A few years ago, pastor and author John Hagee, and also author Mark Blitz, published books that both created a Blood Moon Prophecy frenzy and at the same time cashed in on the frenzy, selling millions of books that capitalized on the End Times hoopla.
That was back in 2014. Nothing happened, other than Hagee and Blitz generating a lot of moola on the hype they had generated.
Fast-forward to this weekend and some Christians are back at the prophecy game trying to make it sound as if the Lunar eclipse means “something” prophetic or apocalyptic is about to happen. [It’s not].
So, in the interest of my own sanity, I’d like to take some time to debunk [re-debunk?] this Blood Moon Prophecy garbage once more.
Before we go too deep, here’s a quick overview: A Blood Moon is simply a lunar eclipse where the moon appears red in color due to the sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere and casting a red shadow on the moon’s surface. The significance that many Christians get overly excited about is that the Jewish Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles often coincide with the appearance of Blood Moons. [More on why this happens a bit later].
Bottom line: Some want us to see these lunar events as signs that God is doing something new, or about to shake things up in the Middle East, or that Jesus is about to return, or that “something” is about to happen.
Of course, these same people are also wanting us to buy their books on the subject. People like John Hagee and Mark Blitz, for example. But let’s examine their arguments and see if there’s anything to this hype.
First of all, the argument in favor of the legitimacy of these Blood Moon signs hinges on the supposition that previous Blood Moon events have proven to be signs of historic significance.
Then they say that there were four blood moons in 1948 which was a sign of the Israeli War of Independence, and that the four blood moons in 1967 was a sign of Israel’s military action to repossess the Old City of Jerusalem.
Sounds convincing? Well…not exactly.
See, the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar.
That means that their feasts and festivals always coincide with full moon events. It also means that lunar eclipses – which only occur when the moon is full – are not rare events in Jewish history. We’ll examine this in more detail later, but first let’s examine those historic events in light of actual evidence.
The lunar eclipse in 1492 wasn’t a “sign” of the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Why? Because the Tribunal that expelled them was established November 1, 1478 which occurred 15 years before the lunar eclipse. Hardly a sign or a warning is it? Plus, the Alhambra Decree, which officially ordered of expulsion of Jews from Spain, was issued in January 1492, which was about 15 months before the lunar eclipse that year.
The 1948 eclipse is also not a sign of the Israeli war of independence. Why? Because that war began on May 15, 1948 and ended March 10, 1949. The first of the four lunar eclipses didn’t happen until just over a month after the war ended. Why would God give anyone a sign about something that had already taken place? That, by definition, is not a sign from God.
The 1967 eclipse is not a sign of Israeli forces taking possession of the Old City of Jerusalem. Why not? Because that took place on June 7, 1967 and the lunar eclipse took place 44 days before that day, and – most importantly – it was not visible from Jerusalem. The next set of blood moons followed over the next year and a half. Again, after the fact.
So, in what way are any of these “signs” of anything? It’s like someone shouting “Look out for that car!” about an hour after your car accident.
BY THE WAY: Most of these blood moon “signs” were not visible from Jerusalem, and/or occured long after the events had already taken place. [Oops. So much for advance warning.]
Let’s be clear, nothing can truly be considered “a sign from God” unless a prophet of God speaks a prophecy – in advance of the event – and then the sign is given as proof.
Keep in mind: No prophecy preceded any of these events and no one gave these lunar eclipses and signs in advance as proofs. No one predicted that the Jews would be expelled from Spain before it happened, for example. So just because things happen we can’t run around looking for signs after the fact. It doesn’t work that way.
Here’s another point: Tetrads (or the occurrence of four consecutive lunar eclipses) are very common. They are not rare. They happen very, very often, in fact. Over the last 4,000 years there have been numerous lunar tetrads (or Blood Moons) on record, and between 1999 BC and today there have been 111 Blood Moons.
Do you know what significant events coincided with all of those? Nothing. Because they happen all the time and are therefore not “signs” of anything happening in the world.
It would be like pointing to the migration of Canada Geese as a sign of some political shift in China. The two events are not related, and one of those events (the migration of Canada Geese) happens every year about the same time, regardless of what’s happening in Chinese politics.
Of the 55 Blood Moons that have occurred since the First Century AD, there have been 7 which coincided with Jewish Holy Days, and none of them were seen as signs of anything significant at the time.
To put everything in another perspective, here are some very significant events in the history of the nation of Israel which DID NOT coincide with any Blood Moon signs.
There were NO Blood Moons during:
1446 BC (Israel left Egypt in the Exodus)
1406 BC (Joshua entered Canaan)
723 BC (Ten northern tribes went into Assyrian Captivity)
587 BC (Judah went into Babylonian captivity)
538 BC (Cyrus proclaims the Jews could return to Canaan)
533 BC (Jews began return from Babylon and arrived in Jerusalem)
1-2 BC (Jesus was born)
33 AD (Jesus was crucified) *Solar, but not lunar eclipse
70 AD (Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed by Romans)
135 AD (Hadrian renamed the city of Jerusalem, killed many Jews and expelled the rest)
1943 AD (Hitler killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust)
Put another way, here are four more examples of when Tetrads (or a series of four Blood Moons) fell on all four Jewish feast days:
162 AD
795 AD
842 AD
860 AD
Guess what significant historic events happened during these Blood Moons?
Wrong! Nothing happened.
This is why authors like Hagee and Blitz totally ignore these, because they can’t point to anything that seems to support their bogus theory.
THE LUNAR CALENDAR
Statistically, speaking, since Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles always happen on full moons, and take place on the 15th day of two different months within the year, there is a 1-in-6 chance that an eclipse will occur in at least one of these festivals annually.
In the twentieth century, 37 of the 230 lunar eclipses fell on either Passover and Feast of Tabernacles, which is mildly fascinating, but completely irrelevant to anyone interested in Biblical prophecy.
But, what if something significant DOES happen in relation to these Blood Moons?
Well, things happen all the time. My point is that if anything does happen in the world, we cannot point to the Blood Moons as any sort of prophetic sign.
Enjoy the lunar eclipse. Take good pictures. Marvel at God’s creation. But don’t give in to the fear and the hype.
The Blood Moons are not signs of anything other than the Glory of God as the Heavens declare His majesty and pour fourth speech all day long.
If you’re interested in more articles like this, I’ve written an entire book about the Second Coming, the End Times and the return of Jesus called Jesus Unexpected: Ending the End Times To Become The Second Coming and it’s available on Kindle, in Print and on Audible.
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NOTE: This article was informed from a variety of sources, including the blog of Steve Rudd, specifically his research found HERE and the blog of Richard Edmondson.
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Keith Giles is the author of the 7-part best-selling “Jesus Un” book series from Quoir Publishing. His latest -and final book – in this series, Jesus Unarmed: How The Prince Of Peace Disarms Our Violence is available now. Keith is also the host of Second Cup with Keith [a new solo podcast available now on the Ethos Radio App, for Apple and Android and on Spotify; and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast [along with co-hosts Matthew Distefano, Dr. Katy Valentine, and Derrick Day], and the new Apostate’s Anonymous podcast with Matthew Distefano.
He and his wife, Wendy, currently live in El Paso, TX.
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