I’m still working through these questions on Acts 2. I’ll go ahead and post them again:
- Verses 17-20 describe signs that will occur “before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.” What is that great and glorious day? Is it the final judgment? Is it the destruction of Jerusalem? Doesn’t seem to be Pentecost itself, in my view, since these things were supposed to happen before that event.
- Do you take verses 19-20 literally? When do you think those happened or will happen?
- Why do we view verses 17-18 as ongoing while viewing verses 19-20 as one-time events? Or do you interpret verses 19-20 in a way that they could be seen as ongoing?
- Verse 39 is a reference back to this quote from Joel. Is verse 40 referring to the day of the Lord when Peter says to “save yourself from this corrupt generation”? That would fit if he’s talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. How else can we read these words?
When I started working on the questions, I accidentally skipped the second one, which would have been very appropriate with the solar eclipse last week. The question is about how we view these verses:
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
Were these literal signs that were/are to occur before the day of the Lord? If so, what was/is the timing on that? Were there celestial signs before Pentecost? (Like what happened at the crucifixion?) Were there such signs before the destruction of Jerusalem? Should we expect such before the final judgment?
Or is this apocalyptic language that doesn’t need a literal fulfillment?
What is Peter talking about here?