The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Several months ago I wrote an article concerning the interpretation of the seven years of plenty that preceded the seven years of famine back in the days of Joseph in Egypt (Gen. 41). While it is widely accepted that the seven years of famine foreshadow the Tribulation, the seven good years are seldom addressed. In that article, I discuss why I believe Joseph's seven good years foreshadow the last seven years of the Church Age and end with the Rapture.

I also discuss several items that make me inclined to believe the seven end-time "good years" kicked off in 2017 and will end in 2024—which makes 2024 a worthy candidate for the year of the Rapture in my humble opinion.

To that end, I mention the confirmation of the great sign of Revelation 12:1–2 on September 23, 2017, which many have long been convinced is a sign heralding the final countdown to the Rapture. I talk about the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017, which helped to temporarily restrain the satanic forces that seek to destroy America—Israel's benefactor and strongest friend.

I also discuss a pair of solar eclipses that sweep across the United States, the first in 2017 and the second in 2024. The first swept downward from the northwest to the southeast, and the second will sweep upwards from the southwest to the northeast, forming a big "X" on America that I believe is a sign of God's impending judgment on a country that has completely turned her back on Him and everything He stands for.

In regard to these two solar eclipses, however, I recently received an email from a reader who was kind enough to point out to me one strikingly unusual aspect of those eclipses that I failed to mention. In my response, I admitted that I "very vaguely" recalled reading something about it years ago, but completely forgot about it when I wrote my article. I thanked him for reminding me of it, and told him it was significant enough that I would consider going back and adding a couple of paragraphs to my original article. That is something I have only done on a couple of occasions, but it was my full intention to do so in this case.

That is, until the Lord got finished with me.

I actually suspect that the Holy Spirit deliberately caused me to forget about this unusual aspect of these two solar eclipses at the time I wrote my previous piece, because what the Lord had to show me was sufficiently stunning to easily warrant its own article.

Oh...the strikingly unusual aspect of these two eclipses I am referring to is the fact that the path of totality of the first one in 2017 passed over seven communities across the United States named Salem, and the second in 2024 passes over one of those same Salems.

Weird, huh?

(Cue "The Twilight Zone" theme...) Weird enough that over the course of the next few days something began to stir in my spirit, and I recognized it as the Lord's familiar way of letting me know He had something more to show me. So, I did what I always do when that happens: I went to the Lord in prayer and asked Him to go ahead and show me whatever it was He had to show me.

And as always, He ultimately did just that. So buckle up.

The saga of the Salems

You have to admit that the idea of the first eclipse passing over seven cities named Salem and then the second passing over one of those same Salems is strangely compelling. It just makes you sit back and say to yourself:

"Man, there's gotta be some prophetic beef in there somewhere."

As I delved into this business of the Salems in a bit more depth, however, there turned out to be a few unexpected twists and turns in the story that I need to fill you in on—so bear with me.

Around that time, someone noticed that the path of the 2017 solar eclipse immediately passed over Salem, Oregon. (That's an easy one—it's the state capital.) For some particular but unknown reason this struck their curiosity, and they kept looking and ultimately came up with a list of what were touted as the Seven Salems along the path of the eclipse. This quickly made the rounds on various prophecy-related websites and generated a healthy amount of prophetic buzz. And as I said, I do vaguely recall hearing something about it, but at the time I wrote my article it completely slipped my mind.

It's true that there was considerable buzz back then related to many aspects of the eclipses of 2017 and 2024, some accurate and some not so much. For example, one person excitedly claimed that at the precise moment the 2017 eclipse hit the first Salem (Oregon) at 10:17 AM the morning of August 21, the sun was setting in Jerusalem. Wow! Be still, my prophetic heart!

But I checked—they were off by an hour.

(I have a sneaking suspicion that this person may not have realized that Israel also uses Daylight Savings Time, and that fact might have tripped them up. To be honest, I didn't know that either until I checked this out.)

Anyway, you know me. I never want to put anything in one of my articles that I am not 99.99 percent sure of, so I took the time to research these Seven Salems, which are typically listed in the order the eclipse passed over them (and I will make it a point to mention the counties, because as we shall see there are several states that have multiple towns named Salem):

1. Salem, Oregon (Marion Co.)
2. Salem, Idaho (Madison Co.)
3. Salem, Wyoming (Laramie Co.)
4. Salem, Nebraska (Richardson Co.)
5. Salem, Missouri (Dent Co.)
6. Salem, Kentucky (Livingston Co.)
7. Salem, South Carolina (Oconee Co.)

I dug into various websites showing state and county maps, information concerning small communities, detailed views of the path of the eclipse, and so on. One by one, I carefully checked out all of the Seven Salems. To my surprise and dismay, however, I discovered that apparently the vast majority of people who talk about this topic neglected to do what I did:

The grunt work.

As it turns out, two of these communities are not in the path of totality of the 2017 solar eclipse: Salem, Wyoming and Salem, Missouri.

The first thing I discovered is that researching this sort of thing can be surprisingly difficult and frustrating, because many small communities around America are not incorporated, don't show up in official census information, and may amount to little more than a gas station and a couple of houses—a fly speck in some remote area about which only the most exhaustive Google search can turn up the smallest hint of information (if any at all).

But it may be that good, hardworking Americans live there. It has a name, and that name is used with pride by the people who call it home—and it certainly deserves to be recognized as a legitimate community even though it may be so tiny that it's virtually impossible to dig up any information about it.

Tiny Town, USA: Note that many small communities are not shown on Google Maps or Google Earth, so don't bother looking. However, if it's a legitimate community and has people living there, it's probably listed at websites such as RoadsideThoughts.com or HomeTownLocator.com, where large numbers of tiny communities are listed as "populated places" or "minor civil divisions" (MCDs). In other words, if you're going to dig into this sort of thing and go searching for tiny towns, don't even waste your time with Google Maps or Google Earth—they don't cut the small-town mustard.

Now, as far as Salem, Wyoming is concerned, it might have been an actual community at some point in the past; but all I could find out about it is that it had been located somewhere in Laramie County. Now, there's a Salem Diner and a Salem Road in the city of Cheyenne, and a Salem Cemetery out in the middle of a bunch of dusty fields about 35 miles east of Cheyenne, all in Laramie County. But there's no town named Salem anywhere in the area, not on any source I checked—and certainly not on Google Earth or Google Maps. It's just not there.

Here's what RoadsideThoughts.com had to say about it:

Bottom line: Ain't no such place. Oh, you disagree? Well, here's the clincher: Even if we assume this community is (or was) located in Laramie County, then it couldn't have been in the path of totality. It's that simple. The path of totality passed roughly 25 miles to the north of any part of that entire county—so we're wasting our time. Even if this community existed in 2017, it would not have been in the path of totality, no matter how badly anyone wants it to be. So I had to scratch it off the list. I don't care what anyone on the Internet says: Salem, Wyoming is a 100 percent no-go.

OK, so it's the Six Salems.

Salem, Missouri also turned out to be a dud. Unlike Salem, Wyoming, at least I was able to locate it on the map (in Dent County). Unfortunately, the path of totality narrowly misses that entire county, let alone the city of Salem. (By the way, this Salem also narrowly misses the second eclipse in 2024.) I don't know what these Internet people are looking at, but it's simply not in the path. Period. So I had to scratch that one off the list, too.

No can do: I discovered there are (were) three other communities named Salem in Missouri, located in Daviess, Caldwell, and Lewis Counties. The ones in Daviess and Caldwell Counties were actually in or very close to the path of totality, but these two communities apparently no longer exist. So, no can do. The third one in Lewis County is nowhere near the path of the eclipse.

Uh...would you believe the Five Salems?

Scratching those two Salems off the list left me scratching my head, wondering whether or not I should even continue with this article—and wondering what on earth the Lord had to show me. Maybe that the whole Seven Salem thing was a bunch of overhyped malarkey, perhaps? Hmmm...

But as I dug through information at RoadsideThoughts.com, I discovered an exhaustive list of towns named Salem in North America. Nothing related to the eclipse—just a comprehensive list of towns named Salem.

Out of sheer stick-to-it-iveness, I began to peruse their list, going from one potential eclipse-related Salem after another, scrutinizing state and county maps and maps of the path of the eclipse, hoping I might get lucky and stumble across something others had missed. And sure enough:

I got lucky.

As I checked out all the possible eclipse-related Salems, I came tantalizingly close with a couple of near misses. Plus, I came across one or two Salems that were mentioned, but that couldn't be pinpointed with any accuracy because they presumably no longer exist (much like Salem, Wyoming). Thus, I couldn't be certain about them and had to pass.

By the time I was finished, however, I had successfully managed to unearth two other legitimate, identifiable communities named Salem that were absolutely within the path of totality that may have been noticed by a few others, but not to my knowledge: Salem, Tennessee (Montgomery County) and Salem, Georgia (Fannin County).

So, we're back in business with a different set of Salems:

1. Salem, Oregon (Marion Co.)
2. Salem, Idaho (Madison Co.)
3. Salem, Nebraska (Richardson Co.)
4. Salem, Kentucky (Livingston Co.)
5. Salem, Tennessee (Montgomery Co.)
6. Salem, Georgia (Fannin Co.)
7. Salem, South Carolina (Oconee Co.)

The Seven Salems—just not the same seven most others refer to.

Now, in addition to the eclipse in 2017 passing over the Seven Salems, the second eclipse in 2024 passes over one of those same communities: Salem, Kentucky. And sure enough—it checks out. This piqued my curiosity, and predictably enough got me started doing the same grunt work for the 2024 eclipse that I had just finished for the 2017 eclipse.

Similar task, different maps.

This was a tedious process, but the information at RoadsideThoughts.com was extremely helpful. To make a long story slightly less long, I ultimately discovered a total of 12 communities named Salem in the path of the 2024 solar eclipse, one of them (in Livingston County, Kentucky) being the only one in the intersection of the paths of the two eclipses.

FWIW: Although the 2017 eclipse passed over seven communities named Salem and the 2024 eclipse passes over 12, in both cases those Salems are located in a total of seven states. Feel free to do with that as you will.

Of course, just as with the 2017 eclipse, there were a couple of near misses, and one or two communities whose existence could not be confirmed (the Salem, Wyoming Syndrome). So, there were one or two highly iffy Salems that I simply had to pass on.

But at the end of the day, the confirmed Salems that are definitely in the path of totality of the 2024 eclipse are as follows (and I have highlighted the one Salem that is in the intersection of the two eclipses):

1. Salem, Texas (Wood Co.)
2. Salem, Arkansas (Pike Co.)
3. Salem, Arkansas (Saline Co.)
4. Salem, Arkansas (Fulton Co.)
5. Salem, Kentucky (Livingston Co.)
6. Salem, Illinois (Marion Co.)
7. Salem, Indiana (Washington Co.)
8. Salem, Indiana (Union Co.)
9. Salem, Indiana (Jay Co.)
10. Salem, Indiana (Adams Co.)
11. Salem, Pennsylvania (Mercer Co.)
12. Salem, Maine (Franklin Co.)

After spending several days beating my brains out over all this Salem business, however, I was just burned out...I had been through some emotional highs and lows and had managed to dig up a bunch of stuff I had no idea what to do with. I had reached the end of myself, and about the only thing I could do was drop to my knees and say:

"Lord, I know you have something to show me...so what is it?!"

Only then did the Lord finally begin to weave things together.

A sortie through Psalms

The primary passage of Scripture the Lord brought to my mind to help show me what I believe He is trying to show all of those with ears to hear is in the widely known Twenty-Third Psalm.

After the Lord brought Psalm 23 to my attention, however, He led me on a brief sortie through the first 24 psalms: I went back and read over all the preceding psalms, plus the one that follows. As I did so, what struck me was the fact that there is a common thread that runs through nearly all of the first 21 psalms, and it could be stated as follows:

The LORD has promised to fight for
His people and defeat their enemies,
and they can find peace, strength,
and salvation in His protection.

As I read over the first 21 psalms (most are pretty short, so it doesn't take too long), this jumped out at me over and over again—all but a couple of the first 21 psalms strike this same chord:

The LORD will defeat and crush the enemies that threaten His people. God will protect His people. They will not be afraid, for their peace and salvation are in the LORD. They are safe in His shadow.

And so on and so forth. I'm not going to quote from all of them because there are simply too many, but I took the liberty of putting together a quick laundry list of seven samples to give you a taste of what I'm talking about:

After these first 21 psalms, there is a brief interlude in Psalm 22, which is often called the psalm of the Crucifixion. Psalm 22 is nothing less than a graphic (and prophetically accurate) description of the scene at the Crucifixion, and it is the psalm Jesus quotes from the cross (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34):

And that brings us to Psalm 23. It's only six verses, and some of you probably know it by heart. But I'll go ahead and quote it in its entirety—and I simply must quote the King James Version:

Feast on this: By the way, I love verse 5. If the LORD prepares a table at which you can sit down and feast in the presence of your enemies, what does that tell you? That tells me He has done more than just defeat those enemies and render them powerless to harm you—He makes them stand there and watch Him bless you!

The line the Lord gently rubbed my nose in, however, is verse 4:

"Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy
rod and thy staff they comfort me."

As I said, this theme surfaces over and over again in nearly all of the first 21 psalms, and then there's a pause for the Crucifixion in Psalm 22. Then we get this same theme—this theme of God protecting and fighting for His people and His people finding peace and blessings under His protection—appearing yet again in Psalm 23.

Then in Psalm 24, we have a psalm that speaks to the Millennial Kingdom that follows the Tribulation. Here's a chunk of it:

Incidentally, I have on occasion seen people try to associate the number of various psalms with events in the corresponding years. For example, trying to link Psalm 21 with some event that occurred in 2021, and so on. But I have never seen anyone do that in a manner that greatly impressed me; and so as tempting as it may seem, I don't feel compelled to go down that road.

I may engage in some speculation, but for me that's a bridge too far.

That said, however, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to consider these first 24 psalms as what might be called a temporal overlay, something along the following lines:

• Psalms 1 to 21 seem to emphasize and speak to various aspects of Israel's Old Testament covenant relationship with God: He fights for them and protects them; they find peace, blessings, and salvation in Him and in their covenant relationship with Him.

• Then in Psalm 22, we have the Crucifixion, where their Messiah comes and offers the perfect sacrifice on the cross to atone for their sin and this inaugurates the New Covenant. Israel rejected that covenant, and fell under God's judgment.

• But then in Psalm 23, we again have God fighting for His people and defeating their enemies. God is clearly not finished with that "fight for His people" thing during the time of the New Covenant. If the interlude of Psalm 22 speaks prophetically to the inauguration of the New Covenant, which I believe it clearly does, then although it can certainly speak to Old Testament events, the "valley of the shadow of death" in Psalm 23 would also speak prophetically to events that occur during New Testament times. And since we are talking about the nation of Israel, that would effectively exclude the years between AD 70 and 1948...and that starts to narrow things down.

I believe the primary event it speaks to is the attack of Gog-Magog (Ezek. 38–39). Second to that, I believe it would also speak to the Antichrist's efforts to completely wipe out the Jews during the Great Tribulation in Revelation 12:13–17. He'll get two-thirds of them, but the believing Jewish remnant will be protected by God.

• Then in Psalm 24, we have His people—which includes the Jewish remnant—in their promised kingdom after the Second Coming. This kingdom is ruled by Christ: the strong and mighty—the King of glory, who is finally ready to assume the Throne of David.

Of course, we're talking broad strokes here. But I believe this basic temporal overlay of the first 24 psalms I just described is actually there and has some degree of validity to it. As I said, I believe it suggests that Israel's passage through the valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23 and God's protection therein speak to events in New Testament times. Plus, it serves as a prophetic framework for what we're going to discuss next.

So, the question at this point is this:

How does any of this connect with all the Salem/eclipse business?

I'm so glad you asked.

A tale of two eclipses

I often feel a bit conflicted when I get to a point like this in any article, where I am about to share what I believe to be true, and I am 100 percent convinced that it's exactly what the Lord has shown me. I say that because it has always made me a tad uncomfortable when people go around saying things like "the Lord showed me this" or "the Lord showed me that" or "the Lord downloaded such-and-such into my spirit," and so on, which are statements I tend to view with a healthy dose of skepticism (as should you).

But that's truly how I feel. Well, I learned long ago that when I find myself in such a situation, there is really only one thing I can do:

Just spit it out and leave it be.

Yes, I do believe the Lord showed me these things...so much so that every time I proofread what I wrote, I catch myself idly musing "Man, why didn't I think of that?!" But I'm going to present it to you as exactly that—what I think. Now, you may agree—you may think it's a crock. Either way, I'm perfectly content that I have given the Lord my best. It's all good.

I just pray that I can explain all this in a way that makes a lick of sense.

Now, let me say one thing before we get into the particulars:

I believe the entire image of the paths of the two eclipses and all the Salems they pass over is a composite, multi-layered image, elements of which speak to different groups and different events at different times.

First, the August 21, 2017 eclipse. This first stroke of the "X" that marks America is the warning shot of coming judgment—judgment I believe will fall shortly after the second stroke in 2024, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Next, the Seven Salems. Note that the word "salem" does in fact refer to Jerusalem, and means "peace." When I first started looking into the etymology of the word "salem," I immediately ran into all kinds of complex linguistic arguments about all sorts of things, and part of me groaned inwardly. That is, until I recalled one of the basic rules of biblical interpretation:

Let Scripture interpret Scripture (as well as things related to Scripture).

Oh, yes...let's:

Done deal. And luckily I didn't need to plow through a ton of fancy linguistics to get there, either.

So the Salems clearly speak to Jerusalem, and by extension the nation of Israel. And since seven is the number of divine completion, the Seven Salems speak to all of Israel together as one nation in the first eclipse.

This is the "valley of the shadow of death" that Israel will pass through in the attack of Gog-Magog. It is also the first stroke of the "X" that signals the coming judgment on Israel's strongest friend, America—judgment that I believe will precede that attack.

But just as Psalm 23:4 says, God's people need "fear no evil." Why?

Because thou art with them; thy rod
and thy staff they comfort them.

In regard to Israel and the attack of Gog-Magog, to say that the LORD is with them and His rod and His staff comfort them are profound understatements. The LORD will supernaturally crush Israel's enemies with His mighty arm, and rescue His people from an overwhelming existential threat. As a result He will bring His people back into their covenant relationship with Him and show both His people and the nations of the world that the God of Israel is the LORD—with an exclamation point.

All wrapped up: Note that this first eclipse and its passage over the Seven Salems speak to events that occur to America and Israel at least seven years later. This is part of what I meant by a composite, multi-layered image: Some elements of the image relate to America, other elements relate to Israel, and different elements speak to different events that occur at different times—all wrapped up and neatly packaged into one image.

Now, in regard to the second eclipse on April 8, 2024, I believe this second stroke of the "X" signals that the time for America's judgment has arrived, and I believe its great fall comes not too long after this eclipse.

I believe the final blow is triggered by the Rapture, which will drop the hammer on a nation already beleaguered by the demonic lunacy of the liberal left, which is intent on battering this nation into a weak, hamstrung shell of its former self that will meekly go along with the rest of the world in its mad rush toward a global government, a global economy, and a global religion.

In other words, the short-lived kingdom of the Antichrist.

And it's speculation on my part, but I am inclined to see the Rapture occurring sometime not too terribly long after this second eclipse on April 8, 2024, possibly at some point later during that same year.

Shake, rattle and roll: Now, this is speculation on my part as well, but in addition to the Rapture, it is also possible the United States may experience a powerful earthquake that will cause massive death and destruction around the same time. In other words, something that will seen as an act of God. I believe this would go a long way toward making the world grasp that the recent disappearance of several hundred million people was also an act of God, rather than some Hollywood schlock involving aliens.

Before you start rolling your eyes, consider: The area where these two eclipses intersect includes a portion of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), which lies along the Mississippi River in the general area between St. Louis and Memphis. This is where a series of three powerful earthquakes (and just as powerful aftershocks) rocked the fledgling United States in the early nineteenth century (the three strongest quakes to ever strike the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains). These three quakes occurred on December 16, 1811, January 23, 1812, and February 7, 1812, and have been estimated at magnitudes of 7.2–8.2, 7.0–8.0, and 7.4–8.6, resp.

Uhm...so let me get this straight:

Two centuries later, the area where these massive
earthquakes struck just happens to be located in the
precise intersection of two solar eclipses that occur
seven years apart on the eve of God's judgment.

Ooo-kay. Sorry, but I hope you agree that it's a little bit tough to believe this is just a bizarre coincidence.

Of course, great earthquakes are mentioned in several places in the book of Revelation—five to be precise:

1. At the release of the sixth seal judgment (Rev. 6:12).
2. At the release of the seventh seal judgment (Rev. 8:5).
3. When the two witnesses are caught up to heaven (Rev. 11:13).
4. At the release of the seventh trumpet judgment (Rev. 11:19).
5. At the release of the seventh bowl judgment (Rev. 16:18).

That said, however, I am inclined to believe that if the United States were to be struck by a major quake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone on the heels of the Rapture as part of the body slam that renders it powerless prior to the attack of Gog-Magog, it couldn't be one of these five. I am of the opinion that the downfall of America is something that helps pave the way toward the Tribulation, not something that occurs during it, as do the above five earthquakes in the book of Revelation.

One reason I say that is because in Ezekiel 38:13 we see America, one of the "young lions," whining impotently as the Gog-Magog coalition prepares to descend on Israel to destroy it and rob it of its resources (i.e. "spoil")—rather than make any effort to defend Israel, as we normally would. So, when the attack of Gog-Magog is set to occur, America has already been knocked down from its superpower status. And a major quake, in addition to the Rapture, would certainly fill the bill as far as what finally reduces America to a whining, impotent whelp of a nation that has been judged by a holy God.

Now, as for the second eclipse, we've got quite the gaggle of Salems in its path of totality. When there were only seven, that was easy.

But 12?? Hmmm...

Well, like I said: Just spit it out and leave it be.

As I mentioned, this second eclipse in 2024 will signal the imminent arrival of judgment on America in the form of the Rapture (and possibly a major earthquake to boot). I also see this second group of Salems as Israel; but now, rather than the divine completeness of the number seven, I see these 12 Salems as representing an Israel that is split into two groups:

A group of one and a group of 11.

The group of one consists of Salem, Kentucky, and I believe this lone Salem that both eclipses pass over now represents the believing Jewish remnant, who has come to faith in their real Messiah during Daniel's 70th Week and will be protected by God from the Antichrist throughout the Great Tribulation. The number one is the ultimate expression of unity, and the Jewish remnant are that part of God's Chosen People who have finally found the ultimate unity with their God and their Messiah after roughly 4,000 years.

The group of 11 remaining Salems are the rest of Israel—unbelieving Jews, who also suffer the persecution of the Antichrist.

But instead of being protected, they perish.

This was foreshadowed in the days of Moses, when every last one of those who doubted God and refused to enter the Promised Land perished in the desert over the next 40 years as a result of their refusal to trust God, even after He miraculously delivered them from bondage (Deut. 1:34–40).

The number 11 represents chaos, disorder, and sin, and this is the part of Israel that remains slaves of sin, has refused to love the truth, and has staunchly rejected God's grace and mercy and the covenant Christ cut for them with His blood. And I think I'll let the Holy Spirit finish the thought for me:

This is the "valley of the shadow of death" Israel will pass through during the Great Tribulation, when the believing Jewish remnant will be protected by God and the hardened, unbelieving remainder of Israel will perish at the hands of the forces of the Antichrist. This second eclipse also represents the final stroke of the "X" that signals the imminent fall of judgment on America that follows the Rapture—the event that effectively kicks off the whole shebang.

After the Antichrist claims to be God and demands worship as such at the midpoint of the Tribulation, God sends a strong delusion upon these people to delude them into accepting a Gentile Antichrist as their Messiah (John 5:43). In other words, God makes them believe a lie because they have refused to love the truth (2 Thess. 2:10–12). Nevertheless, the Antichrist turns on them with a vengeance because Satan's goal is not to get the Jews to worship him—it's to kill every last one of them so they can't implore the Lord to save them (Hos. 5:15), which he knows is what will trigger the return of Christ to the earth and bring a shattering end to his fledgling kingdom.

In a nutshell:

• First of all, I believe Psalms 1–24 give us a prophetic temporal overlay of sorts that indicates that the "valley of the shadow of death" referred to in Psalm 23, although it may refer to certain Old Testament events, also speaks to events that occur to Israel in New Testament times, particularly after their re-establishment as a nation in 1948.

• I see the first eclipse in 2017 as a warning of America's coming judgment, and all of Israel (the Seven Salems) being protected by God from the attack of Gog-Magog that follows that judgment.

• I see the second eclipse in 2024 as a sign that points to the imminent fall of America (which is triggered by the Rapture and may also include a major earthquake). It also speaks to the coming persecution of Israel at the hands of the Antichrist in the Great Tribulation, during which the Jewish remnant (the one Salem that both eclipses pass over) will be protected by God and the hardened, deluded, unbelieving remainder of Israel (the other 11 Salems) will perish.

And now that I've finished this article, I feel like I've passed through the valley of the shadow of death.

I'm just glad Thou art with me.

Look me up in Salem

I admit that I enjoyed reading over the first 24 psalms once again, and I certainly never tire of reading the Twenty-Third Psalm. As I did so for perhaps the 900th time, the last line just reached out and coldcocked me in a way that it had never done before:

That last line always sounded so distant and dreamy to me as a youth—but as I read it once again, it hit me how stunningly real and achingly imminent it really is. It is upon us, and that's exactly what we are just about ready to do:

Dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Of course, I have no idea what our new dwelling places in heaven will be like, or how they will be laid out. I don't know if we will live in anything resembling houses, or towns and cities, or what. Don't get me wrong...it'll be mind-blowing whatever it is, but still—such thoughts occur to me.

And as they do, I imagine having a conversation like the following at some point during the check-in process in heaven:

Angel: "Next."

Me: "Hi! Hey, I was just wondering...do you guys have towns up here?"

Angel: "Towns? Yep, we sure do."

Me: "Great! Hey, is there a town in heaven named Salem?"

Angel (tapping on his laptop keyboard): "Let me check... Yep, there sure is."

Me: "Cool! Hey, if it's not too much trouble, could I live in Salem?"

Angel: "Oh, I think that could be arranged. Uhh...what kind of Salem would you prefer? Large metropolitan, medium industrial, small rural..."

Me: "Excuse me...what kind of Salem? I'm sorry—I don't understand."

Angel: "Well, I'm looking at Google Heaven here, and according to the map I just pulled up we've got a total of seven of 'em."

Greg Lauer — OCT '22

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