The Second Coming of Jesus: Black Sun, Blood Moon

The day of the Blood Moon, I was studying the scripture passage of Saul’s conversion. I had no idea at all that there was to be a Blood Moon that day or any other day this year.  I was just puzzled about the Light that blinded Saul and the significance of “Straight” street. Straight street was where the disciples took Saul and where filled with the Holy Spirit, fish scales fell from Saul’s eyes as Ananias laid his hands on Saul.

To understand a bit more about the context of my puzzlement, I should explain. In my last semester as a “Bachelor” an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University, I wrote an anthropology paper on Paul defending the premise that society has forgotten Paul was a female asserting herself as a scholar, a learned father of the faith.

Last summer, I received a Doctorate for writing The Ecumenical Affair, a creative non-fiction account of a mountain top experience that sent me to university, inspired me to write the aforementioned undergraduate paper, and filled me with an abiding love for God and God’s Ecumenical Household.

In university, I learned how to write essays and how to write creatively so that a writer could choose to put all her eggs in one basket and tell a story that is packed full of wisdom and insight. Some of her characters may have fictitious names and others may not. I have since learned that creative non-fiction or memoirs can threaten “orthodox” perceptions about “what is truth.”

So, I approached the Conversion account of Saul in Acts chapter 9 as a work of creative non-fiction and looked carefully at the names of the characters. The account concludes with Ananias placing his hands on Saul after Ananias himself hears the Lord speak to him in a vision, as a prophet would. Now, as many people of faith acknowledge, prophets create visions using word pictures full of symbolic language such as the sun turned black and the moon turned blood-red.

Many churchgoers may not realize that the name Saul or Solly can be a last name. In fact, my step father’s name was Solly. However, the name Saul in the Old Testament is believed to be the first name of the first king of Israel, before King David.  Christians pronounce the name Saul as SOL. So, it is easy for me to imagine myself, as a learned scholar, as Saul  a BRIGHT LIGHT sallying forth, letting her light shine like Sol, the Roman God, like Sol the Germanic Goddess of the sun and like Apollo the Greek Sun God http://romanpagan.blogspot.ca/2015/12/prayer-to-sol-apollo.html

In the Conversion Account, Ms. Saul was very definitely asserting herself.  Scripture says her letters were threatening the disciples with murder. Thinking back to that paper I wrote as a bachelor, an undergraduate student, I recalled that I had argued that when Saul ended her marriage with her husband Steven, she killed herself as Steven. She broke the legal bond of marriage that made her one with her husband Steven.

Thinking about the stones thrown at Steven the first deacon[ess] of the Church? I asked myself, “Were they actual stones? Or were they living breathing stones connected to a living breathing wall? In I Peter 2:5, Peter the Apostle writes:

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests.

Thinking more deeply about Saul’s conversion and the blinding light that caused Saul to fall to the ground, I recalled a more recent memory. I remembered how I looked up at the face of the person I now love deeply and intimately. He was standing behind me, but I could not see him because of all the sunshine streaming all around him and me. He is black. Against all the light his face disappeared. It wasn’t until he spoke and laid his hand on my shoulder, did I realize he was there.

Knowing the names of the Roman and Greek Gods of the Sun is culturally important to the integrity of the story.  Knowing the Gospel Easter Story is also important. When Jesus stands in front of Pilate the man who asks “What is Truth?,” the narrative and dialogue reveal three people called Jesus: Jesus Barabbas, Jesus the Christ, and Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews, (Matthew 27: 11-16; John 19:19). At the conclusion of the Acts 9 account of Saul’s conversion, Saul proves to people that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:22). Later in Acts 18:18, Apollo also proves Jesus is the Christ.

Another important scripture verse to remember is Acts 4:11 quoted by Simon Bar Jonah also known as Peter.

This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

Beware. The Light can blind and confuse people into discounting Simon as merely a fisher of the great catch, one who is not the one people call Jesus of Nazareth equal in every way to Jesus the Christ, who appeared to the Teacher’s beloved Lady and to the tearful Mary in the garden of the tombs whom he also loved (John 11:5)

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Remember Simon carried the Cross of Jesus (Mark 15:21).

A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Many teachers insist there were many Simons and these Simons were all different. Call me foolish and irrational, but I simply do not believe that. The Simon carrying the Cross is a Cyrenaic. A Cyrenaic was a philosopher holding the worldly view that the pursuit of happiness is a noble pursuit. Remember Gospel writers also say Jesus renamed Simon, Peter, the Rock of the Church in Matthew 16:17 and then in verse 23 told Peter.

Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.

Thinking Peter to be Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified and who prophets say is an eternal high priest, sinless in God’s eyes, not man’s (Hebrew 4:14), I thought it prudent to look up the NAME ANANIAS because Ananias appears in scripture as the high priest (Acts 23:2).

To my surprise and wonderment, according to Hitchock’s Names Dictionary, the Jewish name ANANIAS means the Cloud of the Lord http://kingjamesbibledictionary.com/Dictionary/Ananias.

…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.  

They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? 

 

When Saul later known as Paul stood trial in Rome, Paul’s vision became even clearer to me. Paul was using prophetic language and trying to bring people “face to face” with the living God who had created and is creating people in God’s own image and “eternal” likeness as living stones, the very heart and soul of the earth.  Paul says,

I saw and heard the Lord speak to me in a vision from heaven.  He told me “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

The power of Satan is keeping believers and Paul in chains, because Satan’s power comes from silence, disbelief and spiritual blindness.

Saul called Ananias a white washed wall. (Acts 23:3) Now of course, to call the Lord, the high priest of Heaven a white washed wall sounds like a slap in the face. In some contexts, it is and in others it is a wakeup call.

Remember Jesus calls Simon, Peter and Satan. I think calling the Rock, Satan would be a slap in the face too. Such a negative label stinks and is as insulting as the one Simon the Pharisee and the Prophetic Teacher gave the Woman who anointed Jesus. Both men gave her the label “sinner” (Luke 7: 35-50; Mark 10:17).

So, what am I saying? Was Paul crazy? Was Paul merely retaliating? Or was Paul reminding Peter and those in ear shot that there are three persons proclaiming the Good News of the Resurrection in the name of Jesus who share the role of Christ and all three persons have sinned and fallen short according to the Law of Moses and all three are sanctified, restored and washed clean by their faith in each other and by the forgiveness and faith of their beloved communities.

After Saul’s conversion, Saul sallies forth with restored vision and proves Jesus is the Christ and proves Jesus alive (Acts 9:22). Now…look at other scriptures such as 1 Cor 1:11-13 and Acts 18:28. The Truth is there for people to see with their very own eyes. The Cloud hides Jesus and the Cloud can also make Jesus visible again.

WOW!  And the second coming is coming again in these times too. Especially now, when so many people are so sure Jesus is a single divine male who is androgynous.

Have those people forgotten the importance of the Great Commission Matthew 28: 19-20? Jesus commanded the disciples to go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the NAME[S] of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Have people let patriarchal language, monotheism, sexism, racism, political correctness and historical critical thinking cloud their teaching?

I believe Christianity has a gift to share with Humanity, God’s only born child. Other religions can help Christianity and share in the joy of worshipping God by acknowledging the Second Coming is the fulfillment of prophecy. The Second Coming proves Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy and assures those who believe that they too can come back to life again and again.

Will the Second Coming spell a nuclear disaster? It could. Doomsday prophets and people full of Scripture lessons touting Satan as the Snake and the source of all lies are giving Satan the power to deceive and frighten people with the apocalypse, a sudden destruction of a bigger rock that we know and love as the EARTH.

Take heart. Remember the Rock Jesus called Satan is a stumbling block and the chief cornerstone of the Church’s foundation.

Many churches today filled with priests and church goers may have forgotten or simply dismissed the man called Simon the Cyrene as merely a man who Mark says was “forced” or compelled (out of a deep abiding love) to embrace the Cross of Jesus.  As previously mentioned, many teachers of the faith, tell their students that there were nine Simons in the New Testament and only one Peter. https://www.peterdehaan.com/the-bible/9-guys-in-the-bible-named-simon/

This is a big clue.

A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

You see, the nine Simons are all one and the same person people have described differently. These nine ways of describing Simon, also known as Peter make the one sure foundation that the Church is built upon.

People need to clue in and help others clue in.  What the world needs now is LOVE. People need to know, God created and is creating humanity in God’s own image and eternal likeness male and female. No one person has seen God, for God is love. When we love one another and our neighbour as ourselves we make God visible. When we call people names such as hypocrite, racist, white supremist, slut, lech, homo or homophobe, perhaps we should stop ourselves and ask ourselves. What is going on? What are we doing? Are we loving one another as we see Jesus loving? If so, then perhaps we need to recalculate and rethink what we think we know about who Jesus is.

Jesus came to remind the world that God forgives those who make mistakes and say and do things that are hurtful. Scripture reveals Jesus calling the Pharisees white washed tombs and hypocrites. (Matthew 23:27).  Jesus also called the Rock, the very foundation of the Church Satan. What’s going on? Why is Jesus hurling such vicious epithets at people?  Where is the love for friends here?

Is Ananias a white washed wall after all?  Is Paul merely trying to get his attention, to remind him who he is and his divine calling?

Is this why the Roman Procurator says Saul is insane and why the Gospel of John claims nothing good could come from a town like Nazareth or the region of Galilee? Down through the centuries, worshippers and church doctrine claim Jesus is sinless and yet Scripture passages show Jesus as a hot head telling people off or stonewalling them.

However, the point is Jesus came to show people how to forgive one another and to show how hurtling insults at one another destroys the credibility of the Church and her unified foundation. Today more so than ever before, church goers can clue in to who who Jesus is and the importance of “forgiveness” without spending years in a convent or monastic cell studying Latin and Greek.

Church goers can easily understand literary themes. They can see how Jesus the Rock is not a sinless person full of loving thoughts, twenty-four seven. Nor is Jesus the Good Teacher or the innocent lamb Jesus who entertained the Good Teacher under the cover of darkness.

Patriarchal language is deceptive, even if one knows ancient Greek. So epic movies and other modern forms of media still have the power to deceive.  Jesus the Good Teacher visited Jesus the Woman in her home under the cover of Darkness (John 3:1-21; John 7: 50 -52; John 19:39). Yet, Jesus the Woman entertaining the Good Teacher in her home under the cover of darkness is not the innocent lamb or scarlet cloaked demon possessed penitent, tradition makes her out to be. She is aware of the darkness and the intimate setting. The Teacher did not force himself on her. She willingly entertained him under the cover of darkness as if to seduce him into the light. After a lengthy intimate theological chat, she says:

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

The Atonement theory makes Jesus and all humanity spotless and without sin, by divine forgiveness, or in the words of popular evangelism, washed in the blood of the lamb.

Many modern people believe the “blood of the lamb” atonement theory is outdated. However, they may be more about getting the wolf to admit he has wronged the lamb than they are about getting both the wolf and the lamb to live in peace and harmony as God intended.

In my view, when people truly forgive one another and hold no resentment toward the other for past insults or hurts, they free themselves from a prison full of recrimination. They let go of justifications such as I am the innocent lamb, the victim and you are the wolf, the perpetrator, you must pay for what you have done and you must repent. You must stop being an aggressive wolf and you must live out your days in a zoo or wildlife preserve where zoo keepers feed you kibble. This justification merely, gives the one who feels wronged the power to persecute, victimize and oppress the one who has done him or her wrong.

In the new heaven and new earth prophecy, the wolf and the lamb will lay down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox! (Isaiah 65:25) In other words, the lion and the ox will both eat humble pie. Both will have to take responsibility for their own part in the drama caused by their conflicting needs, wants and desires or those of their communities.

According to prophetic wisdom, the Day of the Blood Moon, signals the end of time. People have seen many blood moons and the end of time has never arrived. So why should this time be any different? Things have heated up in the world and people are extremely divided on issues. Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons makes the destruction of the earth more likely now than ever before.

It is very possible his old earth will renew with what some may call a nuclear explosion caused by the rapid release of energy from a nuclear reactor. It is also very likely many Christians and non-Christians will fear this day as the “terrible Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31) and step up their efforts to save the earth through conservation and ascetic efforts that see indulgence and luxury as sins or crimes against nature. Many liberal Christians may agree with them and many may not and many others may try to discredit them, in their zeal to honour more modern worldly thinking.

However, I believe it is more likely people of faith will rally together realizing Conservative and Liberal Christians and nations have much to learn from each other. Rallied together, forgetting old animosities, Liberal and Conservative Christians will welcome the Day of the Lord and live to tell their grandchildren and their neighbours they saw this old earth have a conversion experience like Saul’s when the sun turned black and Artemis, the sister of Apollo, the Greek goddess of the moon became cloaked in scarlet as Saul alive and well after many perilous journeys, carried the name of the Lord before the Gentiles, their kings and the people of Israel (Acts 9:15).