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And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs, to mark seasons and days and years…” Genesis 1:14 (NIV)
Having a real aversion to doomsday predictions, I’ve never paid any attention to people claiming to know when the end is near–and I still don’t.
Frankly, or maybe shamefully, I’ve never explored the book of Revelation much either. As a mother of nine natural born children, I filed it under the same category as giving birth: nobody gets to sleep through it–you’ll know when it happens.
However, as a Christian who believes in the God of Israel, it’s becoming glaringly obvious we need to understand how the Creator of the universe records timenin the heavens. The “expanse of the sky” is a mathematical clock by which all creation keeps time.
Apparently, that’s why our Jewish friends keep a separate calendar. Good to know, right?
In 2008 Mark Biltz saw an image circulating on the Internet of a blood-moon over the Dome of the Rock. It struck him. As a pastor, his first thoughts went to scripture that describes the moon turning to blood.
Joel 2:30-31:
“I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
So he did what any man of faith would do–checked NASA’s website. What he discovered has Christians around the world checking their calendar–and looking over Jewish shoulders at theirs’.
According to NASA’s website, beginning April 15, 2014, Mark found that there will be a total of four blood moons back-to-back with no partial lunar eclipses in between–known as a tetrad.
Using NASA’s calendar, Pastor Biltz overlaid the biblical calendar, and found all four blood-moons fall on the Jewish high holy days.
- April 15, 2014 First day of Passover
- Oct. 8, 2014 First day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)
- April 2, 2015 First day of Passover
- Sept. 27, 2015 First day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)
Biltz points out that blood-moons falling on holy days only occurred three times in the past 500 years. Each time, the heavenly clock moved the hand of providence over Israel.
- 1492 Jews expelled from Spain
A quick search gave a little more relevance to that brief description for those of us only equating 1492 with our American history:
“In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.” So begins Christopher Columbus’s diary. The expulsion that Columbus refers to was so cataclysmic an event that ever since, the date 1492 has been almost as important in Jewish history as in American history. On July 30 of that year, the entire Jewish community, some 200,000 people, were expelled from Spain.
Tens of thousands of refugees died while trying to reach safety. In some instances, Spanish ship captains charged Jewish passengers exorbitant sums, then dumped them overboard in the middle of the ocean. In the last days before the expulsion, rumors spread throughout Spain that the fleeing refugees had swallowed gold and diamonds, and many Jews were knifed to death by brigands hoping to find treasures in their stomachs.” Jewish Virtual Library
Not only do we have the extremely rare tetrad falling on Jewish holy days, but add to this the fact that between these blood moons will be a total solar eclipse.
According to Biltz, a lunar eclipse is a sign, or warning, to Israel but a solar eclipse is a sign, or warning, to the gentile nations.
It may seem odd that a Christian pastor would make this discovery, however Biltz’s ministry is steeped in teaching Christians about their Hebrew roots, and the importance of the Jewish feasts.
“Yeshua died for our sins on Passover, was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, resurrected from death on First Fruits, and then sent the Holy Spirit to indwell believers on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot). If He fulfilled the spring Feasts to the day of His first coming He will fulfill the Fall Feasts to the day of His second coming.”
What does it all mean?
Of course there is speculation around the web that ranges from the second coming of Christ to the rebuilding of the temple.
John Hagee has a new book out, Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change. In an interview with Fox News’ Lauren Green, Hagee said,
“This is something, that the Bible using the sun, the moon, and the stars as a communication system to humanity says something is about to change and world history is going to change forever.”
Hagee also points out that each time this blood-moon pattern has occurred on the Jewish Feasts, it has coincided with the Jewish people going from “tragedy to triumph.”
Israel is very aware of impending tragedy.
From USAToday.com:
“A new report that says Iran may need as little as a month to produce enough uranium for a nuclear bomb is further evidence for why Israel will take military action before that happens, an Israeli defense official said Friday.
“We have made it crystal clear – in all possible forums, that Israel will not stand by and watch Iran develop weaponry that will put us, the entire Middle East and eventually the world, under an Iranian umbrella of terror,” Danny Danon, Israel’s deputy defense minister told USA TODAY.
Iran is developing and installing new and advanced centrifuges that enable Iran to enrich even low-enriched uranium to weapons grade uranium needed for nuclear weapons within weeks, Danon said.”
Matthew 24:8 (NIV)
Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceive you. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
It’s really getting harder to sleep through this.
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Photo credit Shutterstock: Stanimir G.Stoev
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