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Verse:“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” —Mark 13:24, 25
People usually prefer sunny days over rainy and cloudy ones.
Many pagans and mystics even venerate the sun as the king star and the source of light to the world. In contrast, God has darkened the sun in some crucial moments of human history. For instance, the ninth plague against the land of Egypt caused three days of absolute darkness (Exodus 10:21–23).
While Jesus was on the cross, “the sun was darkened” for three hours (Luke 23:44, 45). And when the fifth apocalyptic angel pours out his bowl of God’s wrath on the earth, the kingdom of the beast will become “full of darkness” (Revelation 16:10). Speaking of end-time signs that would precede His return, Jesus mentioned that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light” (Mark 13:24, 25; cf. Joel 2:31).
Adventist authors have associated this specific sign with the aptly named Dark Day of May 19, 1780, as confirmed by Ellen White in her book The Great Controversy.32 That phenomenon was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. Eyewitnesses reported that the day became completely dark, extending its darkness into the next morning. During the real nighttime, the moon appeared colored red. Some believe that the Dark Day was caused by a combination of smoke from forest fires, a thick fog, and cloud cover. If the Dark Day was caused by natural factors, how can it be a sign of the time of the end? Remember that at the opening of the sixth apocalyptic seal, Revelation says, “There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind” (Revelation 6:12, 13).
Fulfilling this prophecy, both the Great Lisbon Earthquake of November 1, 1755, and the meteor storm of November 13, 1833, had natural causes.
If so, why could not the Dark Day of 1780 have a similar cause? God uses both natural and supernatural events to wake us up from our careless security and spiritual lukewarmness. He has done it countless times in the past, and if needed, He can do it again today!