still precisely that when He began leading them back into their biblical homeland in the late nineteenth century and ultimately re-established the nation of Israel in May 1948 in the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Although Israel has gone through periods of divine judgment, they have always lived under the shadow of God's protection—and not because they are so good or so special, but for no other reason than the fact that God is a promise-keeping God. And the two-thirds of Israel that will ultimately perish during the Tribulation will do so in spite of that fact.

The unbelieving remnant won't perish because they live outside the shadow of His protection, because up to that point they have been in it. This portion of His people will perish because they have made free-will decisions to stubbornly refuse to embrace the work of atonement His Son their Messiah accomplished on their behalf and they have flatly rejected God's efforts to penetrate their hearts with the truth of the gospel. They have effectively removed themselves from His protection by the hardness of their hearts and their refusal to believe, until God will have no recourse but to give them over to their foolish desires and allow them to be destroyed by the Antichrist that He will finally delude them into accepting as their Messiah as a judgment on them.

So even though we see the unbelieving portion of Israel represented as being ensconced in what can also be interpreted as the shadow of His protection in the eclipse of 2024 right along with the two Ninevehs that represent Gentiles who persevere and make it into the kingdom, this unbelieving remnant will perish as a result of their own foolish, stubborn choices. Like I said:

Same shadow—different outcomes.

Finally, I want to consider the significance of the fact that there are a total of eight Ninevehs. Again, I believe the fact that there are seven in the United States and one in Canada is simply an indication that the judgments of the Tribulation fall on Gentiles from all over the world, not just America.

OK, fine. But why eight?

I saved this one final point for last because it very nearly ended up on the cutting room floor. I struggled with this, and nothing really jumped out at me for awhile. But you know me...I figured I'd just keep chewing on it and wait for the Lord to show me something. And I believe He did.

Why eight?

So these eight Ninevehs represent all those Gentiles who come to faith during the Tribulation, both those who maintain a faithful witness and ultimately enter the kingdom and those who cave and fail to do so. Let's consider both of these groups of Gentiles who will come to believe the gospel together as one group, and for simplicity let's call them the Flock.

Of course, there are millions of Gentiles who enter the Tribulation who are not part of the Flock, and who will fall for the Antichrist's lies and go on to take his mark and worship him as God. We're not talking about them. But in like manner, the Flock will miss the Rapture and enter into the Tribulation, which begins not too awfully long after the Church is removed.

Pen in hand: Some people seem to have the idea that the Tribulation must start immediately after the Rapture, as if at the moment the Rapture occurs, the Antichrist-to-be will have pen in hand and be ready to sign a document that confirms the treaty of Daniel 9:27. On the other hand, some think the gap between the Rapture and the Tribulation could be decades.

Of course, no one can be dogmatic about this; however, in my opinion there virtually must be a short gap between the Rapture and the Tribulation, if only for obvious practical reasons. The Rapture is going to turn the world upside down and shake it hard, and it will result in a period of global panic and chaos. It will take some time to reach the point where anything can proceed in anything resembling a normal manner. And although I don't see that time as being decades, it is very easy for me to see a gap of anywhere from a minimum of six months or so to a more realistic gap of two to three years.

For example, I believe that after the Rapture, we have the attack of Gog-Magog unfolding, followed by diplomatic efforts to formalize a treaty between a now empowered Israel and a now humbled Muslim world that will include an agreement to build the Third Temple on the hotly disputed Temple Mount. Obviously this sequence of events isn't going to happen overnight. Of course, that's just my two shekels. And let me add one small reminder:

When it comes to the fulfillment of end-time prophecy, we are always the ones who are in a hurry—not God. He's always right on time.

Now, consider: The Flock will have lived during the Church Age, a time when the gospel was readily available in most places. The majority of these people will have had easy access to Bibles and the message of the gospel, but they simply rejected it. They had no time for it and no interest in it (and judging from the woke, politically correct palaver being spewed in many churches today, that shouldn't come as a shock to anyone). They were content to live according to the flesh and didn't take spiritual things seriously (at least not the good kind of spiritual things).

On the other hand, there will also be those in the Flock who lived in countries where they were denied an opportunity to hear the gospel—places where Bibles were extremely hard to come by, if not illegal. They may have lived in places where Christians were routinely persecuted and even killed.

Now, it's difficult to say exactly how circumstances in various countries will change after we get past the Rapture and into the Tribulation; but from what we know from Scripture about Daniel's 70th Week, I have no reason to believe it's going to get easier to live as a believer in the gospel...anywhere.

No matter how relatively easy or tough it was to be a believer in any particular part of the world before the Rapture, I guarantee you that it won't be long after the Rapture until it starts getting noticeably tougher. And before you can say "Take the mark—it's safe and effective!" it will reach the point where it will be punishable by death.

But one thing everyone in the Flock will have in common is that they will all have witnessed the most incredible supernatural event in the last two thousand years: the earth-shattering catching away of the body of Christ. I believe this will have a major impact on them, and I suspect they will dismiss the official narrative concerning UFOs and aliens that many others will gobble up.

The lie is out there: Note that just in the last couple of years the UFO/alien narrative has been increasingly going mainstream, and more and more deeply connected individuals are publicly urging the U.S. government to fess up and reveal what they are hiding in regard to aliens: the alleged dozen or so actual spacecraft, the alleged intact alien bodies, you name it. But consider: Since the UFO/alien narrative exists for the sole purpose of giving Satan a way to explain away the Rapture in a manner that will lead people away from the truth, this actually serves as another type of "Rapture barometer."

Then, not too long after that, they will also witness God miraculously wipe out the powerful coalition of nations that tried to destroy His people in the attack of Gog-Magog. This will not escape their notice, either.

Then, in the early part of the Tribulation, they will witness and recognize God's hand moving in judgment (Rev. 6:15–17). They will also hear the preaching of the 144,000 apostle Pauls God will unleash on the post-Rapture world, and so as we get into the Tribulation, the Flock will be faced with a decision:

Have faith in the one true

God they have seen in action,

or believe the pack of lies being

pushed everywhere they turn.

(Has a strangely familiar ring to it, doesn't it?) The point I'm driving at is that the Flock will have an opportunity to change their eternal destiny, end their separation from God, begin an eternity of being reconciled with Him, and soon begin a new life in His kingdom.

Emphasis on the word "opportunity."

In other words:

These Gentiles who are represented by the eight Ninevehs will all have a chance for a new beginning from an eternal standpoint.

Just as in the real Nineveh, the people initially repented at the preaching of Jonah. But it wasn't long before many (perhaps not all, but many) of them began falling away from their faith and returning to the same sinful lifestyles they led before Jonah ever showed up.

In a similar manner, some in the Flock—unsaved Gentiles who at least make professions of faith after the Rapture and during the Tribulation—will have a chance for a new beginning in the Spirit, but they will fail to maintain a faithful witness and will fall away. On the other hand, many will endure to the end and be saved as they maintain a faithful witness during the judgments of the Tribulation and seek to aid other believers at great risk to themselves.

But back to the point: Why eight? Eight is the number of new beginnings in Scripture. Seven is divine completion, and so eight represents the start of something new. The eighth day is the beginning of a new week; Noah's family of eight people started the human race anew; the gematria of Jesus' name in Hebrew (Ιησονς) is 888, and He is our new beginning in the Spirit. And I believe the fact that there are a total of eight Ninevehs in this second eclipse speaks to the idea that we are looking at Gentiles in the Tribulation who have an opportunity for a new beginning in the spiritual sense. In spite of the fact that they failed to believe during the Church Age and missed out on the blessed hope of the Rapture, they will have a chance to hear the gospel from the 144,000 and they will make a profession of faith, and have a shot at a new eternal beginning and a place in the kingdom.

But by the end of the Tribulation, it will be clear that some endured to the end and were saved (Matt. 24:13) and some failed to keep their clothes with them and were found naked and ashamed (Rev. 16:15).

Of course, millions of Gentiles in the Tribulation will want no part of the gospel. They will succumb to the lies of Satan and his man the Antichrist, will take his mark, be damned, and ultimately perish. I believe these have no part in what is displayed in the 2024 eclipse.

In a nutshell: The Ninevehs in the 2024 eclipse represent Gentiles in the Tribulation who come to a belief in the gospel. The fact that there are eight of them (eight being the number of new beginnings) speaks to the fact that they all have a chance for a new beginning in a spiritual sense. But the fact that some of these Ninevehs are inside the path of totality and some are outside the path represents the fact that some of these will maintain a faithful witness during the hardships of the Tribulation and serve other believers, while some will wimp out and fail to do so. Among these in both groups, those who survive until the end of the Tribulation are the sheep and the goats respectively, who will either be granted or denied entrance into the kingdom at the Sheep and Goat Judgment based on whether or not they persevered and maintained a faithful witness.

Oh, and before I forget: I would be remiss if I failed to mention that during the 2024 eclipse, the Devil Comet (aka 2P/Pons–Brooks) will be visible during totality. This relatively large, devilish-looking comet comes around to visit us every 71 years—and unlike its namesake, it poses no threat to the earth. Yes, you heard me right: the Devil Comet...I'm sorry, but I simply have no eloquent or insightful comments to add to that.

Whew...I feel like I just splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after returning from a trip into space. I just hope and pray that I've been able to explain my thoughts clearly, and that they make some degree of sense to you.

Say hi to the Pleiadeans for me

Of course, I know there are different ways you could interpret some of the elements of these two eclipses—I certainly don't claim to be the Answer Man in this regard. I'm sure many tend to see some of these things primarily through the lens of death, destruction, and judgment, while I tend to see them more through the lens of God's grace and mercy in the midst of His judgment.

But however one sees some of these elements, it's always worthwhile to spend some time prayerfully considering what God is trying to show us in any of the signs He reveals to us, including this fascinating pair of total solar eclipses as we enter the gun lap of the Church Age and look forward to the Rapture.

Speaking of which, I almost wish I could make a brief pit stop back here on earth not too long after the Rapture just so I could hear some of the theories people have about what happened. I would love to hear what some of the people who know me might be saying about what might have happened to me, or where I might have been taken.

My real wish, however, is a bit more serious.

And it's not a wish—it's a prayer.

My prayer would be to come back and discover that after the Rapture, some of the students in my English classes who knew that I was a born-again believer (they all do) and know that I am one of those missing (they all would) ended up getting saved in its aftermath, and would ultimately be among those Gentiles represented by the two Ninevehs that lie in the path of totality of the 2024 eclipse and have a place in the kingdom along with me.

There is, however, a woman in one of my classes who would probably be convinced I had joined up with the aliens...just like she has.

And I can just hear her now:

"Say hi to the Pleiadeans for me!"

From Greg Lauer @ A Little Strength—MAR '24

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