Dr. Daniel Kennefick, a physics professor at the University of Arkansas, calls a total solar eclipse “pretty dramatic.”
It’s a very unique event because it requires the moon to be the same apparent size, in our skies, as the sun.
Eight major U.S. cities will be in the path of the total eclipse.
Dr. Scott Stripling from Associates for Biblical Research notes, “The ancient people saw celestial phenomena as omens.”
Using a dating system that intersects NASA data with the ancient Assyrian calendar, Associates for Biblical Research says it shows an eclipse passed over Nineveh in the mid-8th century B.C. That event was preceded and followed by a series of natural disasters.
Stripling adds, “What does the Bible show us? A renegade prophet named Jonah shows up and he’s preaching repentance at a time that the people of Nineveh would be open to his message, because of the omen.”
Stripling says this same dating method shows a celestial spectacle happening in 33 A.D. on April the 3rd, approximately the same time the Gospels record the earth turning dark on the day of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.
More than 31 million people will be in the path of totality when the eclipse passes through North America.
Arkansas is expecting about a million eclipse tourists to show up to view the spectacle.