It all began when Pastor Mark Biltz of el Shaddai Ministries discovered a rare string of lunar and solar eclipses on NASA's website and connected them to the Jewish calendar. Four lunar eclipses (known as "Blood Moons" for their reddish color) will occur on God's annual Holy days of Passover and Sukkot in the years 2014 and 2015. Two solar eclipses will also take place during that same 12-month period, one on Nisan 1 (the Jewish New Year) and the other during the Feast of Trumpets (aka Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh Hebrew month). Yeah, so what's the big deal?
Apparently, this unusual phenomenon of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, known as a tetrad, falling on Jewish feast days is quite rare. So rare, in fact, that it's only happened seven other times in history, and won't happen again for about a thousand years.
And get this--each of the seven times a tetrad fell on Jewish feast days in the past, it marked a major event in Jewish history.
Biltz, intrigued by Scriptures connecting the coming of the Messiah with signs in the heavens, (particularly those describing the sun going dark and a Blood Red moon) has been the target of much criticism. People accuse him of being a 'date-setter'. He defends himself by declaring, "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."
Fair enough.
But with 2014/2015 fast approaching, the end-time speculation is bound to go into overdrive again.
What should our approach be?
While we're all hoping for the soon return of Christ, let's not jump to any conclusions. In the past, tetrads that fell on Jewish feast days marked an event in Jewish history. The coming tetrad could signal something similar or nothing at all. Venturing more than that will only fuel speculation. For an interesting example of how some are interpreting these eclipses, click here:
"The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Joel 2:31, 32
A wise man once said: "Creation's design points to the Master Designer." -- Dave Branon, author
News:
- CNN.com: Scientists have developed iris-scanning technology to be deployed at schools, airports and banks. The software is being rolled out at some schools this fall.
- Pentagon: Espionage fuels China's fast-paced military build-up; U.S. defense official worries over China's lack of transparency about its military intentions.
- Reuters: Fed Chief Ben Bernanke reassures markets stimulus (quantitative easing) will continue into 2014.
