Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area

I do not consider myself a Bible expert by any means, but I'll throw in my two cents.

First off, there are some problems with the narrative being formed around this solar eclipse. The 'tav' and 'aleph' could be argued to be coincidence. A tav is essentially just a 'cross' or 'X', and an aleph is just an 'A' or triangle shape. any two lines that happen to cross each other will make a 'tav', and any 3 lines that happen to intersect with each other can make a triangle. Simply extend the lines of the triangle out and you can make any triangle into an 'A' shape.

Also the 7 Ninevehs could be seen as inconsequential since most of the Ninevehs are not actually in the path of totality, but merely 'close' to it.

Those who see significance in these eclipses and other "sky events" as eschatological signs tend to point to verses such as Genesis 1:14 —

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

and Luke 21:25-28 —

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

The potential problem with such assertions is that events such as total solar eclipses are not uncommon enough to be a definitive sign of a singular event such as the Day of the Lord — A total solar eclipse is a rare event, recurring somewhere on Earth every 18 months on average, yet is estimated to recur at any given location only every 360–410 years on average. (source)

If a total eclipse happens every 18 months how can we pick out a specific one as the sign?

We can, however, perhaps take it as a sign along with the occurrence of signs in the moon and signs in the stars... Note that the verse in Luke says "there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars."

There have been a number of notable sky events over the last decade, such as the Revelation 12 sign. Also note that there was another total solar eclipse over the United States 33 days before the Revelation 12 sign. A solar eclipse happening so close to this other event seems notable. I mentioned that a total solar eclipse recurring at any given location happens only every 360-410 years on average so two happening over the United States over the last 6-7 years is also more on the unusual side. A lot of people dismissed the Revelation 12 sign after nothing happened, but we must understand that it is a sign. Signs point to something. When you are driving down the road and you see a sign that says "bridge out ahead" that means that it is coming. It does not mean that the millisecond you pass by the signpost you will go over the edge of the bridge and plummet to your death. But it is very near. This is the same mentality people should have regarding the signs in the sun, moon and stars. If the eclipse next month is a sign it should not be taken as that something is going to happen that day, per se.

There have also been some lunar eclipses that many "watchmen" have hyped up recently, like the blood moon tetrad in 2015.

Tetrads are not particularly rare, although they come in interesting cycles of around 600 years. For about 300 years, there are no tetrads at all. This is followed by a period of roughly 300 years where a tetrad occurs every 15 years or so.

At the moment, we are about halfway through the second half of this cycle. The last tetrad took place in 2014-2015; the next will happen in 2032-2033. (source)

There are also numerous other lunar eclipses that happen that often times seem to coincide with interesting events. Hell, just last night there was a blood moon which occured during Purim. It also happened to coincide with the passing by of a comet called "The Devil Comet." (source)

Then there was the rare conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that happened on the winter solstice in 2020. While Jupiter and Saturn pass each other every 20 years, it is very uncommon for them to get this close to each other, it only occurs once every 400 years (only every 800 years to appear at night), and it can occur on any day of the year, so occurring on a solstice is very uncommon.

Ultimately, I think, one must simply ask, is it a coincidence that so many sky events seem to be happening in such a short time period? That is a question everyone must answer for themselves.