Centuries ago, celestial events such as eclipses evoked deep superstition. 

And they still do for some people, as a Christian radio host claimed that Monday’s total eclipse of the sun may be a “message” from God.

Bryan Fischer, host of a Christian radio show called “Focal Point,” posted on Facebook that the Bible states the sun and moon serve as “signs.” 

Then, he attempted to interpret those signs like a fortune teller.

“This is a metaphor, or a sign, of the work of the Prince of Darkness in obscuring the light of God’s truth,” he wrote, adding, “Satan, and those who unwittingly serve as his accomplices by resisting the public acknowledgement of God and seeking to repress the expression of Christian faith in our land, are bringing on us a dark night of the national soul.”

Fischer, whose radio show claims to be “the home of muscular Christianity,” called on his followers to “fight the darkness that we may return this nation to an unapologetic acknowledgement and embrace of the God of the Founders and his transcendent standard for human behavior as enshrined in the Ten Commandments.”

He included a disclaimer that he did not, in fact, receive a “revelation from God” related to the eclipse but his post was instead “an effort to ponder this sign in the heavens and speculate as to its possible spiritual implications.”

Fischer’s attempt to paint a normal celestial event as some kind of message from God drew laughs from critics online, including the Church of Satan:

However, Fischer is not the only evangelical to interpret the eclipse as a possible warning from a deity.

Earlier this month, Anne Graham Lotz ― leader of AnGeL Ministries in North Carolina and daughter of famed evangelist Billy Graham ― also warned the eclipse could be a signal of darker things. 

She wrote: 

“The celebratory nature regarding the eclipse brings to my mind the Babylonian King Belshazzar who threw a drunken feast the night the Medes and Persians crept under the city gate. While Belshazzar and his friends partied, they were oblivious to the impending danger. Belshazzar wound up dead the next day, and the Babylonian empire was destroyed.”

Lotz said she doesn’t view the eclipse as “celebratory” as a result. 

“While no one can know for sure if judgment is coming on America, it does seem that God is signaling us about something,” she wrote. “Time will tell what that something is.”

Christian Post columnist Rev. Mark H. Creech wrote that he was “inclined to agree” with Lotz. 

“Is it a sign from the heavens calling upon our nation to turn from its sins and to Christ or suffer the consequences? I don’t really know,” he wrote. “What I do know, however, is that we would be wise to treat it as though this very well may be the case.” 

H/T Friendly Atheist