It’s already here. You don’t have to wait for it. In fact, it has been happening for some time, but most people don’t even realize it.
You don’t need special glasses to see it. You don’t even have to go outside. And while the darkness may be worse in some areas, you can find it just about anywhere.
Some will stay in an air-conditioned room and watch the solar eclipse on television or online, but they are already in an eclipse when they turn on the set or access the web. Schools are canceling classes to let students see an odd time of darkness, but they have sat in darkness in science classes for years. Preachers who try to predict the end say this event is a sign from God, but the real problem is that the light is being blocked by their sermons.

            People are so used to the light of the sun that darkness at midday seems strange, but they are so comfortable with the world that they forget it blocks the light of the Son.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). The Word of the Lord gives light in a world of darkness. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psa. 119:105). Unless we have this light we are stumbling in the dark.
Satan is the god of this world. He blocks the true light whenever he can. He blinds the minds of those who do not believe “lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (II Cor. 4:4). But millions who will watch a couple of minutes of darkness on August 21 won’t see the shadow hanging over them.
Yes, I plan to watch when the moon, the “lesser light” which rules the night, interferes with the sun, “the greater light” which rules the day (Gen. 1:16). This unusual event will cause any God-fearing person to marvel at the hand that made them. But I am far more concerned about the constant darkness the devil is causing in the hearts and lives of men. The dark world of internet pornography is destroying consciences and marriages. The eclipse of truth about the Creator in schools has led many young people to accept evolution and believe they can act like animals. The preaching of cheap grace and carefree religion has produced two or three generations who know little about the Bible or the church. Wouldn’t it be great if people would open their eyes to this moral and spiritual eclipse?
There is an upside to all this. There is a way out of this darkness. The gospel is like “a light that shines in a dark place” (II Pet. 1:19). It shined in the dark city of Corinth and “many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). If they could see the Truth in the midst of their gross immorality and pagan religion, then people today can get out from under the eclipse hanging over them.
-Kerry Duke, Vice-President of Academics & Academic Affairs