Blood Moons Part 2

This is my second post on blood moons.  In the first post I just gave a little introduction.  In considering blood moons I want us to look at three things.  I want us to look at signs because the tetrad blood moons are said by John Hagee to be a sign like a billboard from heaven.

SOME SIGNS ARE easier to read than others. If you have ever traveled to a foreign country, you know that all too well. Meaning quickly gets lost in translation. Consider these translated signs in other countries:
In a Paris elevator: “Please leave your values at the front desk.”
In a Hong Kong supermarket: “For your convenience, we recommend courageous, efficient self-service.”
In a Rhodes tailor shop: “Order your summers suit. Because in big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.”
In a Hong Kong tailor shop: “Ladies may have a fit upstairs.”
In Kyushi, Japan, on a Detour sign: “Stop: Drive Sideways.”
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office: “We take your bags and send them in all directions.” (Yes, don't all airlines?)
In an Acapulco hotel: “The manager has personally passed all the water served here.”

Let me state first of all my position.  First of all, I think Greg Boyd saying that the study of blood moons by John Hagee and Mark Biltz is a possible case of divination is absurd.  And I don't hear these men predicting the end of the world or anything specific.

I admire John Hagee as a preacher of the Word of God and a lover of Israel.  He preaches the truth.  I have nothing against him.  I just take exception to some of the things he has said and believe he has gone a little too far.  I don't know much about Mark Biltz but have nothing against him.

I think they may be right that something big could happen with Israel in the next couple of years.  My point is that there does not need to be a blood moon to predict this.  The Middle East is a powder keg waiting for someone to light the fuse.  There are other signs that line up with the Bible far better.  For example the nations that will attack Israel in the Gog/Magog battle are for the first time in history all lined up. Russian and Iran (Persia) are working together.

My point is this.  I believe God gives signs.  But when God gives signs they can't be missed.  Jesus Himself talked about signs.  Luke 21:25-26 (KJV) ²⁵  And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶  Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

The vast majority of Bible prophecy teachers agree that God uses cosmic signs as precursors of end-times events. The question is: what kinds of heavenly signs does God use, and when will Luke 21: 25 be fulfilled?

I will talk more about that in a later blog on blood moons.

But consider this, much of the world won’t even see the blood moons, especially the part of the world they’re supposed to impact. How can something be a global sign that “something is about to change” or a “divine billboard announcing coming events,” as Hagee asserts , if most people in the world are unaware of it? Dr. Danny Faulkner of Answers in Genesis highlights this serious shortcoming with the blood moons prophecy: There also is a question of from what portion of the earth one ought to view these eclipses for them to constitute a sign. One might think that Jerusalem would be a key site, but the first three total lunar eclipses in 2014– 2015 won’t be visible from there, and only the
beginning of the final eclipse will be.

Faulkner concludes, “Not actually witnessing these events but instead just knowing that somewhere some sort of solar eclipses are happening seems to fall far short of being specific and spectacular signs of end times.”

Jack Kelley points out that of the previous series of lunar tetrads, “only the one in April 1950 was fully visible from Israel, four others were partially visible and the rest were not visible at all. (Since
these are being touted as signs to Israel, you might wonder why they weren’t all visible there.)”

In contrast to the lunar tetrad of 2014– 2015, the cosmic portents in Scripture will be visible and unmistakable to everyone around the globe (see Matthew 24: 29-30; Revelation 1: 7; 6: 12-16). When Jesus returns to earth, His coming will be dramatically heralded by cosmic signs. The limited visibility of the blood moons works against the idea that they are a sign of some dramatic change. Moreover, proponents of the blood moons prophecy maintain that the first lunar tetrad that fell on the Jewish feasts of Passover and Tabernacles occurred in 1493–1494, before modern means of communication. I wonder if people at that time in the parts of the world where the blood moons weren’t visible had any idea they were even happening. Today, with global communication, we know things that happen all over the world, but such was not the case in 1493– 1494. Something can’t be a sign if you never see or know about it. Those who maintain that the four blood moons are a portent that something is about to change need to explain how something hidden to most of the world, and
especially to those in Israel, can serve as a dramatic sign of the times for them. This is a serious problem. --Hitchcock, Mark

I believe that the signs in the heavens are supernatural events.  Some point out that something big has to happen with the tetrad now because another one will not happen for another 500 years and the world can't last that long. I believe the moon turning to blood will not be on man's calendar, but will be done by God when unexpected.

Some are pointing to Bethlehem's star as an example of the heavens giving the signal that something
big is going to happen.  I hold that the “star” that appeared was not a heavenly body or natural phenomenon, but a supernatural shining created by God to guide the wise men to the Savior. R. C. Sproul supports this view: The other possibility is that the star that led these men to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem was a specific creation by God for this particular event, something like the shekinah glory cloud that led the people of Israel in their wilderness wandering . . . . I think it would be very difficult to follow the tail of a comet, or even an inordinately bright conjunction of two planets, to Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. I suspect that this is another account of a miraculous work of God to guide the men to the proper place.

Likewise, the darkness that enveloped Calvary for the final three hours of Christ’s suffering on the cross was supernatural.

Let Mark Hitchcock sum it up. God uses the heavens at critical junctures to signal the coming of great events. He will use them in the end times to portend the second advent of Christ. But the four blood moons of 2014– 2015 fail as a discernible sign of the times for the simple reason that they will not be visible to most of the world, and most specifically, not to Israel, which is supposed to be the focal point of the blood moons prophecy. --Hitchcock, Mark