Consciousness

• Does the upcoming solar eclipse signal the second coming of Jesus?
• In all likelihood, no, but that hasn’t stopped people from speculating that it does.

Finding meaning in the skies

• One of the more famous examples from the ancient world of people finding meaning in the skies occurred in 44 B.C.E., when a comet appeared in the skies over Italy just four short months after the assassination of Julius Caesar.
• Caesar’s deification was made official by a vote of the Roman senate less than two years later.
• Members of this movement believed that there was a spacecraft hidden in the tail of the Hale-Bopp Comet, which appeared in 1997.
• In March 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate movement committed ritualized, mass suicide through a lethal combination of phenobarbital, vodka and asphyxiation.

Chasing shadows

It can be difficult to pinpoint exactly where such interpretations of celestial events originate. In the case of the upcoming eclipse, one of the images that has fueled predictions of Jesus’ second coming simply notes southern Illinois as the location where the upcoming eclipse will overlap the path of the last North American solar eclipse in 2017.

• Second, on charting the paths of these eclipses on a map, they appear to form a cross.
• Some Christians have taken this as evidence that the upcoming eclipse is an indication that Jesus’ return is imminent.
• They seem rare because they affect only the narrow strip of land that falls in the shadow of the Moon.

• But this isn’t logical in terms of the larger argument that some are making.
• These eclipses – on August 21, 2017, and April 8, 2024 – are separated not by seven years but by six and a half years, or 2,422 days to be exact.

Seek and you will find

• But this way of thinking – of seeking to find significance in various random events like eclipses – persists among some Christians.
• Patterns emerge when and where they are sought, and much depends on the aims of the people doing the seeking.
• But it is interesting to note is that there is little agreement among these authors when it comes to timing.

Eric Vanden Eykel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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