Are the prophecies of Matthew chapter 24 literal or figurative?

Caller: My question is about Matthew 24:29 and Acts 2:20. They’re the same scripture and I just don’t understand it.

Pastor Doug: Alright, let’s go to one at a time. Matthew 24:29 and Acts 2:20, and they’re similar, you say. Immediately following the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened—now, in Acts, Peter is quoting Joel, so there’s even a third passage there and that’s Joel 2:10,11, so let’s go back to it. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

You can also find this in Revelation 6:12: There was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood and all the stars of heaven fell to the earth. So there are several references to—they call it the Day of the Lord. Now, there are two ways this prophecy is fulfilled. I believe in something called dual application. Sometimes one prophecy will be fulfilled two different ways and they don’t conflict. Through history there have been times where each of these events has happened in the same succession as listed here in Matthew 24. There was a day when the sun went dark in the northern hemisphere, without any explanation, in the middle of the day. It just went dark.

There weren’t any forest fires that they know about, and that was in the 1800s. They called it the Dark Day. Then later that night when the moon came up it was as red as blood. Many people thought the world was ending because of this passage. Then I think it was in 1833, Abraham Lincoln even talked about it, they had the great event where the stars fell. It was the greatest meteor shower in history.

So, even historically, you’ve seen the sun turn black, the moon turn to blood, the stars fall, and this happened after some things were happening in the governments of the world that were setting the stage for the final events. But—just before Jesus comes back, in very quick succession, the sun will go black, the moon will look like blood, the heavens will depart like a scroll, the stars will fall from heaven, just as it says in Revelation.

Caller: So this is literal. It’s actually going to happen?

Pastor Doug: Yes, this is going to be an astronomical calamity that’s going to happen. The great Dark Day was May 19, 1780. The stars falling from heaven was in 1833. You can find this if you go into history books and sometimes it’s just called the Dark Day. You might find it on the internet.

Caller: I’m going to look it up. So this is literal?

Pastor Doug: Those things happened in history that kind of show us we’re at the end of time, but they’ll happen quickly just before Jesus comes, as well .

Caller: So it’s going to happen again?

Pastor Doug: I believe so.