Joel 2:31

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh.

The N.T. does not mention the light of the moon having failed during the wonders that attended the crucifixion; but Luke's assertion that "the sun's light failed" would necessarily also have involved the moon. Pagan testimony to the fact of both having occurred was cited in N.T. Apocrypha. Pontius Pilate wrote to the Emperor Tiberius that:

"And when he had been crucified, there was darkness over the whole earth ... so that the stars appeared... as I suppose your reverence is not ignorant of, because in all the world they lighted lamps from the sixth hour until evening. And the moon, being like blood, did not shine the whole night, and yet she happened to be in the full."[45]

Similar words are likewise used to describe the final judgment day in Revelation 6:12-17; and therefore, the events connected with the Passion of Christ are most likely symbols of even more terrifying wonders that shall mark the arrival of the Final Assize itself. That those events, foretold by Joel, and mentioned as having already occurred by the apostle Peter, were generally known throughout the Roman empire would seem to be indisputable. Tertullian, in his Apology directed to the "Rulers of the Roman Empire," in paragraph 21, has this:

"In the same hour, too, the light of the day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted of Christ, no doubt thought it was an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives."[46]

That Tertullian appealed to the rulers of the empire as having a record of the very things prophesied by Joel and fulfilled at the Passion of Jesus Christ would appear to be of the very greatest significance. Tertullian would not have dared to make such an appeal unless it had been generally known and recognized as the truth.

A very excellent statement of the full meaning of this passage was given thus by R. J. Knowling:

"Peter saw in the outpouring of the Spirit the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:28-32) and the dawn of the period preceding the return of Christ in glory."[47]

"The last days ..." A misunderstanding of this phrase clouds many of the interpretations. Ironside thought that, "all this can never be fulfilled till the people of Israel are restored to their land."[48] Others are querulous about how it could have been "the last days" so long ago; but, of course, Peter meant the dispensation of the last days; and besides that, in a very dramatic and genuine sense it was the "last days" for Israel. Their long occupancy of a favored role as God's chosen people ended with what was prophesied here. It was the end of their whole religious system, which, within forty years would be wiped off the face of the earth, never more to appear again. It was the "last days" of their secular state which soon would perish and never rise again until millenniums afterward; it was "the last days" of the High Priesthood of Aaron and the Levites; it was "the last days" of the daily sacrifices, of the temple, and of the state and nation of Israel.

The ultimate fulfillment in the great and final Day of the Lord cannot, therefore, be in any way contingent upon secular Israel getting possession of "their land." Their status as "God's chosen people" ended forever when they crucified Christ; and there are no promises whatever regarding Israel in the N.T., except as they may be realized by some of their number accepting Christ and thus establishing themselves as "seed of Abraham."

The proximity of the "great and terrible day of the Lord" was real enough for the generation to whom Peter applied these words. Christ had foretold the doom of Jerusalem, and from his understanding of Joel, Peter knew that the judgment against Jerusalem could not be long delayed, nor was it. It was executed by the armies of Vespasian and Titus who besieged and ravished the city of Jerusalem in August, A.D. 70. "That destruction, which fulfilled the prophecy, in turn became a prophetic type of the ultimate end of the world and of the judgment of God on the world of the ungodly."[49]

Thus, in the instance of "that great and notable day of the Lord," as in many of God's prophecies, there were two fulfillments, an immediate, and a remote fulfillment. The immediate fulfilment was the destruction of Jerusalem, and the remote fulfillment (yet to be) will appear at the end of the world, the Second Coming of Christ, and the final judgment.