The famed "blood moons Pastor", Mark Biltz, has spoken out on my theory concerning the Nineveh eclipses and the sign of Jonah in order to draw attention to an idea he discusses in his book God's Day Timer, concerning the 40-day period of repentance in the run-up to Yom Kippur. In a YouTube video which first appeared online on 29th November 2016, Biltz covers various subjects I had published on a blog post just three weeks previously (found here), concerning the Nineveh eclipses and a possible link to the upcoming solar eclipse of 21st August, 2017. Although he doesn't specifically mention my work during the course of his presentation, he cites some of the material covered in my article verbatim, and follows a long trail of logic which was already established by me just weeks earlier. So, although he fails to credit this material to me in his presentation, it is obviously based on my blog post. You can find the video below:
In April 2017, Biltz published an article in World Net Daily (WND) covering the link between the 2017 solar eclipse, the First World War eclipse and the Bur-Sagale Eclipse at the time of Jonah, which has since been updated to acknowledge my discovery of the importance of the Nineveh eclipses. Because of the huge audience of WND, this material concerning the Nineveh eclipses is now widely circulating online. (You can find Biltz's WND article here).
In my book Unveiling the Apocalypse: The Final Passover of the Church, the significance of the Nineveh eclipses is used as supporting evidence for my theory concerning the unbinding of Satan at the end of the Millennium described in Rev 20, which St. Augustine of Hippo believed would take place at the end of the Sabbath Millennium discussed by the Early Church Fathers. Using the biblical chronology established by St. Bede the Venerable, and later revised by James Ussher, we can determine that the end of the Sabbath Millennium took place to coincide with the millennial anniversary of the birth of Christ, during the Great Jubilee Year of the Incarnation in 2000, which was preceded by one of the most widely witnessed solar eclipses in human history on 11th August 1999 - the path of totality of which crossed the site of ancient Nineveh. I argue that this event is linked to the "Sign of Jonah" mentioned by Christ, which was made in the immediate context of the binding of Satan:
An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! (Mark 12:39-41)
In my book, I note that in addition to symbolising the three days of Christ's Passover, the three days of the "Sign of Jonah" represents the passing of three millennia, following the precept outlined by St. Peter:
But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. (2Pet 3:8)
This in turn is connected to the words of the Prophet Hosea:
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. (Hos 6:2)
I deliberately omitted any mention of the significance of the upcoming 2017 eclipse in my book, since I did not want to distract from the importance of the Nineveh eclipses in relation to the period of the unbinding of Satan, which was bookended by solar eclipses occurring over the site of ancient Nineveh in 1914 and 1999. This is coupled with the fact that I believe that for now at least, America will in fact be spared from the threat of any chastisement this year, just as the ancient Ninevites were also saved from the threat of God's judgment. It seems preordained that enough will be done to spare America from any possible chastisement, possibly through enough influential people like Pastor Biltz drawing enough attention to the significance of this eclipse for the American people to adorn "sackcloth and ashes", just as the ancient Ninevites did. In fact, Fr. Richard Heilman overseen a "Nineveh 90" program of fasting and repentance to spare any possible chastisement that this may be in store this year, which was conducted by thousands of Catholics.
If anything, I expect the significance of this year rather to involve the earth swallowing the flood which issues from the mouth of the Dragon in Rev 12, which symbolises the end of the period of Satan's unbinding, and is reflected in the story of the repentance of the Ninevites. It is the rescue of the Woman Adorned with the Sun which appears to be reflected in the remarkable celestial occurrence on 23rd September 2017 (covered by Patrick Archbold here). Following the line of logic first outlaid by St. Augustine, the end of the period of Satan's unbinding takes place during the proclamation of the Gospel to all peoples, which must take place before the arrival of the Antichrist and Second Coming of Christ.
In the presentation he makes on his YouTube channel and on the related WND article, Pastor Biltz goes into significant detail about how the ministry of the Prophet Jonah can be dated to coincide with the timing of the Bur-Sagale eclipse over ancient Nineveh, and how this ties into the First World War Eclipse, which also crossed Nineveh on the date of 21st August.
I first stumbled upon the significance of the Nineveh eclipses in 2013, when a commentator on my blog writing under the name "Federal Expression" mentioned the fact that the point of greatest eclipse of the total solar eclipse of July 1999 was centred on the site of Ocnele Mari, in Romania (you can find this post here). This piqued my interest, and I decided to trace the path of totality of this solar eclipse, which I found directly traversed the site of Mosul/Nineveh. I immediately connected this to the “sign of Jonah” mentioned by Christ.
In the first edition of my book, published in 2011, I had theorized that the solar eclipse of 1999 was part of the Signs in Heaven described at the opening of the sixth seal in Rev 6, which is comprised of a total solar eclipse (the sun turning to sackcloth), a lunar eclipse (the moon turning to blood), a significant meteor shower and an earthquake. I had noted that each of these events had transpired at the turn of the millennium, with the solar eclipse of 1999 (which was one of the most widely witnessed in human history), the Leonid Meteor Storm of November 1999 (which is the most prolific of all meteor showers, and recurs every 33 years), the first blood moon of the new millennium in January 2000, and the Izmit earthquake of 1999, which occurred in Turkey just days after the path of totality had crossed nearby. I later discovered the fact that Izmit was the site of ancient Nicomedia, from where the Emperor Diocletian promulgated his edict against Christians. Following an otherwise bizarre statement of the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who linked the Signs in Heaven described in the Apocalypse to the attacks on the World Trade Center, I also later proposed that he had meant the appearance of “blood, fire and columns of smoke” which is said to accompany the appearance of these signs in Joel 2:30-31:
I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
My discovery that the path of totality of the 1999 solar eclipse had crossed the site of ancient Nineveh was thus greatly important to me, since this event already figured prominently in my research. The fact that Christ’s mention of the appearance of the “Sign of Jonah” being given to a wicked generation was made in the immediate context of the binding and losing of Satan was of major significance to my research, since I had already proposed that period of the unbinding of Satan described in Rev 20 was one and the same as Pope Leo XIII’s prophecy of the period of Satan’s greater power - which is thought by Catholics to have involved a 100-year period which started at the beginning of the 20th century. Many Catholics associate the beginning of this 100-year period of Satan’s greater power with the apparitions at Fatima in 1917, and I had personally advanced the theory that the opening of the abyss at the end of the “thousand years” was marked by the appearance of the apocalyptic locusts of Rev 9 (the invention of military airplanes at the start of WWI), and a “star falling to earth”, which I connected to the Tunguska event of 1908. So the fact that the First World War Eclipse of 1914 also directly crossed the site of ancient Nineveh at the beginning of the period of Satan’s greater power is one of the most important discoveries I present in my book.
In the comments section of the blog post where I made the Nineveh link to the 1999 solar eclipse, the commentator "Federal Expression" also drew my attention to the existence of the inscription found at Kizkapan Cave, which shows two figures laying down their weapons during the occurrence of a total solar eclipse. Just earlier in that same day, I had been researching about the eclipse of Thales of Miletus (which this inscription is believed to represent), which occurred over the site of an ongoing battle between the warring Medians and Lydians, leading to a truce being declared. I thought that this event contained some parallels to the biblical story of the repentance of the Ninevites, stating at the time: “The Medians and the Lydians laying down arms could symbolise the repentance of Nineveh”. I thought that if the occurrence of a total solar eclipse near the site of ancient Nineveh could be dated to the ministry of Jonah, this would account for exactly why the Ninevites were so receptive to the preaching of Jonah upon his arrival. So I was completely astonished when I discovered that one of the most famous eclipses in history – the Bur-Sagale Eclipse, could be accurately dated to the ministry of Jonah, and that this had passed over the site of ancient Nineveh. The fact that the inscription found in Kizkapan Cave contains stylised imagery which was associated with the half-man half-fish demigod Oannes/Adapa is further proof that this stelae is a record of the repentance of the Ninevites during the occurrence of the Bur-Sagale Eclipse, as the people of Nineveh would have made a connection between the story of Jonah and the whale with that of Oannes (which is also etymologically similar to the name of the prophet himself), and thus commemorated this eclipse in an inscription which bears motifs associated with this particular deity.
The fact that the solar eclipse of 2017 also takes place on August 21st thus stood out for me, as this is the date when the Knock apparitions took place, which I had previously argued symbolised the opening of the seven seals by the Lamb of Revelation (see here). So it was from there that I drew the parallel to the eclipses at Nineveh in relation to the timing of the 2017 eclipse that was picked up by Pastor Mark Biltz. Biltz makes an interesting contribution of his own on this subject, concerning the significance of the forty day period preceding Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) during the month of Elul, which according to Jewish tradition, is related to the forty-day period between when the Israelites committed idolatry with the Golden Calf to God's forgiveness being granted when Moses was once again given the tablets of the Decalogue. So this ties in perfectly with the timing of this solar eclipse 40 days before the Feast of Yom Kippur and the words of the Prophet Jonah: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”.
As I have already noted, the feast of Yom Kippur also happens to be one of the central features of the Third Secret of Fatima, which describes two angels gathering up the blood of the martyrs and sprinkling it on the souls of those making their way to heaven. This imagery explicitly evokes the sprinkling of the sacrificial blood on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant by the Jewish High Priest on the Feast of Yom Kippur, as is detailed in the Book of Leviticus. Not only does the feast of Yom Kippur occur exactly 40 days after the “sign of Jonah” eclipse on 21st August, 2017, but it also occurs on the Feast of St. Michael – the angel with the flaming sword seen in the Third Secret of Fatima. The story of the repentance of the Ninevites therefore appears to be in some way connected to the vision of the Third Secret, when the hand of the angel with the flaming sword is stayed by Our Lady to allow for a period of penance:
After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'.
