Blood Moon Prophesy – Epic Fail?

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come - JOEL 2:31 (OLD TESTAMENT)

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It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) - R.E.M

Observed by millions, monday night’s lunar eclipse (AKA ‘blood moon’) was just the first in a series of FOUR ‘blood moons’ – what astronomers call a tetrad, and what some members of the christian community are calling a harbinger for the apocalypse.

According to NASA, lunar eclipses commonly occur about twice a year, but in this case we are scheduled to see four of them closer together than usual (within an 18 month period). The next three are coming up on Oct. 8 (2014), April 4 (2015), and Sept. 28 (2015)

Perhaps it’s just coincidence that this lunar eclipse tetrad happens to coincide with major Jewish holidays that revolve around a lunar calendar (Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles). Texas mega-church pastor John Hagee, author of the best-selling Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change, doesn’t think so.

According to Hagee, every time a tetrad has occurred on Jewish feast days, something traumatic and “world-changing” happens to Israel. Hagee points out that the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492 (which offered a new home for the Jews, recently expelled from Spain); the birth of the modern state of Israel in 1948; and Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War (1967) all took place around/during Jewish holy feast days that coincided with ‘blood moon’ tetrads.

And Hagee isn’t the only one fueling theories that biblical prophesy is coming true, as signaled by the current ‘blood moon’ tetrad. Other books recently published about this topic include Blood Moons Rising: Bible Prophecy, Israel, and the Four Blood Moons” by Mark Hitchcock and Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs by Mark Biltz.

As the much anticipated ‘blood moon’ event drew closer, the internet was quickly buzzing with dire apocalyptic warnings; and furious debates across various forums and online communities – religious and secular alike – are showing no signs of slowing down.

Apparently, not all Christians have signed on to the ‘blood moon’ prophesies, and some astute religious leaders have been quick to publicly take a different view than that of Hagee.

For instance, Pastor Greg Boyd, of Woodland Hills Church (St. Paul, Minn.), considers the predictions a waste of time, and bordering on astrology. He has been quoted as saying, “You have an entire population buying into this stuff so no congregation is immune to this. He adds, “It can strike fear into people, which is so unnecessary and wrong.”

Biblical scripture and prophesy expert Dr. Scott A. Johnson (ContendingForTruth.com) also calls it a waste of time, and recently posted:

There is a big frenzy on the internet because there will be 2 red moons in 2014 and 2 red moons in 2015 that fall on Jewish feast Days. While this is interesting, people fail to realize that blood moons are not unusual, and that having a blood moon may mean nothing at all. Having them fall on a Jewish feast day is interesting, and may be seen as “bad luck,” but it is NOT a promise that something revolutionary, like the wrath of God, or that the 6th seal is about to happen. People forget that not only will the sun and moon turn dark at the same time, but the stars will also fall from the sky!

Obviously, last night’s ‘blood moon’ didn’t result in an abrupt “end of the world” scenario; and any predictions of a “Rapture” – followed by Israel’s participation in the battle of “Armageddon”, leading up to Jesus’ return to earth – has yet to be evidenced at the time of this posting.

- Ruckus

Sources:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2014.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/blood-moon-sets-off-apocalyptic-debate-among-some-christians/2014/04/15/00b76502-c4be-11e3-9ee7-02c1e10a03f0_story.html

http://www.contendingfortruth.com/wp-content/uploads/End-Time-Current-Events-3-23-141.pdf