Can’t a solar eclipse just be a solar eclipse?

With echoes of “You’re so vain; you probably think the Bible’s about you,” today’s conservative American conspiracy theorists are raising money for Christian broadcasters by claiming the upcoming solar eclipse is a prophetic word from God revealed in the stars and in the Scriptures about the return of Jesus and the Confederacy.

The Great North American Eclipse will darken the skies from Sinaloa, Mexico, to Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, April 8.

“The biblical implications are massive,” claims an InfoWars video posted last week by Alex Jones, the alt-right conspiracy theorist who was ordered to pay $1.487 billion in damages in a defamation lawsuit over spreading conspiracies related to the Sandy Hook school shooting.

The InfoWars video points to Genesis 1:14 and claims: “God declared the sun and the moon were for signs. The only signs they can give is eclipses. And the nice thing about eclipses, no false prophet can manipulate it.”

Some of the conspiracies about April 8 are being spread by the science deniers of the flat earth movement. According to Jeffery Blevins at the University of Cincinnati: “They’re not just primed to believe the earth is flat, they’re primed to believe you can’t trust science, academics, the media or government. And it might also lead you to see other extremist views as plausible.”

Even though many conservatives reject the idea of a flat earth, they share a lack of trust in science, academics, the media and government. And as we saw during the January 6 insurrection attempt and in recent calls for violent retribution, the extremist views of authoritarian Christians are becoming more concerning for many Americans.

So imagine what might happen if these extremists who are obsessed with spiritual warfare apocalypticism began interpreting a solar eclipse as a sign in the heavens to sacralize their demonization of immigrants in a promotion of Civil War.

Signs in the stars

Lance Wallnau, one of the New Apostolic Reformation preachers who helped fuel the January 6 insurrection, shared a video last week from Texas pastor Troy Brewer.

Brewer says the constellations Scorpio, Orion and Cassiopeia point to Jesus by being pictures of death, light and being turned upright. “The reason why the same stories are in the Bible that are also in the heavens is because the author is the same,” he explains. “Jesus Christ is the author of the heavens the same as he is the author of the word of God.”

In what Brewer assumes to be an airtight case, he concludes, “So he put up all these prophetic signs in the heavens to actually be the voice of God.”

Eclipses as signs during times of war

Unlike the science deniers of the flat earth movement, Jones and Brewer appear to accept how scientists say eclipses work. “The sun is 400 times further from the earth than the moon. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon,” the InfoWars video explains.

But then they sensationalize the science. “And because of that, we can have an eclipse that God created as signs, which is why we come to the (Hebrew) letter ‘tav,’ which means a sign or a mark. And its numerical value is 400.”

“As one would expect from Christian nationalists, they center the cosmic story on the United States.”

And as one would expect from Christian nationalists, they center the cosmic story on the United States.

“Why would we call it the Great American Eclipse?” Brewer asks. “Because it was the first time since 1776 that an eclipse had only touched America.” Then he adds, “Can anybody think of what happened in 1776? Oh, I know. It was the birth of our nation. So this was definitely an American word. And it was a word about the nation of America.”

According to the video by InfoWars: “Since we’ve become a nation in 1776, there’s only been eight total solar eclipses that have completely crossed the United States. Two of them occurred during the Revolutionary War. Three of them occurred during the Civil War. Two of them occurred during the Vietnam War. Of those eight, only one, which was the one seven years ago, it only crossed the United States and no other country.”

Of course, the eclipse of this April 8 also will touch Mexico and Canada.

Also, despite the fact three of those eclipses happened outside the time those wars were being fought, the InfoWars video fails to consider that the United States has been at war around 94% of its existence. So virtually any event one might consider as a sign likely has happened during a time of war.

‘All the Bible is in the stars’

According to Brewer, God uses specific celestial bodies to speak to different listeners.

“Any time God Almighty speaks a word through the sun, he’s talking to the nations,” he theorizes. “Any time that the Lord would speak a word through the moon, he is speaking to his covenant people prophetically. That would either be Israel or it would be the bride of Christ. Or any time that God Almighty is speaking through the stars, he is prophetically speaking to his children of inheritance.”

Since the eclipse involves both the sun and the moon, and because the sun is a star, it would seem Brewer believes God is revealing a message about Israel and conservative evangelicals inheriting the nations. And rather than seeing red flags about where this is going, Brewer considers it an opportunity to explore.

“Let’s go find out the story in the stars,” he proclaims. “Because all the Bible is in the stars.

A call of unity or civil war

Brewer claims the solar eclipse of 1776 “was a one hour and 33 minute event from the second the shadow touched the United States to the second it left. … What is that? Psalm 133. ‘Oh, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.’ It’s a call of unity for the body of Christ, whereas I want to tell you the warning of the second one is a call of civil war. And then you have brother against brother in the second one.”

The good and pleasant brotherly unity Brewer speaks about was about the founding of the United States. Of course, he fails to mention how the United States treated Native Americans, Black people and women during this time of alleged unity.

‘That’s craziness!’

Nobody is more breathless about the conspiracy theory than the proponents themselves. Regarding the eclipse from 2017, Brewer explains, “It starts off in Oregon. And by the way, the Oregon state flag actually has a sun on it, which is crazy to me. … The Illinois state flag also has a sun on it. And why that’s a big deal is because that’s where the intersection of the 2024 and the 2017 actually meet. And then it exits at South Carolina and guess what the flag also actually has a sun on it. So like, OK. That’s craziness!”

Of course, the South Carolina flag actually has a crescent moon on it rather than a sun.

He also says the 2017 eclipse passed over seven cities called Salem, which he argues means peace, but only by being totally reconciled with God.

Brewer believes there also was a sign from where the 2017 eclipse exited the United States: “It exits a place that is where the Civil War started, Fort Sumpter. The last place that the shadow actually touched was a place called Fort Sumpter. And that’s where the Civil War began.”

Fuzzy math

After Brewer catches his breath, he then engages in what politicians call “fuzzy math.”

“So now I want to fast forward six years, six months and six days later,” he says. “We have another eclipse in the United States that puts an X across the United States.”

But six years, six months and six days after the eclipse of August 21, 2017, would be Feb. 27, 2024, not April 8.

Lest Brewer get caught up in being accurate, he gets shocked again. “Where it crosses is a place that’s called Little Egypt. … And this one’s a little bit different. Why’s that? Because it goes over seven cities in the United States that have the same name. What is it? It is the name Nineveh. Are you kidding me?”

Of course, Little Egypt is not actually the name of Southern Illinois. A Baptist pastor named John Badgley in 1799 called the area the “Land of Goshen” because the local Indian mounds reminded him of the Egyptian pyramids. Then the Chicago Tribune began using the term “Little Egypt” in 1920 because a character in a comic strip created by someone who lived in Southern Illinois had a girlfriend named Little Egypt.

April 8 and Exodus 4:8

“This is real. This in fact is so legit,” Brewer boasts. And if you aren’t convinced yet, he says there is way more to the revelation.

“One of those parts is this crazy thing that it actually happens on April 8. You know what April 8 is. It’s 4/8. Like, OK, 4/8? That’s what it is? Why’s that a big deal? Because Exodus 4:8 is where God Almighty told Moses, ‘If they will not hear you and believe you for the first sign, they will for the second.’ That’s extraordinary to me. … That is a 4:8 Scripture friends, and this actually happens on 4/8.”

A woman in the InfoWars video makes this connection as well. “Exodus 4 and 8. Remember April 8. If they do not believe the first sign, which was on August 21, 2017, they will believe the second sign.”

Of course, even if God told the biblical authors exactly what to write, God didn’t write the verse numbers. Those were added in 1551 by Robert Stephanus and were not incorporated in an English translation until the 1560 Geneva Version. Nearly every book in the Bible has a chapter and verse labeled 4:8.

“But even if we ignore those facts, Exodus 4:8 has nothing to do with eclipses or the United States.”

But even if we ignore those facts, Exodus 4:8 has nothing to do with eclipses or the United States. The first sign of Exodus 4 was Moses turning his staff into a snake. Then the second sign was Moses pulling his hand out of his cloak once being diseased and a second time being healed.

And even if we accepted Brewer’s interpretation of the text being about solar eclipses in the United States in 2017 and 2024, the text says they might believe the second sign rather than they will believe. And if they didn’t, then Moses was to take some water from the Nile and pour it out as blood in further signs.

Turn or burn

So what is God supposedly saying in all this?

Brewer declares: “It’s a word to the United States. … God is not playing. And he is saying exactly what Jesus said before he went to the Cross. And he’s also saying exactly what Jonah said. This is the sign of Jonah, the prophet. And there are seven Ninevehs in the United States after seven Salems. And it’s this. Turn or burn.”

His message resonates quite well with Donald Trump’s post about his political enemies on Christmas Day, “May they rot in hell! … Again, merry Christmas!” It represents the choice every Christian Trump supporter must eventually make. Will they exchange their humanity for ignorance or for violent delights?

The rapture starts in Texas

To authoritarian Christian conspiracy theorists, however, those of us who aren’t buying these theories are the ones with the choice to make. And we had better make it in time before the return of Jesus.

“Jesus is coming soon,” Brewer warns. “And the heavens are actually declaring this. This is real. You can’t ignore it. You can’t deny it. This event is going to take place. And all of us are going to be able to see it.”

How exactly are the heavens declaring the rapture in an undeniable way? The April 8 eclipse is going to enter the United States at a city called Eagle Pass, Texas. And according to Matthew 24:28, “Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather.”

In January 2024, Eagle Pass was taken over by the Texas National Guard in order to keep migrants from entering the United States. They put up barriers and razor wire to keep immigrants from passing. And they are currently in a standoff with the U.S. Border Patrol over who should control the area.

It’s true Matthew 24 talks about the sun being darkened and the moon not giving its light. But it also says, “The stars will fall from heaven.” So if Brewer is going to take eagles gathering in Matthew 24 as a revelation of the 2024 eclipse starting in Eagle Pass, Texas, then he would have to believe stars are actually going to fall to the earth from outer space, but that somehow people will survive to see the rapture.

“Jesus Christ is coming to set people free,” he says. “And I’m telling you he is coming back for the church. And where will we meet him in the air? Jesus just refers to it as ‘where the eagles gather.’ Wow! Where does this thing begin? It begins at Eagle Pass.”

Of course, it will go through the Pacific Ocean and Mexico prior to that. But that’s apparently beside the point.

It’s really about immigration

What is Jesus coming to set evangelicals free from? Sin? Death?

According to Brewer, Jesus is coming to set evangelicals free from the Democrats not allowing Republicans to do what they want with immigrants at the southern border.

He explains: “Here in the great free state of Texas, we actually put up and we said, ‘Hey, all these people are breaking in right here.’ And we said, ‘No.’ Then our federal government came in and said our state does not have the right to protect itself. And there was a big controversy over it. And then people started talking about the threat of civil war, that there is this threat about states’ rights and federal rights, and that we need to understand how all that’s supposed to work. And sadly, a lot of us are just blissfully ignorant.”

The new civil war and the return of the Confederacy

Eagle Pass, Texas — where the rapture is supposed to start — is home to Shelby Park. It was named after Confederate General Joseph Shelby who ironically escaped to Mexico through Eagle Pass in 1865.

According to Brewer: “Shelby is the last Confederate soldier that was still a part of the Confederacy here in the United States. And he buried the last Confederate flag in Shelby Park.”

Considering how the 2017 eclipse ended in South Carolina and the 2024 eclipse begins at Eagle Pass, it all feels like poetry to Brewer: “The first eclipse ended at the beginning of the Civil War. The second eclipse begins at the ending of the Civil War. Now is that coincidence? No. No, my friends. The first shall be last and the last shall also be first.”

Brewer concludes by encouraging people who don’t feel like they identify with any local churches in their area to find their tribe with the Daystar Television Network and partner financially with them.

Biden and Homeland Security want to hijack the eclipse

Unfortunately, for the Republican evangelicals, President Joe Biden and Homeland Security supposedly have partnered with the New World Order to hijack Jesus’ rapture plans for the eclipse.

The InfoWars video warns, “Confronted by a New World Order and a U.S. president that is carrying out their silent war, we are living in a time of reckoning.”

The narrator asks, “Why has Homeland Security been preparing to hijack this biblical event?”

Then a witness says: “The sheriff called me yesterday. And after he got done telling me everything inside this meeting that was happening, I pretty much was nerve rattled after what I heard. Who was this meeting with? It was with Homeland Security.”

A sheriff appears, warning: “People want to do us harm, use an event like this where a lot of people are gathered to do some type of terror event.”

Then the witness adds, “He said during the solar eclipse while people are all out there looking, they’re planning, the intel that they’ve got, is a possible biological attack on people while the solar eclipse is freaking happening.”

The video concludes: “Like Jonah, despite our reluctance, we all must be prepared for repentance, even the repentance of our oppressors. We must also be prepared to respond to whatever the New World Order has up its sleeve. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. And let us put on the armor of light.”

Why are conservative evangelicals so insecure?

Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent, studies conspiracy theories. She explains, “Anyone can fall into conspiracy theories if they have psychological needs that are not being met at any particular time.”

In a piece for USA Today, Elizabeth Weise writes that Douglas cites three desires that drive conspiracy theorists. “The first is a desire to know the truth and have clarity and certainty. The second is the need to feel safe and to have some control over things happening around us. The third is the social need to maintain self-esteem and feel positive about the groups to which we belong.”

“What if we don’t need conspiracy theories to understand the eclipse?”

People often ask why conservative evangelicals are so susceptible to conspiracy theories. But perhaps the reason lies in an even deeper question: Why are conservative evangelicals so insecure?

Could it have anything to do with the fact that their theology is based on the assumption that relationships depend on perfection?

Conservative white evangelicals believe they have no basis for a relationship with God or with one another unless they have the clarity and certainty that comes from a perfectly preserved and inerrant Bible.

Conservative white evangelicals believe their safety and security comes from God ordering the entire cosmos through relationships of authority and submission hierarchies of control over everything.

Conservative white evangelicals believe self-esteem and feeling positive about ourselves is a threat to God’s glory hierarchy and that we are worthy only of an infinitely worse apocalypse than anything President Biden and the New World Order could come up with during an eclipse.

In each of the three reasons Weise gives for why people fall for conspiracy theories, conservative white evangelical theology creates dynamics of lack.

What if we don’t need conspiracy theories to understand the eclipse? What if the Scriptures and the stars aren’t actually about the United States and the Confederacy? What if we don’t have to operate alone?

Why can’t we just put on our eclipse glasses and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime event with our family and friends?

 

Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.