What does it mean that "the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood," and when will this happen?

Explanation:

In Acts 2:1–47, Luke describes the day of Pentecost. A group of believers were gathered together when they heard a sound like a rushing wind, and divided tongues as of fire appeared before each was filled with the Holy Spirit. There were men from every tribe and language in Jerusalem at the time, and when the believers filled with the Spirit spoke, each person heard them in their own language. All were amazed and wondered if the people speaking in in the Spirit were drunk, and so the apostle Peter addressed the crowd, explaining that the prophecy of Joel 2:28–32 was being fulfilled.

What is significant for our purposes is twofold. First, Joel 2:28 states, and afterwards, before indicating that the Spirit will be poured out, while Peter reformulates this phrase to read in the last days. In other words, Peter is suggesting that the last days have been initiated by Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection; the final messianic era has begun.³ Second, Peter does not just quote Joel 2:28–29, which clearly expresses the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but he also includes Joel 2:30–32. This implies that the entire prophecy of Joel is being fulfilled in that moment.

Counterargument:

It cannot be that the entire prophecy was fulfilled, because the sun had not been darkened and the moon had not turned to blood. It would do damage to biblical prophecy if only a partial prophecy were fulfilled at any given time.⁴ If God predicts something, then we should assume that what will transpire is just what God predicted.⁵ This implies that the best way to understand Peter’s use of Acts 2:1–47 is that Peter uses the passage to illustrate that something similar was happening at the time. In other words, Peter was pointing out that something like the prophecy of Joel was taking place, but the actual fulfillment of what Joel predicts is yet to take place in the future.⁶

Response to counterargument:

The notion that every aspect of a prophecy must be fulfilled at the same moment in order for that prophecy to be fulfilled is untenable. Joel 2:28–32 is a good example of why this is the case. For in Joel 2:28–29 we read that it shall come to pass that God will pour out his Spirit, even on menservants and maidservants, so that sons and daughters will prophesy, and old and young will dream dreams. Then in Joel 2:30–31 we read that extraordinary signs in the heavens and earth will precede the great and awesome day of the Lord. It hardly makes sense that at the same moment that God pours out his Spirit, the sun would be turned to darkness and the moon to blood and the great and awesome day of the Lord would commence. Further, dreams imply temporal duration, but how can these dreams be dreamed if the day of the Lord must come simultaneously with the outpouring of the Spirit?⁷

The point here is that we do not need to take it that every aspect of the prophecy comes to pass at the exact same moment in order for the prophecy to be fulfilled. The prophecy marks the beginning of a new messianic era, during which the Spirit will be poured out, people will dream dreams, signs and wonders will happen in the heavens and on earth, and then finally, the great and awesome day of the Lord will come.⁸

Explanation:

Joel 2:31 indicates that when extraordinary signs appear in the heavens and on earth, this means that the great and awesome day of the Lord is at hand. If we assume that the great and awesome day of the Lord has to do with judgment, there is a sense in which this judgment is taking place in Matthew 3:12. This can be seen by reflecting on the ministry of John the Baptist.⁹

John the Baptist testified that Jesus would baptize with the Spirit and with fire. The Spirit represents salvation while the fire represents judgment (Matthew 3:12). John illustrates the point further by stating that Jesus will come with a winnowing fork and will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12). In other words, there is an expectation that when Jesus poured out the Spirit, he would also pour out the wrath of God on sinners.¹⁰ No wonder then that Peter states that Joel 2:28–32 has been fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. For that is when the Spirit was poured out, and the judgment was begun, which will culminate in the great and awesome day of the Lord. 

Counterargument:

While it is true that the ministry of John the Baptist explains that Jesus will baptize with the Spirit and fire, this is irrelevant to Joel 2:31. What we are trying to determine is when the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, not whether the signs of blood, fire, and columns of smoke on the earth are connected with the judgment of Christ (Joel 2:30). The text from Joel clearly explains that there will be two varieties of signs—some in the heavens and some on the earth. The signs we are interested in exploring occur in the heavens, and these include the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood. Clearly, these signs have not yet occurred, and will not occur, until the great and awesome day of the Lord (see Interpretation 2).

Response to counterargument:

It is not difficult to see that there are two kinds of signs, including signs in the heavens and signs on the earth. Still, it is not so easy to disunite these. Joel is a poetic writer, and he uses a simple chiasm to connect the signs from heaven with the signs on earth, illustrated as follows:

A signs in the heavens (Joel 2:30)

B signs on the earth (Joel 2:30)

B' earth signs (Joel 2:30)

A' heaven signs (Joel 2:31)¹¹

Added to the poetic nature of this section, Joel also uses ambiguous language to describe the signs that unfold. For example, when he writes that signs will happen on the earth, he follows this up with דָּם וָאֵשׁ וְתִֽימֲרוֹת עָשָֽׁן, meaning simply blood and fire and columns of smoke. For the Israelites, such imagery harkens back to the time of the exodus when God led the people as a column of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21).¹² Thus, Joel makes a theological and emotional connection, but there is not much in the way of specifics.

That Joel makes these literary and theological connections indicates that we are not to take the signs as hard and fast events with specific temporal dimensions, nor should we draw a sharp line between the signs that will take place on earth from those in the sky.

Explanation:

It is not difficult to infer that the great and awesome day of the Lord refers to the final day of judgment. The question is, When will the sun turn dark and the moon to blood? To get at this we first need to determine what is meant by the sun being turned to darkness and the moon to blood.

First, since the signs of the sun being turned to darkness and the moon to blood are connected, we are committed to holding both signs in tandem. This means that if we take the sun being turned to darkness in the literal sense of God’s extinguishing its flame, we should also take it in a literal sense that the composition of the moon will be transformed from rock and sand to liquid blood. In other words, if the flame of the sun stops burning and the moon transforms into blood, we should expect that the day of the Lord is upon us.

From the perspective of God’s power, there is no problem taking these verses literally, because God is the creator of the universe, and every particle is under his sovereign control. Still, under the current laws of physics established by God, it would be impossible for life to exist without the sun because everything on earth would freeze. Likewise, if the moon turned to blood this could drastically alter the tilt of the earth.

We might be tempted to think it does not matter for the laws of physics to regulate the right conditions for life to survive because the day of the Lord’s judgment will usher in a new dimension, which could include new laws of physics. This is plausibly the case, but there is a sense from the passage that some will survive this catastrophic event. Joel 2:32 states that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered, and there will be survivors who escape. If the sun and moon are literally inoperative, it is hard to see how there could be any survivors based on the physical conditions alone.¹³

Added to this, there is a sense in which the sun being turning to darkness and the moon to blood can be taken as figuratively. To take these figuratively does not imply that there will be no sign in the heavens or on earth that precedes the great and awesome day of the Lord. In fact, there will be signs in the heavens, but not in the literal sense that nuclear reactions in the core of the sun will cease, and the moon’s composition will transform into blood. Instead, these signs could refer to any number of signs, including a solar eclipse that would make the sun turn black, or a lunar eclipse that would make the moon look blood red. Joel’s words could also refer to smoke from volcanic or tectonic activity that would cover the moon to look red, or smoke from the consequence of war.¹⁴ In any case, if the signs are taken figurately, these could be ongoing indicators that we have entered the messianic age and the great and awesome day of the Lord is imminent.

Counterargument:

The fact that Joel 2:32 mentions that some people will survive the great and awesome day of the Lord does not imply that a new dimension of reality will not be ushered in at that time. Rather, this implies that when the sun darkens and the moon turns to blood and the great and awesome day of the Lord commences, there are those who will be saved. Whether these survivors will be saved in the sense that they will now dwell in a new dimension is not mentioned. Still, that there are survivors only implies that God will save some, not that the sun and moon will no longer operate as normal.

Response to counterargument:

A careful reading of the Hebrew implies that there will be a set of people who survive the great and awesome day of the Lord, and of those survivors, there will be those who are saved by the Lord. Joel 2:32a states that in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem will be those who escape (referring to the great and awesome day of the Lord). Then in Joel 2:32b we read that בַשְּׂרִידִים אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה קֹרֵֽא (among those who escaped are who the Lord calls).

This implies that some will survive the day and will not be saved, but it is hard to see how anyone could survive if the sun is darkened and the moon is turned to blood.

Possible weakness:

The weakness of this view is not that it tries to take the language of the sun turning dark and the moon to blood figuratively. The prophets will often use figurative language to make their point (see argument b, Response to counterargument). Still, there is a general theme in Scripture that connects the great and awesome day of the Lord (final day of judgment), specifically with the sun and moon failing. In other words, there is a strong correlation in Scripture between the sun turning dark and the moon to blood on, not before, the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Explanation:

To understand when the sun will be darkened and the moon turned to blood, we need to consider the context of Joel 2:28–32. Joel has delivered a message of judgment that will be delivered in the form of a plague, army invasion, and/or natural disaster. God will then have mercy and restore the land to the way it was before the judgment. Joel anticipates a future event, explaining that it will come to pass that God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28–29). He then explains that there will be signs in the heavens and on earth, which include blood, fire, and columns of smoke (referring to earthly signs) (Joel 2:30), while the sun will turn dark and the moon to blood (heavenly signs) (Joel 2:31). These signs will take place before the great and awesome day of the Lord (Joel 2:31).

Although Joel is not explicit about when the great and awesome day of the Lord will come, in other places in Scripture this event is often connected with God’s final judgment, along with the darkening of the sun and the moon. For example, in Isaiah 13:1–22 we read that the day of the Lord comes in wrath and anger to bring desolation on the earth (Matthew 24:29).²⁰ We also find that at that time, there will be darkness, for neither the stars, the sun, nor the moon will give its light (Matthew 24:29).

We read something similar in the New Testament, specifically Matthew 24:29. There Jesus explains that a time is coming when the sun, moon, and stars will be darkened (Matthew 24:29). After this, the Son of Man will appear in great glory and power and the nations will mourn (Matthew 24:30). This is an indication of Christ’s second coming, when he will judge the earth.²¹

Finally, in Revelation 6:1–17 the same events are recalled but this time the description is an even closer match with Joel. John states that the sun became black, and the moon became like blood (echoing Joel’s description of the moon) (Revelation 6:12). After this the rulers and kings hide themselves and call for the mountains to fall on them because the great day of the Lamb’s wrath has come (Revelation 6:16–17), which refers to the final judgment.²²

In each of the above passages there is a connection between the sun and moon turning dark and God’s final judgment. This implies that the sun will darken and the moon will turn to blood on the final judgment day of God.

Counterargument:

Unfortunately for this view there are other occasions when the darkening of the sun and the moon imply divine judgment, but not the final day of judgment. This means that the darkening of the sun and moon is sometimes used figuratively to describe divine destruction, so we should not press these as literal future events.²³

For example, in Ezekiel 32:1–32 we read that God’s judgment will come upon Pharoah and the nation of Egypt. Pharaoh and his people will be cast down and blotted out (Ezekiel 32:4, Ezekiel 32:7). At the same time the heavens will be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and all the bright lights of heaven shall be made dark (Ezekiel 32:7–8). This is a prophecy against the ancient Near Eastern nation of Egypt and we should assume that this prophecy has been fulfilled, but given the figurative language of prophets, we are not committed to the notion that the stars stopped giving off their light when that judgment came.

Further, in Jeremiah 4:20 we read that judgment will come over the people of Judah. The people are full of wickedness and God warns that because of their actions, disaster will come upon them (Jeremiah 4:14, Jeremiah 4:20). Then Jeremiah looks over the earth and sees that it is laid waste and that there are no longer any lights in heaven (Jeremiah 4:23). This is a prophecy against Judah, and it comes to pass when the Babylonians conquer Jerusalem and exile the people.

Response to counterargument:

While it is the case that divine judgment is sometimes connected with the judgment of a nation in the Old Testament era, it is also connected with the end of the ages and the final judgment (especially Matthew 24:29–30 and Revelation 6:12–17). Joel connects the darkening of the sun and the moon turning to blood with the great and awesome day of the Lord. The great and awesome day of the Lord sounds more like the final day of judgment than God’s judgment on Egypt or Judah. In those cases, it seems that the nature of the judgment is characterized through the imagery of the dark sky. On the other hand, Joel 2:31 is characterizing the great and awesome day of the Lord with the imagery of the dark sky. This is because the great and awesome day of the Lord will be the final judgment.

Explanation:

In Joel 2:31 we read that God will give wonders in the heavens and on the earth before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. The Hebrew term that Joel uses to indicate wonders is מוֹפֵת (wonder/sign/miracle). This term is used to denote extraordinary signs.²⁴ This is the same language that is used in connection with the exodus and the signs given to Pharoah in the form of the plagues.²⁵ In other words, there will be extraordinary signs in the heavens and on the earth before the great and awesome day of the Lord. These signs include the sun’s going dark and the moon’s turning to blood. In other words, the sun will go dark, and the moon will turn to blood on the final judgment day of the Lord.

Counterargument:

The passage states that extraordinary signs will precede the great and awesome day of the Lord. The preposition used to denote this is before: before the great and awesome day of the Lord, the sun shall be turned dark and the moon to blood (Joel 2:31). All that follows from this is that the great and awesome day of the Lord will not take place until some extraordinary signs have happened. What does not follow is that these extraordinary signs will take place at the same time as the great and awesome day of the Lord. In other words, there is no telling when the sun will turn to darkness or the moon to blood, but certainly the Lord will not return before these signs occur.

Response to counterargument:

It is true that Joel uses the preposition before to indicate that the sun’s turning dark and the moon’s turning to blood will precede the great and awesome day of the Lord. Still, these signs are of such a nature that nothing will be able to survive when they take place. This implies that these will take place at the great and awesome day of the Lord, when a whole new dimension of existence will be ushered in. 

Possible weakness:

The possible weakness of this view is that by overlooking the prophetic language of Joel, it presses for a literal interpretation when it should not. The Hebrew construction only commits the reader to the notion that the extraordinary signs will occur before, not simultaneous with, the great and awesome day of the Lord. The expected signs include the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood, but we do not need to take it that such signs will literally transpire. The reason we do not need to take these as literal signs is that there are other occasions when a prophet connects divine judgment with the sky going dark (Ezekiel 32:7–8), or rolling up like a scroll (Isaiah 34:4), but we do not take these literally. Why then should we take similar language literally in Joel 2:31 but not in other instances? (See Interpretation 2, argument 3).