The Blood Moon

Two mornings ago when we walked out to the barn at 5:30 am to milk the cows, the Full Moon was shining brightly and on full display, illuminating the pasture.  On nights like that the cows are out eating grass all night long, enjoying a respite from the heat and enjoying the light of the moon that allows them to see what they are eating.  When they see that we've turned the lights on in the barn, they slowly come lumbering in, looking for the Dairy Ration and Alfalfa pellets that we give them as an enticement to supplement the main staple of their diet - grass.

Yesterday morning, however, the full moon was gone - at first.  Although it was dark, a strange orange-red glow enveloped the pasture.  I looked up at the moon in the western sky, pointed and said, "Tricia, look how weird!" She said, "Wow!  The Blood Moon!"  After we milked and I brought my milk bucket inside, I grabbed the camera to attempt to capture the moment.  Now, we don't have a fancy camera, and this is what I was able to photograph with no flash and zoomed in all the way.  A pitiful attempt, to be sure, that doesn't begin to document what we saw.  I hope you were able to see it yourself.

Not a very good picture of the Blood Moon

I did, however, search around on the Internet and find some pretty awesome pictures of the Blood Moon in the event you didn't see it.  Here's one:

Image Credit

The "Blood Moon" is a lunar eclipse, in which the Earth is between the Sun and the moon, and casts a shadow on the moon.  The Earth's atmosphere that the sun's rays pass through filters out many portions of the light spectrum, least affecting the reddish portion.  That reddish portion is projected toward the moon during a lunar eclipse, resulting in the beautifully odd reddish moon pictured above.

A Texas pastor, John Hagee, wrote a book about the Blood Moons in which he explained that the tetrads (four lunar eclipses occurring over a two year period) are signs that God is giving people on Earth regarding His Return and impending Judgment.  The Blood Moons are falling precisely on Passover and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).  The Blaze says he is basing his hypothesis off of the rarity of the event, saying that while there have been other four sets of Blood Moons, only eight times in the last 2,000 years have they all fallen on the two Jewish Holidays consecutively.  The article linked above from the Blaze is a pretty good read on the Blood Moon event and is balanced as there are other respected scholars quoted in the article that differ with Hagee's theory.

Image Credit

There is most certainly Biblical basis for looking to the skies:

Joel 2:20-21: “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”

Furthermore, one only need to look at the Bethlehem Star announcing the Birth of the Christ Child to see that God does indeed use the handiwork of the heavens to communicate to Mankind.

So what do I think?  Well, it doesn't matter what I think, as I'm no theologian and I'm very skeptical about things like this.  But I do believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and I do believe that there is a literal Judgment.  I believe that although we can't know the time or day, we can know the season of His Return and it only makes sense that we make sure that we are ready and those in our sphere of influence are ready.  The Bible is full of prophecies pointing to our LORD's soon return, and the signs of the heavens are only one of them.  Here is a nice little article that goes into more detail about all of the signs: Lamblion: Recognizing Signs of the Times

My final conclusion is that we should never put all our stock in one particular event. We shouldn't get nervous and begin wringing our hands, especially when people begin trying to name dates of the Apocalyptic "End of the World."  However, now is not the time to sit on your hands and be inactive. In fact, just the opposite.  We should weigh everything against the Word of God, ensuring that things like this line up and are taken in context.  I will say it is NEVER a bad time to make sure that you are right with God and have a relationship with the Living God, especially as so many of the signs point to His Return.

Matthew 24:30-33American Standard Version (ASV)

30 and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

32 Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh;

33 even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors.

Are you ready???