Blood Moon (Part 1)

By Barry Rosenfeld

The “Blood Moon,” also known as the Hunter Moon since it is bright enough to hunt by, is a phenomenon that occurs during a total eclipse of the moon when the moon is lit by sunlight reaching it through the earth’s atmosphere, giving it a ruddy bloodlike appearance. It is an event that is rare in itself and even rarer when several occur in succession. In Joel 2:31 we read— “The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Bible verses such as this one and others such as “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red.” (Revelation 6:12), and “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken,” relate to such an event. (Mathew 24:29) Since these verses also speak of the end times, many have come to associate the “Blood Moon” with the end times.

Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church is unquestionably a strong supporter of Israel. He has written a book, “Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change,” in which he associates the upcoming series of four such events that are scheduled to take place in 2014 and 2015 with happenings linked to Israel. During this period four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses between them, each separated by the other by six full moons or six lunar months, will take place. Both Hagee and Christian pastor Mark Blitz associate such a lunar tetrad with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. The above Bible verses however, speak both of a full lunar eclipse as well as a full solar eclipse where the sun is also darkened.

The lunar eclipses for 2014 fall on April 15th and October 8th, while those for 2015 fall on April 4th and September 28th. In fact, tetrads such as this are scheduled to occur 8 times during the 21st century but Hagee and Blitz find the current one to be unique in that it is linked with the Jewish holidays of Passover and Tabernacles (Sukkot). The Blood Moons occurring in April of 2014 and 2015 align with the Passover, and the eclipses for September 2014 and 2015, with the feast of Tabernacles. Ironically, only one of the four eclipses will be visible from Israel, and then only the tail end of the one on September 28th, 2015, for a short while before sunrise.

Looking back, Hagee notes that the previous three such tetrads occurred around events that were very meaningful for the Jewish people. Thus, a Blood Moon tetrad that occurred between 1493 and 1494 immediately followed the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. The next Blood Moon tetrad occurred between 1949 and 1950. Of course, in 1948 the Jewish state was founded followed by the war for independence. And again the last occurrence of such a tetrad was between 1967 and 1968 and it was in June of 1967 that Israel, during the “Six Day War” reclaimed the entire city of Jerusalem including the Temple site.

Hagee notes that the first time that it happened in 1493 and 1494, the four Blood Moons also occurred on the holidays of Passover and Sukkot. He writes in his book, “This signified the beginning of the fall of Spain following the expulsion of the Jews a year earlier and was God’s announcement to the world that ‘the mantle of prosperity had thusly been placed on the shoulders of the infant nation that would become the United States’ since it became a refuge for the Jewish people.”

Hagee points out that when the tetrad Blood Moons again occurred it was also on the Hebrew holidays of Passover and Tabernacles, but this time during 1949 and 1950, just after Israel was declared a nation. When the four Blood Moons next occurred in 1967 and 1968, it was at the time of the Six Day War which resulted in the unification of Jerusalem as the compete capital of the Jewish state for the first time in 2,000 years. He describes this as being “a monumental prophetic event.”

… to be continued.

Share this page with your friends