A relatively rare series of lunar and solar eclipses, which coincides with important dates on the Jewish calendar in 2014 and 2015, is generating a significant amount of speculation that these could be signs connected with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
The four consecutive total lunar eclipses depicted in the above graphic from John Hagee’s website are known as a “blood moon tetrad.” Interestingly, each of the lunar eclipses falls on two specific Jewish feast days in both 2014 and 2015, namely, Passover and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). In addition, a solar eclipse will occur on the first day of the religious new year on the Jewish calendar, Nisan 1, which corresponds to March 20 in 2015.
The speculation that this blood moon tetrad may be directly connected with Christ’s return is completely based on speculation connected with biblical prophecies found most notably in Joel 2 (and as quoted by Peter in Acts 2), Matthew 24 and Revelation 6.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
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 2:30-31, NKJV)
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:29–30, NKJV)
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, (Revelation 6:12–15, NKJV)
These passages refer to God’s coming judgment upon the earth as part of what is known in the Old Testament as “the Day of the Lord” (or frequently just “that day”). Furthermore, these passages clearly indicate that there will be specific events in nature which will serve as signs that God’s judgment is at hand or that it is already underway. When understood in light of other passages, we know that this judgment will begin shortly after the rapture of the church and prior to the Lord’s return to the earth, during the seven-year tribulation period.
However, do the Scriptures genuinely support the conclusion that these upcoming eclipses are the specific signs predicted by Jesus and Joel and which were shown to John the apostle?
Knowing the Day and Hour…
Although most prophecy teachers who believe the coming blood moon tetrad is connected with Christ’s return want to avoid the charge of “date-setting,” they are also going to great lengths to persuade people that these eclipses could very well represent prophetic fulfillment. For example, in his recently released book, Four Blood Moons: Something is about to Change, John Hagee writes:
The fourth series of Four Blood Moons is coming! They are extremely rare even by scientific standards. God is shouting to us, “Something big is about to happen!” However, the coming Four Blood Moons of 2014–15 does not mean the Rapture is going to happen during that time. Why? Because the Rapture could happen at any moment. What they are telling us is that God is getting ready to change the course of human history once again. He is preparing to display the next series of signs in the heavens.1
This is a very definitive statement by Hagee and one that is going to be difficult to walk back if it turns out that he is wrong.
The inspiration for Hagee’s book is found in the work of Hebrew Roots pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries, who was perhaps the first one to discover (in 2008) that the blood moon tetrad of 2014 and 2015 would fall on Jewish feast days. His discovery was a result of doing research on the part NASA’s website devoted to lunar and solar eclipses. At that time, some speculated that the rapture might occur in 2008, with Christ’s return in 2015, because of the intervening seven years which would have corresponded to the tribulation period. In 2008, Blitz wrote the following on his blog:
When I talk about the second coming I am not referring to the rapture but to Messiah’s feet landing on the Mt of Olives in Zech 14. I am not setting dates for the rapture. The only dates I am giving is the dates Nasa gives us for eclipses and the dates God gives us on His calendar and then I bring in the connection. You can do whatever you want according to your own theology with this information. With much humor I say, “Put it in your own theological pipe and smoke it however you want.”
I did say, and again say, IF these eclipses in 2015 are what the Lord was referring to, then 2015 would look like a possible year for His feet to land on the Mt of Olives. And, IF this is true then the tribulation could, not would, start this fall at the Feast of Trumpets, (which technically is 2 days long: KJV Matthew 24:36 But of that day
and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only). In light of all the prophetic events going on I would say it is likely but I’m not saying definitely.2
While I fully believe that we may be in the last of the last days, and I also understand that we must always be prepared for the Lord’s appearing, there are very real dangers associated with attempting to assign prophetic fulfillment to specific current geo-political, religious, societal or natural events. Many have tried to do this in the past, leading to scores of failed predictions concerning the rapture, the tribulation, the rise of the antichrist, Christ’s return and the end of the world.
Of course we certainly don’t want to miss any signs from the Lord, but concerning His return, Jesus issued this warning:
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. . . .Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:36–44, NKJV)
Mark records that Jesus said that even He was among those who did not know the time of His return by including the rather remarkable phrase “…nor the Son”:
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. (Mark 13:32–33, NKJV)
Some argue, however, that rather than stating the impossibility of knowing the timing of His return in advance, the Lord was actually using a well-known Hebrew idiom to inform His disciples of the precise time of the Second Coming. In an article on the Hebraic Heritage Ministries website, the author expands on ideas gleaned from a 1996 book by Avi Ben Mordechai, Signs in the Heavens:
Understanding the expression “No man knows the day or hour” is not possible by simply taking the English translation literally, because in the book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, we are given EXACT descriptions of timing, relative to KEY events – such as the shutting down of the altar sacrifices in Jerusalem at the MID-POINT of the 70th week. Dan 9:27
Jesus was asked, “When shall these things be?” Matt 24:3
His answer ties us in to a very specific event (The Abomination of Desolation) which can be measured on our calendars: “When you therefore shall see the Abomination Of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoever reads, let him understand:)…” Matt 24:15. It is now clear that “no man knows the day or hour” does NOT mean “no man knows the day or hour” as we read it from a modern-day English perspective. (emphasis mine).
The following chapter contains edited excerpts from Avi Ben Mordechai’s commentaries and builds on them aiming to explain that the Holy Bible does in fact reveal the “day and hour” or “exact timing” of our Lord’s return.
No One Knows the Day or the Hour?
Christians over the centuries have separated themselves from their Hebraic roots causing the misunderstanding of key Jewish biblical idioms. An idiom is also a figure of speech. When Y’shua (Jesus) uttered His famous words concerning the Messianic Era in Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:26, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”, He used a common Jewish figure of speech referring to a specific Jewish Festival. In essence He was saying, “I am coming for My Bride on such and such a day! Be watching!” What day could the Jewish idiom be referring to? Keep reading!
The above article then goes into a very lengthy discussion of the matter in question, while the Sabbath Covenant website more succinctly explains:
The day and hour of His return the Bride does not know, as you never know when the Rosh Chodesh will appear. The phrase “no one knows the day or hour” is a Hebrew idiom for the Rosh Chodesh/New Moon Festival, which ushers in the Feast of Teruah (Trumpets) and the fall feasts of YHVH. Many times YHVH has the new moon tarry over Jerusalem for one, two or more days, before coming into its young crescent sighting for the announcing of the New Moon Festival (John 14:3). Therefore we wait and watch for the “day and hour” of His return. When that Last Trump blows, the Bride trims her lamp and goes out to meet her Bridegroom for the start of their wedding. (Matthew 25:1-13).
In other words, because the lunar cycle is approximately (but not exactly) 29.5 days, the precise timing of the appearance of the new moon sometimes falls on the 29th day of the month and sometimes on the 30th. Since the new moon appears near sunset and because according to Hebrew reckoning, each day begins at sundown, the sighting could be slightly before or slightly after the start of the new day – thus, because the hour is unknown, the same is true of the day.
The Feast of Trumpets (Yom Terueh) is the only feast that begins with a new moon, falling on the first day of the lunar month of Tishri on the Jewish calendar. Tishri is the seventh month of the religious year, but Tishri also corresponds to the first month of the civil year—with the first day of that month being known as “Rosh Hashanah” or “head of the year.” Furthermore, because the Feast of Tabernacles occurs on the 15th day of Tishri, which is when full lunar eclipses will occur in both 2014 and 2015, and because these dates are now being suggested as signs of Christ’s return, the speculation is that the rapture may occur on the Feast of Trumpets in one of those years.
At first glance, such an explanation of Jesus’ words concerning not knowing the day or the hour may seem to be plausible and thus unlock Jesus’ statement by revealing the timing of His return, right? Well, not exactly.
The exact day and time of the appearance of the new moon is neither random, nor mystical, nor determined by the Lord via miraculous intervention each month such that the specific timing would be known only to Him. Prior to the development of telescopes and astronomy as a scientific discipline, such celestial events did seem to have an uncertain, perhaps even mystical quality to them. However, now that we understand the mechanics of planetary motion, the timing, along with every other parameter associated with the movement of all of the bodies within our solar system can be calculated very precisely for decades, centuries and even millennia both in the past and into the future.
For example, the NASA website has an area dedicated to lunar and solar eclipses, with a full catalog of lunar eclipses over five millennia, from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 3000. The first graphic shows a portion of the NASA catalog for the lunar eclipses from 2011 through 2015, while the second graphic shows detailed information concerning solar eclipses in the first five years of the first century A.D. These charts clearly demonstrate just how precisely the eclipses can be calculated.
The ability to calculate solar and lunar eclipses with such precision provides crucial insight into Jesus’ words concerning no one except the Father knowing the day or hour of His return. One might argue that Jesus was using the Hebrew idiom to cryptically signal to his disciples that He would return on the Feast of Trumpets, the timing of which could not be known precisely at that point in history. However, we now know that the motion of the sun, moon and planets was established at the moment of creation by Jesus Christ himself as the Creator (Colossians 1:16). This means that, in contrast to those to whom He was speaking, Christ would have known precisely when every eclipse would occur throughout history. And so Jesus, himself, has always known that a blood moon tetrad would occur precisely on Jewish feast days in 2014 and 2015. And since the exact timing of these events is not simply a matter of foreknowledge, but rather a matter of simple mathematical calculations, the angels in heaven could just as easily have been able to determine each time this would happen throughout history, as well—and it has happened several times.
The “Imminency” Problem
Another significant problem with the theory that Christ’s return must be tied to a blood moon tetrad that falls on Jewish feast days has to do with the doctrine of the imminent rapture of the church. Dispensational theologians have long recognized that the Scriptures teach that while there are many prophesied events which will take place after the rapture, there are none which must take place prior to it. In other words, the rapture could happen at any moment.
One thing that needs to be noted at this point has to do with the difference between the rapture and the second coming of Christ in relation to His statement about not knowing the day or the hour. In the context of Matthew 24;where the Lord is teaching about events which will take place after the rapture and during the seven-year tribulation period, it is clear that He is specifically referring to His return to the earth at the end of the tribulation, when He will arrive from heaven (Revelation ch. 19) and touch down on the Mount of Olives (Zech ch. 14). Therefore, the matter of not knowing the day or the hour isn’t directly connected to the rapture itself. However, between not knowing the day or hour of Christ’s return to the earth and the fact that the rapture is imminent, also suggests that no one can know the day or hour of the rapture either.
Another factor to consider with regard to Jesus’ words is that the disciples may not have yet received specific revelation concerning the relative timing of the rapture, tribulation and second coming. They were still looking at things from an “Old Testament perspective” which saw the Lord’s coming as a single event, rather than the two phases we see in the New Testament. And even if the Lord had provided that information to them at some point, it was apparently not widely known or completely clear until Paul wrote about it in 1 and 2 Thessalonians about twenty years later and then John received further revelation roughly forty years after that.
This being said, there is really no consensus concerning the relationship between the timing of the blood moons and the rapture, tribulation and the second coming. In first half of 2008, when Mark Biltz first discovered that a tetrad of lunar eclipses would take place on Jewish feast days in 2014 and 2015, he speculated that the eclipses in 2014 might take place during the tribulation, with the last eclipse in 2015 connected to Christ’s return to the earth. Then taking into account the seven years of the tribulation, he speculated that the rapture might occur later in 2008.
Since that obviously did not happen, the speculation by some is now that the rapture could occur two weeks prior to to the lunar eclipses in the fall of 2014 or 2015 on the Feast of Trumpets. However, the theory that the rapture must occur on the Feast of Trumpets is not something that just developed in the context of the coming blood moon tetrad.
However, if the rapture must occur on the Feast of Trumpets, then for every year it doesn’t happen, yet another entire year would need to pass until the day when the rapture could again possibly occur. Looking at it another way, over the course of a century there are 100 (approximately) Feasts of Trumpets, which when added together is a total of less than four months of days when Christ could have come for His church, and conversely there would be over 99 years and 8 months of days when Christ could not have come.
This problem is compounded if the return of Christ could only be in connection with a blood moon occurring on the Feast of Tabernacles. For example, during the last century, between 1901 and 2000, total lunar eclipses occurred in the month of Tishri only seven times. The longest stretch between total lunar eclipses occurring on the Feast of Tabernacles was when the first one of the century occurred on October 17, 1902 and the second occurred on September 26, 1931.3 This means that there was a gap of nearly thirty years when the rapture could not have happened if one accepts the premise of the blood moon / Feast of Trumpets theory.
However, the problem is compounded exponentially if the return of Christ could only happen in connection with an entire blood moon tetrad occurring on Jewish Feast days. In the last five hundred years, including this year and next, this will have happened only four times—in 1493-94, 1949-50, 1967-68 and 2014-15. If the coming blood moon tetrad of this year and next is a sign directly associated with the rapture or the second coming of Christ to the earth, then that means that it could not have occurred at any time over the last forty years, meaning that our watching and waiting during that time has been completely in vain—and our warning people of the Lord’s imminent coming in the clouds to receive the church unto himself has been foolish—or worse. And if these events must be tied to any blood moon tetrad on the Jewish feast days in general, then that means Christ could not have returned at any time between 1495 and 1949—a period of over 450 years.
All this would seem to completely undermine Jesus’ words concerning being alert and watching because He could come at any time. After referring to the judgment by flood in the days of Noah, Jesus warned:
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:42–44, NKJV)
After this, Jesus drove the point home by using an illustration of a man who left an untrustworthy servant in charge of his household while he away on business:
But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. (Matthew 24:48–25:1, NKJV)
Jesus continued this extended exhortation by using a parable about ten virgins who were invited to a wedding, of whom five acted irresponsibly and therefore were not ready to go with the bridegroom when the time to go to the wedding came without warning:
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. (Matthew 25:10–13, NKJV)
The Nature of Signs Vs. Signs in Nature
One of the most frequently quoted passages of Scripture by those who believe the coming blood moon tetrad is a sign of Christ’s coming is Genesis 1:14
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; (Genesis 1:14, NKJV)
The argument is that God has told us that He specifically set up the present lunar and solar cycles to specifically function as signs of major events such as Christ’s return. However, there are several significant problems with this understanding of Genesis 1:14. The first is that it actually reverses the meaning of the verse. The point the Lord was making was that He had set up the universe, and specifically our solar system, such that the combination of the earth’s and moon’s rotation and orbits would establish fixed, regular intervals of time—days, weeks, months and years—according to which He could then prescribe when His people would engage in various activities and meet various obligations in every sphere of life, including the agricultural, social, civil and spiritual / religious realms.
In other words, the sun, moon and stars were “signs” that provided a completely natural and absolutely predictable frame of reference. We could call these “providential signs,” which stand in stark contrast to “miraculous signs” that God would give in connection with His direct miraculous intervention at various points in history. Miraculous signs are neither natural nor predictable. In fact, if they were natural and predictable they wouldn’t even be recognized as signs for which God would be the only possible explanation. And “signs” that cannot be recognized as such are really not signs at all.
Those who are trying to argue that the coming blood moons are signs from God that the end is near point to God’s frequent use of things in nature as described throughout Scripture. However, they consistently seem to miss the obvious concerning what is going on and that those signs are fundamentally different from predictable events in nature such as lunar and solar eclipses.
Frequently, we see God giving miraculous signs as either a warning of judgment or as the judgment itself. And even though they often involve His use of things in nature, as noted above, they can’t be classified as “natural” at all.
For example, when God judged the earth by flood (Genesis ch. 6-9), He did it through nature, but what happened could never have occurred naturally. When God gave signs to Pharaoh and brought judgment against Egypt (Exodus ch. 5-12), he used many things found in nature, such as frogs, gnats, locusts and hail, but He manipulated them such that no one could have reasonably thought they were just natural occurrences. When the Lord parted the Red Sea (Exodus ch. 14), He used wind, but no “natural” wind could have caused what happened on that day. Similarly, Joshua’s “long day” (Joshua ch. 10) involved the rotation of the earth and the relative position of the sun in the sky over Israel, but the only explanation for what took place was God’s supernatural intervention. When the Lord Jesus Christ was born there was some sort of celestial body which became visible as a sign, and magi who had seen this star in the East followed it to Bethlehem as it went before them and as they approached the star stopped over where Jesus was (Matthew ch. 2). And there are many other examples.
All of these were signs in nature, but they were categorically different than the coming blood moons this year and next. Because these are completely natural and absolutely predictable, even with the interesting fact that they will fall on Jewish Feast days, they cannot biblically function as signs warning of God’s impending judgment or some other major event. Something that occurs naturally, predictably and with any regularity simply doesn’t work as a sign because it isn’t like any other biblical sign. And because of this, even those who love the Lord and His Word the most would be the most likely to miss it. This just doesn’t work.
Beyond this, as one reads the descriptions of the signs connected with the sun and moon in both the prophecies by Joel and Jesus, and then the visions given to John of their prophetic fulfillment in Revelation, one gets the sense that these are anything but normal total eclipses. The duration of totality for both lunar and solar eclipses is so short that it is measured in just minutes and seconds. And in the case of solar eclipses, totality occurs along a very narrow path on the face of the earth, such that it is not even a major event for all but a very small portion of the world’s population. How could such an event be a sign to the world?
Furthermore, these prophecies were given specifically to Israel so that they could understand that God’s judgment was at hand or had already begun. Yet the path of totality for the solar eclipse in 2015 doesn’t fall anywhere close to Israel. So how could this eclipse be a sign in Israel?
Beyond even these things, the prophecies seem to suggest that the moon turning to blood and the sun being darkened like sackcloth are simultaneous events and ones which affect the entire earth. If that is true, then there is another problem because the closest that solar and lunar eclipses can occur is fifteen days apart. This is because the positions of the earth and moon relative to the sun are reversed depending on whether it is a solar or lunar eclipse. Solar eclipses can only occur right around the new moon when the moon is between the earth and the sun, while lunar eclipses can only occur during a full moon when the earth is between the moon and the sun.
The Potential Danger and a Word of Caution
Because so many have been making predictions concerning the rapture, the second coming of Christ and the end of the world for so many years, no doubt there are many who have become very disillusioned with prophecy and prophecy teachers. For some it has meant much more than simple disillusionment. Over the years, some have had their lives completely destroyed as they have left family members behind or have given away everything in anticipation that the rapture was going to occur on a specific day. When Harold Camping predicted two different dates for the rapture in 2011, there even were reports of at least one person committing suicide. Now, the question concerns what will happen if the rapture doesn’t occur by the time of the last full lunar eclipse in 2015.
Even with the caveats that no one is setting absolute dates, this issue has garnered a huge amount of attention as can be seen with a simple Google search on “blood moons” which yields almost half a million hits. There are entire websites devoted to this subject. There are a number of radio and television interviews dealing with the blood moon tetrad. There are videos on YouTube. DVDs have been produced. There are also at least two books, with Mark Biltz’s book coming out soon.
The following two graphics show the current rankings of John Hagee’s book, the first being the paperback version and the second being the Kindle version. These make it clear that he is definitely having an impact on the church with his speculation.
There are two significant and very real dangers associated with the hype surrounding the total lunar and solar eclipses this year and next. The first danger is that because biblically the rapture really could occur at any moment, many could be caught unawares if they think they can legitimately wait until the Feast of Trumpets on October 8, 2014 or September 28, 2015 to do something about their spiritual condition.
The second danger is that if these predictions fail as have others in the past, for how many will this be the last straw and as a result they decide to have nothing more to do with prophecy teachers or even the Bible anymore. Because of disillusionment and the resulting skepticism, many could easily fall into the trap described by the Apostle Peter in his second letter:
. . . knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3–4, NKJV)
Does this mean that it is impossible that the Lord might do something significant on one or several of these feast days on which there will be solar and lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015? Not at all. He can do what He wants, when He wants.
However, whether the rapture takes place before, during or after these events, we must always heed the Lord’s words as previously noted:
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:42–44, NKJV)