Four Blood Moons (3 page)

As I thought about the sun, moon, and stars as sources of prophetic direction, I considered the words of Joel 2:30–31:

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 coming
of the great and awesome day of the L
ORD
.

I remembered that the apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, made nearly the exact same remarks, as recorded in Acts 2:19–20:

I will show wonders in heaven above

And signs in the earth beneath:

Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness,

And the moon into blood,

Before the coming
of the great and awesome day of the L
ORD
.

What does “moon into blood” refer to in these two verses? I learned later in my research that this astronomical event is actually called a Blood Moon. A Blood Moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse; the moon does not actually turn to blood, but it does appear blood-red.

If we are going to see these wonders in the heavens
before
the coming of the Lord, how long before His coming will we see them? The Bible gives no answer other than the words of Jesus to His disciples:

Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

(M
ATTHEW
24:36)

Jesus said, “There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. . . . When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:25, 28).

In the prophetic words Jesus spoke to His disciples on the
Mount of Olives, He stated:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened [solar eclipse], and the moon will not give its light [lunar eclipse]; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken [nuclear warfare?]. Then [after the signs in the heavens] the Son of Man will appear in heaven.

(M
ATTHEW
24:29–30)

What do all these prophecies have in common? They all involve specific signs in the heavens preceding coming global events! Does God use the sun, moon, and stars to communicate with us? Does He use the heavens as His own personal, high-definition billboard to announce things to come?

The answer is
yes
, according to Genesis 1:14, which states:

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for
signs
and seasons.”

The Hebrew word for “sign” is
owth
, which also translates as “signals.” Therefore, based on the Bible, God uses the sun, moon, and stars as
signals
to mankind. He uses the heavens as His divine billboard announcing coming events.

What is God trying to say to us?

In late February 2013, the world was astounded when a blazing meteor exploded over Russia. NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration) reported that the fifty-five-foot-wide rock, which weighed an estimated ten thousand tons, entered the earth's atmosphere traveling forty-four thousand miles per hour.

NASA estimated that the energy released as the meteors disintegrated in the atmosphere was 500 kilotons, around 30 times the size of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
¹

The ten-thousand-ton meteor lit up the Russian skies before crashing into the earth, causing shockwaves that injured twelve hundred people and damaged thousands of homes in an event unprecedented in modern times.

A priest near the explosion site called it “an act of God.”
²
A fireball traveling at forty-four thousand miles per hour with a long, blazing white tail visible one hundred twenty-five miles away has to be considered a
sign from heaven
.

John the Revelator pulls back the curtain of the future and clearly reveals that God will use signs in the heavens during the Great Tribulation to communicate His wrath and judgment to the world. John writes:

Then the second angel sounded [the trumpet]: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. . . . Then the third angel sounded [the trumpet]: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.

(R
EVELATION
8:8, 10–11)

God is going to shake the world with “signs in the heavens” when He personally destroys the Iranian and Russian armies that invade Israel in the Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel 38. This won't be the first time; God Himself stoned the five armies that attacked Israel in Joshua 10:

And it happened, as they [the five armies] fled before Israel . . . that the L
ORD
cast down large hailstones from heaven . . . and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword. (v. 11)

The meteor that crashed into Russia—the nation that swore there was no God—was sent a supernatural FedEx message that basically said: I am God, and there is none like
Me, not in the heavens above nor the world beneath. From everlasting to everlasting I am God. (This truth is based on Isaiah 46:9 and Psalm 41:13.)

The fact that God hurled stones from the heavens to defend Israel in Joshua 10 is living proof that God will use stones as a weapon of war to crush the invading Iranian and Russian forces coming against Israel. This will happen as recorded by the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 38:

And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him . . . great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. . . . Then they shall know that I am the L
ORD
. (vv. 22–23)

Signs in the heavens are coming to the enemies of Israel!

In recent dissertations scientists analyzed the uncommon signs of giant solar eruptions.

Tariq Malik, managing editor of
Space.com
, reports:

The sun unleashed a monster eruption of super-hot plasma Friday [November 16, 2012] in back-to-back solar storms captured on camera by a NASA spacecraft. The giant eruption, called a solar prominence,
occurred at 1:00
A.M
. EST (0600 GMT), with another event flaring up four hours later.
³

In an interview with George Norry on Coast to Coast radio, physicist Michio Kaku stated that he is becoming very concerned about the recent solar flares, indicating that “the sun is having a temper tantrum, and it's getting worse and worse.” He continued by saying, “My greatest fear is the earth getting hit by a large solar flare, and all hell could break loose!”
⁴

In an earlier video lecture, Professor Kaku indicated, “We are sitting ducks for solar flares.” If a catastrophic solar flare “were to happen today . . . it would wipe out most of our satellites . . . black out our weather satellites, GPS systems, telecommunications, the Internet. Power stations would be vulnerable, not just in one city . . . but in cities simultaneously across the entire planet earth. Refrigeration would be knocked out for perhaps weeks at a time. . . . Society as we know it would be thrown back perhaps a hundred years into the past.”
⁵

Professor Kaku confirms that the world is watching signs in the sun, which are going to increase in frequency and will eventually hit the earth—it's just a matter of time.

Diana arose from her deep and untroubled sleep as the wheels of the jet touched down on the runway. My mind raced with the anticipation of finding the answers to Pastor Mark's
challenging question: “Have you ever considered the sun, moon, and stars in the study of prophecy?” I asked myself, “Was God using the signs in the heavens to show us the world tomorrow?”

I disembarked from the plane to be met by the heat of the blazing Texas sun, thinking,
A total solar eclipse might be a good thing right about now!

I was on my way home to begin a search of the sun, moon, and stars and how they relate to Israel in the past, present, and future. I thought of what King David declared in the Psalms:

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal
knowledge
.

They have
no speech
, they use
no words
;

no sound
is heard from them.

Yet their
voice
goes out into all the earth,

their
words
to the ends of the world.

(19:1–4 )

The history of the world is about to change forever, and God is sending us messages on His high-definition billboard by speaking to us in the heavens—using the Four Blood Moons; the question is . . . are we listening?

—M
ATTHEW
2:2

I always enjoy coming home!

In years past I was greeted by the cheering mob of my five children, who were always glad to see Dad. Now they are all married, and God has blessed us with thirteen of the most beautiful grandchildren on the face of the earth. We are very fortunate to have all five children and their families live in town, so when we return from a trip several of the grandchildren will come by to hug Nana and Papa. I
do
love coming
home! I threw my bags onto the bed, took a quick shower to wake up, and made a fresh pot of hot coffee to stimulate my tired mind and stiff body.

As the coffee brewed, I sat at the desk in my office, which had been masterfully designed by Diana. She converted an exercise room that I didn't use enough into an office that I now use too much! I like to read much more than I like to run on a treadmill. I have more than five thousand books in my personal library, with all contents coded so I can resource an ocean of information with a click of a computer key; my journey was about to begin!

I sat behind my desk and reached for a legal tablet to organize the swarm of thoughts buzzing through my brain into logical and scriptural order. All fresh revelation from God must be biblically sound—rock solid! If the basic premise in any new concept has the smallest amount of leaven, the final conclusion will be
puffed up
and filled with hot air. All who preach or teach the Bible have a mandate from Paul to “Preach the word!” (2 Timothy 4:2).

I began my study of the signs in the heavens with one of the most controversial verses in the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

“In the beginning” could have taken place millions of years ago in man's way of measuring time. If your child is taught
that scientists have found carbon-dated rocks millions of years old, this finding in no way counters God's creation timeline.

God's time clock, which is measured by the Seven Ages and Dispensations, does not start ticking until Genesis 1:3. The Scriptures divide the period from the creation of Adam to the “new heaven and a new earth” of Revelation 21:1 into seven unequal periods, called dispensations (Ephesians 3:2), or ages (Ephesians 2:7).

These periods are marked off in Scripture by God's method of dealing with mankind. The Seven Ages and Dispensation are: Innocence, Conscience, Human Government, Promise, Law, Grace, and the Millennial Reign of Christ.

“Created” in Hebrew is
bara
, which means “to make from nothing.”
¹
God did not come to an established earth and rearrange what was here; He made something beautifully magnificent and awesomely wondrous out of
nothing
!

“God created the heavens . . .” The word
heavens
is plural because there are three heavens in Scripture. There is the first heaven, which we see with our naked eye, consisting of the sun, moon, and stars.

The second heaven is where Satan has his throne. God converses with Satan in the second heaven (Job 1:6–8) and casts him out in the book of Revelation (20:1–3).

The apostle Paul was given a guided tour through the eternal heaven, which he refers to as the “third heaven”
(2 Corinthians 12:2). Paul, who could say more in less time than any author in recorded history, after seeing the grandeur of heaven simply recorded the following description for future generations:

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of man

The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

(1 C
ORINTHIANS
2:9)

You often hear people speaking of the seventh heaven; it doesn't exist unless you are on an ethereal drug-induced trip!

Why is Genesis 1:1 controversial? Why does the prince of darkness hate this verse and every concept of this verse? Because if you don't believe Genesis 1:1 and trust the Holy Spirit when He tells you of the creation, why would you trust Him when He tells you about the Father's plan of salvation for your eternal soul in John 3:16?

If you don't believe Genesis 1:1, you have no solid foundation to believe the rest of Scripture. You can't believe that God parted the Red Sea for Moses or stopped the sun for Joshua and you can't possibly believe that God controls the sun, moon, and stars and creates signs to appear in the heavens at specific times in history.