The Blood Moon Tetrad Prophecy: Real or another false rumor?

The Blood Moon Tetrad Prophecy: Real or another false rumor? 

Prophecy - Signs 
Thursday, April 17, 2014 
J.L. Robb 



There’s a lot of brouhaha going on today, and for the past few months, about the Four Blood Moon Prophecy. Pastor John Hagee has written a best-seller about it, the network news is talking about it and scientists are refuting.
The purported prophecy is based primarily on these Bible scriptures:

Quote :

“The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” ~Joel 2:31 NIV

Quote :

"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 NIV

Believers or non, the show started April 15 about 3:00 AM. You can watch the rerun on theinternet.


Eschatological Christians, those who have a passion about biblical prophecy fulfilment, often share a near obsession to see something biblical in almost anything. A comet, a volcanic eruption, large earthquakes or disease, they are either judgments or harbingers of judgments to come. Really?


Actually there is no biblical prophecy concerning a “blood moon tetrad,” anywhere. There are biblical references to the moon turning to blood or appearing as blood, and the sun turning black, like sackcloth.


According to the Bible Dictionary, sackcloth was made of black goats' hair, coarse, rough, and thick, used for sacks, and also worn by mourners (Gen. 37:34; 42:25; 2 Sam. 3:31; Esther 4:1, 2; Ps. 30:11, etc.), and as a sign of repentance (Matt. 11:21). It was put upon animals by the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3:.


Anyone who has ever seen a total eclipse of the sun has seen a sun as black as sackcloth. This solar eclipse occurs when the moon travels between the earth and the sun and totally blocks the sun, except for the corona around the periphery. The only time the corona can be viewed is during a total solar eclipse like the one pictured.


But is the sun really black? When the Bible says black, I think it means black, not black with a ring of light.


There have been other end times predictions, many actually.


In 1974 we had The Jupiter Effect, a book written by John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann. Gribbin is from England and graduated from the University of Sussex in 1966 with a degree in physics. He then earned his Master of Science degree in astronomy in 1967, also from the University of Sussex. In 1971, Gribbin earned his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge.


According to Wikipedia, in 1974 Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann published The Jupiter Effect that predicted the alignment of the planets in a quadrant on one side of the sun on  March 10, 1982 would cause gravitational effects that would trigger earthquakes in the San Andreas Fault, possibly wiping out Los Angeles and its suburbs. Of course, March 1982 came and went with no great earthquakes and Los Angeles remains. These highly intelligent men had made yet another doom-and-gloom prediction that never came to fruition.


A Christian evangelist and radio talk show host, Harold Camping, predicted the end as we know it for May 21, 2011. When May 22 rolled around with no disasters, Harold said his calculations were off and it would all end October 21, 2011. No cigar.


So back to the Blood Moon predictions. Is this tetrad of four blood moons predictions real or not? Does it portend the Second Coming?


I think not. I do think it’s selling a lot of books and DVDs though. Doom and gloom always makes money for the predictors it seems.


This from Classical Astronomy:

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“Fact is, there’s really nothing supernatural about eclipses, and no reason to believe that such common, well-understood natural phenomena should be construed as a divine sign in fulfillment of Scripture every time one comes around. Unfortunately, the term Blood Moon will probably now stick, and be associated with all future eclipses, further perpetuating this confusion.” ~Jack Ryan, Classical Astronomy

A tetrad of blood moons refers to the fairly uncommon event of four TOTAL (not partial) lunar eclipses in a row. It is uncommon but not unheard of. There is another interesting tidbit about this particular tetrad because each eclipse lands squarely on a Jewish biblical Holiday.  

Quote :

April 15, 2014	Passover
October 8, 2014	Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
April 4, 2015	Passover
September 28, 2015	Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)

To listen to book/DVD selling promoters like Mark Biltz on youtube.com of this odd and rare phenomenon, one gets the impression this has never happened before. Not true, and this is what red-flags me. Intentional omission is lying.
According to EarthSky.org, lunar tetrads occurred on Passover and Sukkot in the following years with no notable Jewish events or catastrophes:

• A.D. 162-163
  
• A.D. 795-796
  
• A.D. 842-843
  
• A.D. 860-861
  

According to Blood Moon Propheteers (or profiteers) the previous tetrads of this nature have been entrées to major Jewish events, ie. 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed away to find a safe home for Jews. This assumption is based on recent reanalysis of Columbus’ roots and indicate to some that he was Jewish and pretended to be Catholic to escape the persecution in Spain. 


 Thousands of Jews were tortured and murdered during the Spanish Inquisition starting in 1478.


The dilemma is this: The first of the four blood moons occurred in 1493 after the event.


When we get to the blood moon tetrad of 1948 and the reestablishment of Israel, the tetrad didn’t start in 1948 but 1949, a year after Israel was reborn.
The tetrad of 1967-68 that purportedly forewarns of the 6 Day War and the capture of Jerusalem was preceded by the first eclipse of the tetrad by two months. Three more eclipses followed.


With this said, it won’t take long to see if this tetrad is an omen, a harbinger of things to come. Israel is certainly sitting on a precipice of disaster, surrounded by countries that want to kill them. Russian troops are in Syria and missiles are fired into Israel almost every day by jihadists. This brings another scripture to mind…

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"When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.” ~Luke 21:20 NIV

One night about 3:00 AM my daughter Amber and I got up to watch a blood moon. She was 8 at the time, and when it was all over she said, “Dad, that wasn’t red, it was orange.” And it was. Blood red is red and orange is orange. We shall see.




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