Acts 2:20 (ASV)

Passage

The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable [day].

Nearby Context

Acts 2:18 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Acts 2:19 And I will show wonders in the heaven above, And signs on the earth beneath; Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke:

Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable [day].

Acts 2:21 And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "darkness", "shall", "turned", "moon", "blood", "before", "lord", and "come". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "darkness" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 19's "And I will show wonders in the..." into verse 21's "And it shall be that whosoever shall...", so "darkness" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Acts context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "darkness" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.