A total solar eclipse will be over America in a few days on April 8th, which is being called the Nineveh eclipse.
I want to 1) offer some words for readers to help them divide facts from fiction and 2) offer my opinion on what the eclipse means and does not mean.
Something We All Should Agree on About the Nineveh Eclipse
Not to offend, but some of the things I’ve heard from Christians about the eclipse are not true.
I want to start with something that we all should agree on as Christians:
Over-exaggeration, “bending” the facts, and outright lies about anything are sins, whether intentional or not.
When we do this, we miss the mark that God has set up for our lives.
Even if I post something online that later turns out to be a lie, the blame is really on me for not doing my due diligence in researching the matter before stirring the pot.
Not everything online is true, even if it’s a “Christian” subject that comes from “Christian” resources.
So, as a noble Christian, please do not post or state things that sound convincing without researching them first.
The Eclipse is NOT Going to be Directly Over Seven Cities Named “Nineveh”
One claim about the eclipse is that it will “pass through” seven cities named “Nineveh” in America. The following picture is being shared:
As you can see, the picture implies that the direct path, or the Path of Totality (the sun will be 100% blocked out), will be directly over these Ninevehs.
They then speculate that because the eclipse will be over many Ninevehs, God is pushing for repentance and a coming judgment on America.
The story of Jonah and Nineveh does include a heavy emphasis on repentance, so that speculation seems to make sense, right?
But let’s take a closer look at the picture.
In the picture, I can only see six cities of Nineveh, one of which isn’t in America. But people are claiming that it will be in seven cities in America and one in Nova Scotia:
Nineveh, Texas
Nineveh, Missouri
Nineveh, Indiana
Nineveh, Ohio
Nineveh, Pennsylvania
Nineveh, Virginia
Nineveh, New York
Nineveh, Nova Scotia
Hmmmmm.
The next thing I noticed was that the eclipse's path appears to be manipulated for two reasons.
One, if you look closely, four of those six Nineveh cities are on the very edge of the eclipse path.
To me, it just seems weird that those cities happen to be on the edge of the path. It’s almost as if someone widened or bent the path on this map just enough to fit those cities in.
Second, the map doesn’t match up with NASA’s trajectory of the eclipse. Here is what NASA says about the path:
Here are the images compared:
Notice three things:
There is a slight bend in the false image on the right compared to NASA’s eclipse path.
NASA’s path goes over Lake Eerie and Lake Ontario (by Toronto) but completely misses them in the path on the right. Could the path on the right be manipulated to include Nineveh, PA, and Nineveh, NY?
NASA’s path seems to miss Nova Scotia, but the path on the right is over it. Could this be to include Nineveh, Nova Scotia?
So, the Ninevehs are really like this when it comes to the Path of Totality:
The author of the above picture does well in pointing out that at least one person pushing this Nineveh stuff is named “@BryceJustChillen,” and puts “#viralvideo” and “#blowthisupforme” after his fear-mongering video.
Are we really going to get our theology from a person named ByrceJustChillen, whose goal for the video could be more about “going viral” rather than providing sound Biblical doctrine?
Researching the American Ninevehs is relatively easy. You can go to eclipse2024.org, enter your city (if it’s in a state that the Path of Totality touches), and find out if the sun will be entirely or partially blocked out in your city.
My city will have 94.8% of the sun blocked out at 12:17 PM CST.
Only two Ninevehs in America are in the Path of Totality.
There is No Evidence That an Eclipse Occurred “While” Jonah Preached to Nineveh
Some believers also point to the fact that there was an eclipse during Jonah's life and at the time Biblical Nineveh existed.
They speculate that an eclipse happened “while” Jonah was preaching, which would explain why Nineveh repented so quickly.
They saw the eclipse sign and knew Johan was preaching the truth (so they say).
Yes, history does say there was an eclipse over Nineveh during the reign of Jeroboam II, and Jonah did live and prophesy during this king’s reign.
But this king reigned from about 786 BC to 746 BC, and the eclipse happened around 763 BC.
I have found no evidence indicating Jonah preached to Nineveh at or around 763 BC.
He could have preached in 784 BC, resulting in Nineveh’s repentance, and then the eclipse would have come 21 years later in 763 BC. We just don’t know.
There is no reason to simply assume that this eclipse happened at the exact time of Jonah’s preaching and that this eclipse is “really” what caused Nineveh to repent.
Biblical Fact - The Sign of Jonah Was NOT an Eclipse
Since we just finished talking about Jonah, let me address this issue.
Some believers are also saying that the eclipse in Jonah’s time was the “sign of Jonah” that Christ talked about:
Matthew 16:4
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
Again, some are assuming that the eclipse that happened during Jonah’s time was the thing that really caused Nineveh to repent.
Then, they tie that assumption to the above scripture to say that the eclipse was the “sign of Jonah.”
Last, they state that since the eclipse in Jonah’s time was the “sign of Jonah” to warn them of judgment and call them to repent…
And since this upcoming eclipse has so many “Jonah-characteristics” (which it doesn’t)...
Then, this upcoming solar eclipse is also a sign of Jonah warning us of coming judgment in America, calling us to repent, and possibly a sign of the end times.
However, the Bible clearly tells us what the “sign of Jonah” is, as Christ addressed this same issue earlier in Matthew:
Matthew 12:38-40
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The sign of Jonah that would be given to that generation was that Christ would be in the tomb for three days and then resurrect…
… just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and came out.
It is not that difficult. Everything points to Jesus, not wild conspiracy theories or speculations.
Let’s stop assuming or placing our ideas on scriptures and let the Bible interpret the Bible.
Biblical Fact - Weird Things Happening in the Sky Are Not Always Prophetic Signs or God’s Attempts to “Communicate” With Us
Whenever an eclipse or something else weird in the sky happens, many Christians point to this scripture first:
Genesis 1:14
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,
They’ll say, “You see? God uses the stars and celestial bodies as prophetic signs to tell us that something is about to happen.”
But we should not assume that the “signs” in Gen. 1:14 always and automatically equal our idea of “prophetic signs.”
Our English word “sign” has many usages. Stop signs, symbolic signs, marks, omens, sign language, and so on.
This is also true of the Hebrew word for “sign” → אוֹת (oth).
It could mean “miracles,” “marks,” “ensigns,” but most of the time, it just means “signs.”
But the question becomes, “What kind of signs are we talking about?”
The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon tells us that the “signs” in Genesis 1:14 are merely “signs, tokens of changes of weather & times.”
You see, many people use Genesis 1:14 to state that weird things happening in the sky are “prophetic signs” that something is about to happen.
But Genesis 1:14 merely says that changes in the alignments of the stars and celestial bodies would be to mark specific seasons and times of the year.
And they do, right? Our seasons change because the heavenly bodies change. To simplify it, we know it’s nighttime when the sun goes down and the moon goes up.
Let me make this clear: I’m not saying that God cannot, has not, or will not ever communicate with us through a shift in the celestial bodies.
All I’m saying is that we probably should not use Genesis 1:14 to prove that if we want to be Biblical about things.
Closing Remarks
Eclipses are a common thing. I think about 1-2 happen every year.
And when they do happen, it is extremely easy to find some current event to tie to it or make some type of speculation about it.
All you have to do is say, “It’s an election year,” or “Let me get online and see what crazy things are happening in the world today so I can make a connection to the eclipse.”
Because of this, there will always be judgment or doomsday cries when eclipses occur.
This is exactly what happened when the eclipse and shifting of the celestial bodies happened in 2017.
Believers were tying the alignment to Revelation 12 and the woman clothed with the sun, saying that World War 3 was going to break out any day now.
And we’re doing it again with the sign-of-Jonah scriptures:
Not only are eclipses common, but we know exactly when they’re going to happen.
Are we really going to say that every time they occur, this is a sign that God is speaking to us or that He’s about to do something crazy?
There’s a true story of Christopher Columbus predicting a total lunar eclipse in 1504.
He was stranded in Jamaica and was being denied provisions by the indigenous people.
So, he pulled out an almanac and saw that an eclipse was scheduled to happen soon.
He told the people to meet him later that day and that God would give them a clear sign that he was angry with them because of how they were treating Columbus.
The sign would be that God would make the moon appear “inflamed with wrath,” which we know was a lunar eclipse.
Sure enough, the eclipse happened, as Columbus said, and the people were convinced.
Essentially, this is what some Christians do today. They tie every eclipse to God to sound convincing.
But perhaps it’s just another eclipse?
Here’s What I Think About the Upcoming Eclipse
The solar eclipse will not be a sign of impending judgment on America because God is not counting men’s sins against them.
God judged Israel and nations that oppressed them based on the Old Covenant, but He now operates from a grace-based, New Covenant heart, beckoning all people to come to Him.
The eclipse is not a sign of the end times because most of the language in the New Testament about the “signs in sun, moon, and stars” is figurative and refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
No one can guarantee that every eclipse is a “sign” or “message” from God. I’m convinced that many of them are not.
This eclipse will come and go, and in a couple of weeks, everyone will forget about it.
It won’t even matter if none of the predictions come true because the real focus was actually on the hype and frenzy of making them before the eclipse even happened.
The best thing all believers, including myself, can do now is make ourselves Biblically aware.
