Credit: Alexxx Malev, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
A strange thing happened in Istanbul, that has shaken up many of the city’s 16 million inhabitants.
When we study the Biblical prophecies speaking of the apocalypse, we read that during this period of judgment, there will be times when the sun will be darkened.
Now in the past, I have wondered if this was referring to a solar eclipse, or perhaps the sun being darkened by volcanic ash.
But a strange thing happened in the skies over Istanbul, Turkey.
At mid-afternoon on April 18, 2023, the city was turned dark as night as the sun was completely blocked out by a massive dark cloud that, Newsweek reports.
If you watch the video in the tweet below, published by a meteorological forum in Turkey, you see that it wasn’t just a shadowy haze, it became completely dark, and lasted about five minutes.
It was even darker than you would experience during a solar eclipse.
In English, the tweet reads:
“A cloud 7 kilometers thick passed over İstanbul. In the meantime, the sun disappeared in 5 minutes, and the day turned into night. Some people commented on the apocalypse.”
The dark cloud was accompanied by heavy rainfall, and was described as a cumulonimbus or thundercloud, that appears dark as it fills up with water, blocking the sunlight.
Thunderclouds typically form when smaller clouds full of water are created in the lower parts of the atmosphere and are driven upwards by air currents.
These clouds then begin to accumulate and can create a massive cloud that can be upwards of 70,000 feet (ca. 21 km) high in extreme cases.
This build-up is often followed by heavy rain, thunder, and lightning as these formations have the same amount of energy inside them as “10 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs”, Newsweek states.
As noted in the tweet by the meteorological forum, some people were so struck by this sudden darkness they were comparing it to the apocalypse. With some even tweeting, ‘the end is near.’
As I noted earlier, the sun turning dark does have apocalyptic overtones.
In his vision of the end-time events recorded in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John mentioned it taking place at least twice and hints of the sun losing part of its light a third time.
But as we read these passages, the darkening of the sun is not mentioned as a solitary event but is connected with several other things taking place.
At the opening of the sixth seal, the Apostle John writes that “the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair” (Revelation 6:12).
In this instance, the darkening of the sun will occur in conjunction with a great earthquake, a blood moon, and numerous meteors slamming into the earth, which could also be describing a nuclear attack (Revelation 6:12-13).
John also described the sky as splitting in two (Revelation 6:14), and we have had reports of a similar happening when an asteroid exploded over Siberia in 1908.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but the darkening of the sun over Istanbul in early April, occurred only two months after the massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, killing an estimated 60,000 people.
But John wasn’t the only prophet to see the darkening of the sun in the end times.
The prophet Joel stated that “the sun will be turned into darkness” (Joel 2:31) in the coming Day of the Lord.
He says that it will occur in conjunction with wonders in the sky, volcanic eruptions, and blood moons (Joel 2:30-31). A bit later in his prophecy, he also connects the darkening of the sun with earthquakes (Joel 3:15-16).
Jesus also mentioned in happening in His description of the birth pangs that would pave the way for His second coming:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened.” (Matthew 24:29)
I am not suggesting that the darkening of the sun in Istanbul and the earthquake that devastated Turkey is connected to the opening of the sixth seal. We are still missing two other key elements, including several meteors hitting the earth and an explosion that looks like the sky has split in two.
But it may be a sign of what is to come.
OpentheWord.org 
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