Moon as Blood
“Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light, which, when seen from the neighboring houses and other places at a distance appeared through a kind of Egyptian darkness which seemed almost impervious to the rays.” “If every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete.” After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had the appearance of blood.HF 191.5
May 19, 1780, stands in history as “The Dark Day.” Since the time of Moses no darkness of equal density, extent, and duration has ever been recorded. The description given by eyewitnesses is an echo of the words recorded by Joel 2500 years previous: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” Joel 2:31.HF 192.1
“When these things begin to come to pass,” Christ said, “then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” He pointed His followers to the budding trees of spring: “When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Luke 21:28, 30, 31.HF 192.2
But in the church love for Christ and faith in His coming had grown cold. The professed people of God were blinded to the Saviour's instructions concerning the signs of His appearing. The doctrine of the second advent had been neglected, until it was, to a great extent, ignored and forgotten, especially in America. An absorbing devotion to money-making, the rush for popularity and power, led men to put far in the future that solemn day when the present order of things should pass away.HF 192.3
The Saviour foretold the state of backsliding that would exist just prior to His second advent. For those living at this time, Christ's admonition is: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21:34, 36.HF 192.4
It was needful that men be roused to prepare for the solemn events connected with the close of probation. “The day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” Who shall stand when He appeareth who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil,” and cannot “look on iniquity”? “I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them;” “their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation.” Joel 2:11; Habakkuk 1:13; Isaiah 13:11; Zephaniah 1:18, 13.HF 192.5