so when did all this happen below?
Isaiah 24:23 (KJV)
Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts
shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
Joel 3:15 (KJV)
The sun and the moon shall be darkened,
and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Mark 13:24 (KJV)
But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light,
Joel 2:10 (KJV)
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble:
the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
Isaiah 13:10 (KJV)
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light:
the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
I readily admit that my position has to allow for a literal Second Coming in the future.
my position also does not allow for gaps.
I believe there are clear passages which point to a literal Second Coming in the future, but many of the ones used by ppl, were already fulfilled....
for me, only be eliminating previously fulfilled passages can I discover what remains - and there are passages detailing what is NOT fulfilled (very few).
as for the sun and moon stuff: used often by God for day(s) of judgment - yet He did not bring about Judgment Day or resurrection and eternity...He sent men to do his bidding re-judgment.
that includes gentiles nations from OT; as well as Israel/Jerusalem in NT
examples:
Judgment on Babylon (at the hands of the Medes) - notice other familiar language:
Isaiah 13
Wail, for
the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt, and they will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. See,
the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to
make the earth a desolation, and to destroy its sinners from it.
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity...Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and
the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce angerJoel 2:10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble.
The sun, moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdrawal their shining.
it's just a fact that God uses this language over and over, and it doesn't mean the literal end of the whole world in these cases. we all have to decide for ourselves, wrestle with the texts and lightly hold our view at the time.
I don't reject dispensationalism because it sounds wrong (which it does); but BECAUSE I TURNED OVER EVERY ROCK IN IT (10 years of doing it, thoroughly) and found it to be unworkable and totally fabricated.
...
more - pointing to judgment of Jerusalem per Jesus' curse.
Amos 8:9
And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in a clear day
this language signifies (stars are for signs) judgment, and
changes in rulership.
in every case it came to be (ex: the Medes displaced Babylon, Rome displaced Greece, etc, Rome torn apart and falling)
here's the famous stuff about Joseph and his family - they ruled over him, but that was going to change.
same language:
Genesis 37:5-11
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said,
Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
the end of the world didn't come with Joseph.
cont....