Anne Graham Lotz Asks: Is the Eclipse a Warning from God to America?

Today is the 3rd total solar eclipse in 7 years over the United States. Like the supernatural display at Belshazzar's feast in Daniel 5, could this be God's “...handwriting on the wall"? If so, what is He saying? https://t.co/Y5C2muPX2L

— Anne Graham Lotz (@AGLotz) April 8, 2024

The April 8, 2024, solar eclipse was the third one in seven years in the U.S., following one in 2023 — an annular, meaning the moon is too far from Earth to completely block the sun — and one in 2017 (a total eclipse). Lotz believes their paths across the U.S. formed letters from the Hebrew alphabet, the same alphabet used to write the Old Testament. 

“This is the first time in over 1,000 years that any nation has seen something like this,” she wrote. “The paths of the three eclipses over our beloved nation form the Hebrew letters that represent the first and last letters of the alphabet … the beginning and the end … the Alpha and the Omega …which is also one of the names the Lord God gives for Himself (Revelation 1:8).

“Could God be giving us a sign from the sky?” she asked. “Is He giving us a heads-up warning that time is running out for our nation? In a significant way, God is the Alpha of the United States of America. He is our beginning. We were founded as ‘one nation under God.’ Is He now putting us on notice that He is also our Omega? Is He warning us that the end is near for America as we have known her?

“While I don’t know the answer to those questions, I do know everything means something,” Lotz noted. 

Jesus, she noted, “prophesied that right before the end there would be signs in the sky that include the sun being darkened (Matthew 24:29). The Old Testament prophet Joel declared the same thing (Joel 2:31). 

“Are we near the end as a nation?” Lotz asked. 

God’s warning in the Bible, she noted, “carries with it implied hope.”

“God would not warn us if there was not opportunity to change depending on our response to it,” Lotz wrote. “Like Nineveh of old, could God be giving us a warning of impending disaster … a warning followed by a window of time to turn away from our sin and return to Him? (Jonah 3:1-10).

“While the eclipse is a fascinating natural phenomenon that deserves our attention, I don’t want to miss the sign from Heaven that it may be also. If it is a warning, how will you and I wish we had responded to it when the end comes? I believe it’s time to get right with God as a nation. Now,” Lotz wrote. “The prophet Joel, quoted above, says it best as he implored his nation: … Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love … who knows but that He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing… (Joel 2:13-14). It’s also time to get right with God as individuals.”

Lotz encouraged individuals to pray this prayer: “Dear God, I want to get right with You. I acknowledge that I have done wrong things, and I’m sorry. I have turned away from You and gone my own way. I ask You to forgive me. I now turn to You. I claim the death of Your Son, Jesus, as Your sacrifice for my sin and wrongdoing. I receive the eternal life He rose from the grave to give me. I surrender the control of my life to Him. I invite Him to come into my heart and choose to follow Him from this day forward, all the way to Heaven. Amen.”

If “enough of us prayed that prayer, we could save our nation,” Lotz wrote. 

“But even if you are the only one who responds to God’s heavenly sign by getting right with Him, you may not prevent the end from coming, but regardless of what happens, you will be safe … forever!”

Photo Courtesy: ©Jongsun Lee/Unsplash

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.