Blood Moons Hype

[TK]

I am sure all of you have read or heard about the tetrad of blood moons we are currently in the midst of. The link below summarizes what the hype is all about:

http://bloodmoonscoming.com/?page_id=127

I was hoping the reasonable people here could give me your perspectives on this.

My gut reaction is not to get too excited about "signs" that are a function of predictable orbital mechanics. In other words, this tetrad of blood moons has been in the works for millennia and the next tetrad is already in the works as well.

For some reason when I have read the scriptures that talk about the moon turning to blood or the sun going dark I have never associated these with eclipses. I always just assumed that God would turn the moon blood red and it would be visible from everywhere, and that He would simply stop the sun from giving it's light. He doesn't need eclipses to do this. Plus, eclipses aren't visible everywhere.

What is your take on all this?

[dwilkins]

If you base your festival calendar on full moons then eventually you are going to end up with eclipses on your festival date.

If you think that these eclipsed moons are meaningful then you might consider that at least some of the time (and some would say most of the time) they coincide with something that's bad for the Jews.

If you don't think they are meaningful then you will probably point out that most of the time since Christ nothing interesting has happened.

Personally, I don't think they are prophetically meaningful. But, if I wanted to manipulate a large number of Christians I might consider some sort of action around those dates so that they will think they are prophetically significant (or that you are acting with God's permission).

Doug

[Michelle]

Once at a Calvary Chapel service, the pastor announced that the Second Coming was closer today than any time in history. Well, yeah, it's closer every day. The tetrad of "blood moons" is supposed to get the ball moving, apparently. But, still, we're getting closer every day, even if it's still hundreds of years away. Just saying.

[dwilkins]

Once at a Calvary Chapel service, the pastor announced that the Second Coming was closer today than any time in history. Well, yeah, it's closer every day. The tetrad of "blood moons" is supposed to get the ball moving, apparently. But, still, we're getting closer every day, even if it's still hundreds of years away. Just saying.

That sounds suspiciously like Paul's comment that it was closer to them at the time of writing of Romans than when they first believed. Paul's comment, though, provides a fairly narrow option for fulfillment (unless he was wrong or lying, of course).

Doug

[paulespino]

A friend email me regarding this. I listened to Steve's tape and according to "My" understanding of Steve's tape, I replied to him the following: There is an alternative view of this passage, the alternative view is that Joel was referring to the event that happened in 70 AD.

Joel 2 : 30-31
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
There is an alternative view of this passage, the alternative view is that Joel was referring to the event that happened in 70 AD.

In Isaiah 13:9-17, Isaiah used the same language as Joel, Isaiah also used the word moon, stars of heaven and constellations will not give light, the sun will be darkened and the moon will stop to shine, check

( Isaiah 13:10).

The way Joel describe the coming of the Lord ( Judgment ) is not uncommon with the old testament writer such as Isaiah. If you will read Isaiah 13: 9-17, you will see that Isaiah uses the same symbol as Joel did but Isaiah was not referring to the end of the world but rather to the judgment of God against the Babylonian empire under the authority of Nebuchadnezzar. Therefore Isaiah uses the word moon, and stars of heaven as a symbol to refer to God’s judgment and this happened during the attack of the Medes and Persian against Nebuchadnezzar ( Isaiah 13:17) .

In Isaiah 13:17, Isaiah tells us that God used the Medes empire to punish the jews and the Babylonian kingdom.
The question is to what event in the world history Joel is referring to? Was he referring to the end of the world or was he referring to the event that happened in 70 AD. There are bible scholars such as FF Bruce who are saying that Joel was referring to the event in 70 AD.

According to Josephus (a jewish historian), they saw sign and wonders in heaven
during the attack of the Romans in 70 AD .

9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 “I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts
And in the day of His fierce anger.
14 It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man takes up;
Every man will turn to his own people,
And everyone will flee to his own land.
15 Everyone who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16 Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.
17 “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.

[Paidion]

According to Josephus (a jewish historian), they saw sign and wonders in heaven
during the attack of the Romans in 70 AD .

Can you provide the reference for that?

[paulespino]

I will try to find a reference for this.

I heard Steve mentioned this on his tape if " my understanding is correct ".

[jarrod]

http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-6.htm

Chapter 5, Paragraph 3 includes some of what he is probably talking about.

Can you provide the reference for that?

[darinhouston]

Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future desolation, but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them. Thus there was a star (20) resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also before the Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, (21) [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also, a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner (22) [court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence." But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the temple, (23) began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not he either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on with the same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" And when Albinus (for he was then our procurator) asked him, Who he was? and whence he came? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman, and dismissed him. Now, during all the time that passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor was seen by them while he said so; but he every day uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" Nor did he give ill words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food; but this was his reply to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come. This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for seven years and five months, without growing hoarse, or being tired therewith, until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; for as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!" And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also!" there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost.

[paulespino]

Hi, Darin do you have the link for this.

thanks