Posted on 04/12/2014 7:35:48 AM PDT by kindred
"Israel as a nation is 'God's time clock,'" –Pastor John Kilpatrick
blood moons By now the term "blood moon" is likely no longer alien to you, and may even have been discussed around the water cooler this week. (Photo by Luc Viatour/via EarthSky.org)
And now that you have the astronomical description for four of them in a row—a "tetrad"—you may be feeling like your vocabulary has experienced a nice upgrade.
But what is all the eschatological (there's another one—'end times') discussion about anyway? What are some of the things being said?
After watching a few messages by Pastors John Kilpatrick and John Hagee—who are both saying the same thing, for the most part—I thought breaking their main points down into a fairly brief article might be of service to some who are curious, but who may not have time to watch numerous sermons.
Not Just Christians
One thing I've noticed in digging into the subject of the coming astronomical event is that the interest is not just found among Bible Believers.
Those in the secular science community are also intrigued—not just by the blood moon tetrad—but also in the fact that it does coincide with major Jewish feast days.
blood moonsI've found several sites that have not only given a wealth of information on the tetrad, but also on the fact that this and next year's will occur at special times according to the Jewish calendar. (Graphic via John Kilpatrick Ministries)
That stood out to me—there are those who are not yet Believers who are paying attention… looking, watching and waiting to see if anything significant, God-oriented or major does indeed happen.
The Blood Moon Tetrad Facts and When to Watch
Interesting celestial events already began this week, with the "opposition of Mars"—it's perfect alignment with the sun, and also with Earth.
Next week—on Monday—Mars will be at its closest to Earth in 6 years; you'll be able to see it shining brightly in the night sky. Then on Tuesday morning April 15th (in North America) at approximately 3AM Eastern Time, the moon will be not only full, but there will be a full lunar eclipse as the Earth passes between the moon and the sun. The sun's light that reflects off the moon will then be filtered through Earth's atmosphere—basically all Earth's sunsets at once—and it will cause the moon to appear red like blood.
blood moonsThe blood moon will happen again this year, on October 8th; and then there will be two more blood moons next year on April 4 and September 28th—that makes a lunar tetrad.
EarthSky.org describes a lunar tetrad as: "Four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six lunar months (six full moons)."
The Significance Relating to Israel
According to Hagee and Kilpatrick (as well as others), the moons relate to Israel because the Jewish calendar is mainly a lunar-based calendar. The solar eclipses relate to the world because the rest of the world goes by the solar-based Gregorian calendar.
Now, tetrads aren't necessarily that rare—there was one in 2003—but the fact that each blood moon in this tetrad coincides with major Jewish feast days is rare.
blood moonsTuesday's blood moon happens on Passover; October's on Sukkot; next April's on Passover again, and the final blood moon of the tetrad falls on Sukkot once again. That last one is the only one that will be visible by Israel—but because it occurs on Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) many Jews will be outside, sleeping under the stars so-to-speak, in their tents or booths according to the Jewish Feast tradition. (Photo via John Hagee Ministries)
And not only that, but the final blood moon will also be at perigee—also known as a "super moon" because it is at its closest to Earth on its lunar orbit.
It will be one SUPER BLOOD MOON!
So What? Wait, there's More…
Not only will the tetrad happen, but in 2015 there will also be two solar eclipses. The first one—a total solar eclipse— will fall on March 20th, or Nisan 1 in the Jewish calendar which is effectively their first day of their first month.
The second solar eclipse will be partial, and will occur on September 13th which is Rosh Hashanah; the first of the "High Holy Days" and also known as the Feast of Trumpets.
Why Is Any of This Significant?
Pastor John Hagee notes Genesis 1:14, "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years."
blood moonsThat is, the sun, moon and stars can also be used by God as a sign to Earth's inhabitants. (Graphic via John Kilpatrick Ministries)
Basically the coming tetrad is significant to Israel, and to Christians who love Israel, because of history—Israel's history.
In 21 centuries there have only been 8 (including this coming one) blood moon tetrads that fell on the Jewish Feasts of Passover and Sukkot and the 3 most recent ones occurred during extremely important events for Israel.
Tetrad of 1493-1494 – If you go back one year, you know Christopher Columbus sailed his famous voyage to discover the "new world" in 1492. What many may not realize is that this happened during Spain's Expulsion of the Jews, when the edict came down that all Jews in Spain had 3 months to leave. So the blood moon tetrad of that time happened during great persecution of the Jews.
Pastor John Kilpatrick notes that Christopher Columbus was sympathetic to the Jews and carried some on board his ships to the new world, and that his trip may even have been financed by them.
Because of this, as the tetrad of those years occurred, a bond was formed between Israel and the new world—America.
Tetrad of 1949-1950 – This tetrad happened just a few years after the end of WWII and in 1948, just prior to the tetrad, Israel was formally recognized by the world as a nation.
Tetrad of 1967-1968 – The Six-Day War began when attacks were mounted against Israel and she retaliated; it ended with an Israeli victory. What Does the 2014 – 2015 Tetrad Signify?
Both Pastors Kilpatrick and Hagee are quick to answer "I don't know." But they add that it is important to WATCH—not just look; but observe, keep vigil, stay alert and most importantly…
blood moons…watch and pray.
Pastor Kilpatrick notes that Israel as a nation is "God's time clock," which means these things are important to Christians too. (Photo by: Fred Espenak of NASA/via EarthSky.org)
Certainly, when you look at Joel 2:31 in the Bible, you can't help but get a little excited considering the celestial events before us!
"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD." -Joel 2:31
The thing to remember is, if you are a Christian (you know that Jesus is your Savior and you are living for Him), don't be fearful, but as Jesus said, "Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamp alight." And be ready to share about this great Hope that is in you with anyone who asks.
If in reading about these things, you feel conviction by the Holy Spirit, or you know your heart isn't right before the Lord, then don't wait—get right with the Lord Jesus today, and then rejoice!
It blows my mind that self-proclaimed "scientific" people post on a religious thread while rejecting the presumptions of the religion. And then do so in a way that ignores the subtleties of the issue while projecting their own limited understanding on the thread. As if that's not enough, they then use it to try to justify unrelated contentious issues by piling them in as so-called examples of their first illogical presumption.
But then sophmoric people, by definition, don't know they're sophmoric.
Yeah, ok.
It’s still really stupid people looking at completely naturally-recurring phenomenon and pretending like God is sending them a message.
Spoiler alert: God isn’t talking to you through this stuff. Just like a solar eclipse isn’t a dragon eating the Sun and spitting it out, or a volcano isn’t a goddess angry that you didn’t sacrifice enough virgins.
Have a little more respect for the guy. Subtlety isn’t what he is known for.
>>> This smells a lot like astrology.
No... astrology smells a lot like the corruption of God’s word.
Gen 1:14
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Luke 21:25
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
You’re not listening, and you’re not making the point you think you’re making.
Sorry. I am a longtime, dyed-wool dispensationalist with an intense interest in the similarities between the present and the apocalyptic future.
However, when I see "it's" when it should be "its", I stop reading, as I can reasonably assume that the writer is operating from a literacy-free zone.
Back in Moses’s day and in the time of Philo and Josephus, Passover was celebrated when the Sun was in Aries. Aries held the equinox.
But our earth’s wobble has actually changed the equinox star alignment... it is now in Pisces and the sun doesn’t enter Aries until late April- May.
Last year, the sun entered Aries on or around April 11th. There was a new moo at the same time...
I believe it will be later this month.. maybe as late as April 20th or so.. and no new moon would be seen until around the 30th of April.
Some people celebrated Passover at that time, while the sun was in Aries but I think the calendar showed it in march.
It seems the world is using April 14th this year , and the sun will be in Pisces, not Aries?
I can see the age of the fishers (pisces- two fish) of men being a divine ordination but is Aries (the Ram/lamb) one of the signs in the sky God gave Moses and unchangeable even if it is further away from equinox (still I spring)
That doesn’t happen with a new moon until May 1st in 2014...
That would change the fall feasts too.. into Libra, the scales.. which Philo mentions also.. It would fall in Virgo if April 14th is passover( which again, the virgin bride in the ‘church age’ being divinely ordained..
Could passover be made and forced to hit these blood moons by men to start something on their own?
> Don’t forget the Annular Solar Eclipse on April 29 of this year.
I’m sure the LGBT crowd will celebrate this one...
From what I understand the lunar calendar is monitored and regulated very closely by actual observance, and variation from it would be regarded as an abomination, so while someone might be tempted to manipulate in such a manner, it would not likely be without well-known and perhaps even violent protest.
Procession has long been known, understood and accounted for, even in “pop” astrology, for instance all the New Age “Age Of Aquarius” stuff going back to the sixties. So, for serious scholars pursuing the matter in a religious manner, they would not be thrown off by it.
Astrology was practically inseparable from astronomy going back two thousand years ago. That there was meaning encoded in the movement and associated phenomena of the sun, moon, planets and stars was accepted by all. It was the “science” of the day. Now, science says it’s all ordered by physical laws with no further meaning to be derived. This is in opposition to many statements in the Bible.
But, that’s where we are. I don’t think modern science is wrong about the basic ordering of the physical universe, but I do think there is a strong vein of bias against supporting any remotely religious connotation. And, I do believe that there is further meaning. It’s just that it’s all been reduced to opinionated babble with so many bad actors and so many self-interested manipulators that any meaning is very difficult to determine through all the noise and mockery.
Pagans are real superstitious about celestial coincidences, too.
They seem to be very late to understand. This was published seven years ago here on FR. Shabbat Shalom ! Who are these people ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
LOL, clever.
I just want to beat my head against the table every time this comes up.
Its not..O a random unique event is the sky, God is mad.
it is the sky is a clock..it is predictable ..the concept being its God clock when that clock chimes an hour it time for a promise event to happen..
Its fine to critique but at least understand what you critique, it will make your critique better
It like atheists talking about following sky gods, Jews and Christians do not worship a sky god
Jews and Christians worship God the Creator eternal (omnipresent, omnitemprol and ihat is the root cause of all, like physical laws)
I just shake my head when the whack jobs make that claim.
Nibiru is invisible!
BFL
This smells a lot like astrology.
:-P
Now, tetrads aren't necessarily that rare—there was one in 2003—but the fact that each blood moon in this tetrad coincides with major Jewish feast days is rare.
Not really. The Jewish calendar is a lunar based calendar and several holidays as the blogger points out, Passover and Sukkot fall in the 15 day of the Jewish lunar calendar, i.e. on a full moon. But since full lunar eclipse only happen when the moon is full, it would not be all that surprising that eclipses even sometimes tetrads, coincide with Jewish holidays.
The Jewish calendar counts from the traditional date assigned to the creation of the world. It is a lunar calendar that is adjusted to remain in relationship to the seasons of the solar year. As such the monthly calendar more or less lines up with the phases of the moon, with those Jewish holidays falling on or about the 15th of a Jewish month taking place when there is a full moon, and the beginning of a new month corresponding to the appearance of a new moon (Ex. 12:1-2).
From: http://www.northshorejewishcenter.org/services/holiday-guide/
Interesting celestial events already began this week, with the "opposition of Mars"—it's perfect alignment with the sun, and also with Earth.
Oppositions between Earth and Mars happen about every 26 months because the planets are relatively close to one another so it is not exactly a rare event.
Tuesday's blood moon happens on Passover; October's on Sukkot; next April's on Passover again, and the final blood moon of the tetrad falls on Sukkot once again. That last one is the only one that will be visible by Israel.
So? The others were just “practice”?
And:
Dickinson also notes that tetrads aren’t actually that unusual. They occur when there are four successive total lunar eclipses separated by six month periods when the Earth is directly between the Moon and the Sun, first refracting the sunlight through the atmosphere onto the Moon (making it ‘red’) and then blocking all direct illumination (the eclipse).
This isn’t even the first tetrad of this century (that was in 2003-2004) and including this one there will be seven more before the year 2100. And although it is certainly rarer for all four eclipses to coincide with Passover and Sukkot (this has happen eight times since 162 CE) this is still frequently enough to make any concurrent events of historical significance nothing more than coincidence.
Throw a dart at a calendar and you’ll find something of ‘historical significance’ happening on that day. It’s just what history is like.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/blood-moons-the-apocalypse-and-why-this-lunar-eclipse-is-nothing-more-than-coincidence-30167181.html
And I think the bolded part makes a good point. At any point in time, nearly on any given day, there is some sort of visible celestial event, planetary alignments, comets, meteor showers, “super moons”, so called “blood” moons, total lunar or solar eclipses, or a natural disaster like an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, big hurricanes and cyclones, tornado outbreak, floods, droughts, rock slides, etc., etc., etc. And history keeps happening too. There are political upheavals; the beginnings of wars, invasions, assassinations, etc., etc., etc. So at any point in time, yes one can associate a naturally occurring event happening near to some significant historical event but are they “signs” or just a coincidence? I’m going with coincidence as I also don’t believe in palm or tea leave reading or in horoscopes.
I for one am looking forward to getting up early on April 15th to stand and watch in awe the beauty of it.
Signs does not refer to mystical heebee-jeebees. Signs means calculating when to plant crops or shear sheep or calulating when tides occur. Everyday stuff like that.
>>> Signs does not refer to mystical heebee-jeebees.
LoL... you should do your research before embarrassing yourself like that.
The Hebrew translation is “owth” (Sign)
It is used for the following:
a distinguishing mark
banner
remembrance
miraculous sign
omen
warning
So YES... it does mean “mystical heebee jeebees as you put it.
Then you should not tempt God.
Deuteronomy 4:19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
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