“After Yeshua was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?  We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship him.’”  (Matthew 2:1–2)

In Matthew 24, Yeshua (Jesus) prophesies that in the end times there will be signs in the heavens that will point to His soon return and lead to the repentance of many:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.…  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 in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  (Matthew 24:29–30)

In this passage, Yeshua repeats Isaiah 13:10, which is a well-known end-time prophecy speaking of a celestial sign.

Three magi

In Acts 2, when the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) is poured out, Peter quotes the prophet Joel 2:30–31 saying:  “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 great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”

Although it may seem mystical and unscientific to some, the Bible indicates that the sun, moon, and stars do far more than mark physical time; they can reveal what is scheduled to take place on God’s calendar.

“God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.  And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.’”  (Genesis 1:14)

We see celestial signs in action in the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) when the wise men were led to Yeshua by a star!

John Hagee presents information on the coming Blood Moon Tetrad.  (YouTube capture)

Blood Moon Tetrad—Signs for Our Times

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in heavenly signs relating to end-time Bible prophecy, partly due to John Hagee’s book, Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change.

“A blood moon is when the Earth comes between the sun and the moon,” Hagee writes.  “And the sun is shining through the atmosphere of the Earth and casts up on the moon a red shadow.  And so the moon appears to be red.”

Hagee connects key events in Jewish history to several sets of four lunar eclipses (scientifically called tetrads) that have occurred around Jewish holy days and significant events in Israel’s history.

Another tetrad is coming very soon.

Both Hagee and American pastor Mark Biltz, author of Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs, associate these lunar tetrads with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy concerning signs in the heaven.

John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas addresses the Christians United For Israel CUFI annual conference.

Hagee believes these lunar eclipses may constitute a sign for important end-time events.

“There’s a sense in the world that things are changing and God is trying to communicate with us in a supernatural way,” Hagee said.  (CBN)

He predicted, based on this Blood Moon Tetrad that “in these next two years, we’re going to see something dramatic happen in the Middle East involving Israel that will change the course of history in the Middle East and impact the whole world.”

“All these signs, coming together at one time, are potentially the culminating signals that God is closing this chapter of human history,” Biltz said.  “This could be the final curtain call before the Great Tribulation mentioned in the Bible.  God has always wanted to warn His people, and the rest of the world, before He intervenes.  What better way to communicate to us than through the universal language of heavenly signs that speak to every tribe, tongue, and nation?”  (WND)

June 2011 total lunar eclipse

Blood Moon Tetrads and God’s Calendar

It was Biltz who originally investigated NASA’s Eclipse Website to compare its eclipse projections with Biblical holy days mentioned in the Bible.

When he did, he discovered that according to NASA’s calculations, a series of four total lunar eclipses will occur during a two-year period, producing a Blood Moon Tetrad in 2014 to 2015 that coincides with Pesach (Passover) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).

The lunar eclipses for 2014 fall on April 15, the first night of Pesach, and October 8, the first night of Sukkot.

Those in 2015 fall on April 4 (second night of Pesach) and September 28 (second night of Sukkot).

A Jewish family breaks matzah, Passover’s unleavened bread of affliction, during a special ritual meal at Passover called the Seder.

The four successive total lunar eclipses (the moon appears dark as it passes into the earth’s shadow) between 2014 and 2015 have no partial lunar eclipses between them; however, there will be a total solar eclipse (an eclipse where the sun is obscured by the moon) right before Passover in 2015 and a partial one right before Sukkot in 2015.

Each lunar eclipse will be separated by six lunar months.

Even though this Blood Moon Tetrad coincides with the Lord’s appointed times (moedim), only one of the four eclipses will be visible from Israel for a short while before sunrise on September 28th, 2015, and just its tail end.  (earthsky)

This schematic diagram of the orbit of the Moon around the earth, which is indicated as a green circle, shows that when the Moon is in the central umbra shadow, it is shielded from direct illumination by the Sun.  Only a portion of sunlight is blocked when the Moon is in the Penumbra shadow.

Since the coming of Messiah 2,000 years ago, a Blood Moon Tetrad (four sequential lunar eclipses with no partial eclipses in between) has occurred on the Jewish holy days of Passover and Sukkot only seven times.

The eighth will occur in 2014–2015.  It will be another 500 years before it happens again.

Both Hagee and Biltz emphasize three Blood Moon Tetrads that had great significance for the Jewish People:

• A Blood Moon Tetrad occurred between 1493 and 1494 immediately following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
• A Blood Moon Tetrad occurred between 1949 and 1950 on Passover, coming right after the 1948 rebirth of an independent Jewish state, which was followed by the war for independence.
• A Blood Moon Tetrad occurred between 1967 and 1968, following the 1967 “Six Day War,” during which Israel liberated the entire city of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount where the First and Second Temples once stood.  For the first time in 2,000 years, Jerusalem, in its completeness, was the capital of the Jewish state.

This series of images showing the moon in a full lunar eclipse was taken in the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Boxer.

The Jewish Interpretation of Eclipses

The miraculous timing of this Blood Moon Tetrad is not lost on Jewish pundits.

In an article on the coming blood moons, the first of which will take place just four weeks from now on Passover (April 15), journalist Yori Yanover comments about the significance of the last three:

“It’s also interesting to note that those moon strings each appeared only after the miraculous events, like a kind of confirmation on the part of God:  I did this.  Which means the coming year or so should be very eventful.”  (JP)

Based on the fact that the past three tetrads since 1493 have held significance for the Jewish people, it is possible that the coming Blood Moon Tetrad scheduled for 2014–2015 may indicate something significant is about to happen.

The question is what might be the nature of this event?

Traditionally, Judaism views eclipses with a sense of foreboding; for example, Succah 29a of the Talmud (rabbinic rulings and discussions about Bible passages) speaks of a solar eclipse (which will occur in the midst of the Blood Moon Tetrad) as being a bad omen for the entire world.

To illustrate the nature of this, a parable is given in which a man prepares a banquet for his servants but then becomes upset with them and removes the lamp, saying to one of his servants, “Take away the lamp from them, and let them sit in the dark.”

This painting by Lucien Rudaux shows what a lunar eclipse might look like when viewed from the surface of the moon.  The moon’s surface appears red because the only sunlight available is refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere on the edges of the earth, as shown in the sky in this painting.

In the Talmud, Rabbi Meir says, “Whenever the luminaries are in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel since they are inured to blows.”

The Talmud also discusses the differences between solar and lunar eclipses:  “Our Rabbis taught, when the sun is in eclipse it is a bad omen for idolaters; when the moon is in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel, since Israel reckons by the moon and idolaters by the sun.

“If it is in eclipse in the east, it is a bad omen for those who dwell in the east; if in the west, it is a bad omen for those who dwell in the west; if in the midst of heaven it is bad omen for the whole world.

“If its face is red as blood, [it is a sign that] the sword is coming to the world; if it is like sack-cloth, the arrows of famine are coming to the world; if it resembles both, the sword and the arrows of famine are coming to the world.”

Lunar eclipse in November 2003

According to this interpretation then, if we interpret sword as war, a Blood Moon Tetrad may be a sign that war is coming to the world.

Noting the Talmud’s analysis of lunar eclipses, Biltz also stated that the tetrad may signal war.

“This [Blood Moon Tetrad coinciding with Passover and Sukkot] has happened only eight times over the last 2,000 years!” he said.  “And the last two times these occurred on the Jewish holidays there was a war in the Middle East regarding the nation of Israel.  These are patterns and historical facts that cannot be disregarded.  The Jewish Talmud records that total lunar eclipses are indicators or omens for the nation of Israel.”

Sukkot in Jerusalem: during the week-long, Biblical festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), the Jewish People spend time in sukkot (plural for sukkah), temporary huts constructed of a variety of materials.

Of course, Israel is never far from war and as this is being written, hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip are falling on communities in the south of the country.

Furthermore, the ongoing conflict with Iran could at any time break out into open conflict with a possible defensive attack on that country by Israel’s military if the production of a nuclear weapon becomes imminent.

“The only reason that Iran will not acquire a nuclear bomb will be that Israel chooses a military solution to that crisis,” Hagee said.  “I believe that if that happens, it will start a series of events that will change the course of world history.  If Israel does not, then it will still change the course of world history.  (CBN)

IDF Gaza rockets

Besides the nuclear threat of Iran, in Israel’s north, Syria is completely embroiled in a conflict that could easily boil over its border with Israel.

Moreover, the forces of Hezbollah in Lebanon might decide to start firing its thousands of rockets at Israel once again.

Still, the rabbis give hope when they say, “But when Israel fulfills the will of the Omnipresent, they need have no fear of all these [omens] as it is said, Thus saith the HaShem [Lord],’ Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the nations are dismayed at them, the idolaters will be dismayed, but Israel will not be dismayed.”

Pointing to the events following the last two Blood Moon Tetrads, Biltz said he thinks that events following the coming one may have significance for the Jewish People in terms of Temple Mount sovereignty and the building of the Third Temple:

“The Holy Land is back in their hands; the Holy City is back in their hands; and now the Holy Temple will be back in their hands,” he said.  (YouTube)

“When all is said and done, the flag of Israel will be flying over the walls of the city of Jerusalem when Messiah comes, and it’s going to be forever,” Hagee said.  “And every nation that rises up in judgment against Israel God will punish and punish severely.”  (CBN)

The Israeli flag flies over the Western (Wailing) Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Blood Moon Tetrad: A Sign of the Second Coming?

Should we expect something more dramatic than a war with this tetrad of Blood Moons?

While Hagee and Biltz are predicting events affecting Israel and the entire world, some are associating the coming Blood Moon Tetrad with Yeshua’s Second Coming and the Rapture.

Theories abound regarding when these events will occur, and the purpose of this feature is not to endorse the theories and teachings of other ministries. The Bible clearly indicates that these events will be preceded by the establishment of a false peace:

He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’  In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.  And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.  (Daniel 9:27)

At the moment, there is no covenant made with many and no Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount where the anti-Messiah will place the “abomination that causes desolation.”

Still, these facts can change very quickly, and the occurrence of this tetrad of lunar eclipses falling on Jewish holy days—the first just weeks away—is something to prayerfully watch and consider.