Blood Moons and the End of the World

The night of April 14/15th sees the first of four ‘blood moons’ (a ‘tetrad’ of total full-moon eclipses) to occur over the next eighteen months.  Two of these will fall on the feast of Passover and two on the feast of Tabernacles: cue televangelists with predictions of ‘significant events’.  One such, John Hagee, has written a best-selling book on the topic, citing Joel 2: 31 ‘The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the great and dreadful day of the LORD comes’, glibly ignoring the fact that even if this is to be understood in astronomical terms, it speaks primarily of a solar eclipse.

Hagee’s thesis is that every time a series of blood moons coincides with either Passover or Tabernacles, it is God’s way of letting the world know that something momentous is going to happen with regard to the Jewish people/Israel.  In evidence he quotes 1492 when Jews were expelled from Spain, 1948 when the State of Israel came into existence and 1967 when Israel won the six-day war against its Arab neighbours. Impressive stuff, some might think, but sadly for those who like to think that God habitually uses the solar system to send coded messages to those ‘in the know’, a little examination brings the entire thesis crashing down.

The first two events outlined above happened before their associated blood moon sequences occurred, rendering them pretty ineffectual as prophetic warnings; the ‘coincidence’ was out by a year or so; not the sort of accuracy one might expect from God.  There have also been blood moon sequences falling on Jewish festivals (which conveniently occur only on full moons) that coincided with…absolutely nothing.  It is also a little ironic that, at most, only the final ‘blood moon’ will be observable from Israel, the land of the original prophecy; all four, of course, will be visible from the USA.

What all of this underlines is that there is a willingness, even a desperation, among many people to find proof of some sort of divine control over human affairs.  The world is going to hell on a hand-cart, they believe, so God needs to show up somehow to reassure believers that all is not lost.

I don’t disagree with their analysis of the state of the world; war, poverty, hunger, abuse, discrimination, slavery and downright badness are rampant.  Thus it has always been.  God’s presence, however, is not to be looked for in the stars (seriously, one star of Bethlehem story and we’re fixated), but in the words and actions of people who are determined to swim against the tide of evil that threatens to over-run societies; people who (whether they realise it or not) are sufficiently infused by the spirit of God to stand up and make a difference.  We don’t need to look to the heavens; just at ourselves.