Moderator Joshpantera Posted May 28, 2014 Moderator Posted May 28, 2014 Pastors: 'Blood Moon' Is An Omen Of Armageddon Christian Pastors Warn 'Blood Moon' Is An Omen Of Armageddon And Second Coming Of Christ "(RNS) Could a series of “blood moon” events be connected to Jesus’ return? Some Christians think so. In the wee hours of Tuesday (April 15) morning, the moon slid into Earth’s shadow, casting a reddish hue on the moon. There are about two lunar eclipses per year, according to NASA, but what’s unusual this time around is that there will be four blood moons within 18 months — astronomers call that a tetrad — and all of them occur during Jewish holidays. A string of books have been published surrounding the event, with authors referring to a Bible passage that refers to the moon turning into blood. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord,” Joel 2:31 says. In the New Testament, Acts 2:20 echoes the same doom: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord.” Recent books capitalizing on the event include “Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs” by Washington state author Mark Biltz; “Blood Moons Rising: Bible Prophecy, Israel, and the Four Blood Moons” by Oklahoma pastor Mark Hitchcock; and ”Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change” by Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee. Hagee’s book is drawing the most attention, with his book now No. 4 on The New York Times best-seller list in the advice/how to section, and No. 80 on USA Today’s best-seller list. The book by the controversial 74-year-old founder of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church has also spent 152 days in Amazon’s top 100 books. In his book, Hagee says something will happen to the nation of Israel due to the tetrad. The four eclipses occur on April 15 and Oct. 8, 2014, and April 4 and Sept. 28 next year. The ones in April occur during Passover, and the ones in October occur during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. Jewish holy days revolve around a lunar calendar with Passover beginning on the first full moon after the beginning of spring, and the Feast of Tabernacles occurring on the first full moon after the beginning of fall. Hagee writes that every time a tetrad occurs on Jewish feast days, something traumatic and “world-changing” happens to Israel. In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain and Christopher Columbus discovered America, giving the Jews a place to go. In 1948, the modern state of Israel was born, and in 1967, Israel won the Six-Day War and recaptured Jerusalem. During the 300-year interval from 1600 to 1900, there were no tetrads at all, according to NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak. This time, Hagee suggests that a Rapture will occur where Christians will be taken to heaven, Israel will go to war in a great battle called Armageddon, and Jesus will return to earth. Hagee planned a special televised event on Tuesday (April 15) on the Global Evangelism Television channel. But NASA does not consider tetrads as especially rare, saying in a statement that there will be eight sets of tetrads before the year 2100. The most unique thing about the upcoming tetrad is that they are visible from all or parts of the United States, NASA stated. A publicist for Hagee said the pastor was not available for an interview. “When you see these signs, the Bible says, lift up your head and rejoice, your redemption draweth nigh,” Hagee said in a sermon, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “I believe that the Heavens are God’s billboard, that He has been sending signals to Planet Earth but we just have not been picking them up.” Greg Boyd, a pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., called the predictions a waste of time, maybe even bordering on astrology. “You have an entire population buying into this stuff so no congregation is immune to this,” Boyd said. “It can strike fear into people, which is so unnecessary and wrong.” The Jewish holy days carry less theological significance than Jesus’ resurrection for many Christians, said Sam Storms, a pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City. Any connection between the two events should carry less weight, he said. “We need to stop giving into some of these sensationalist speculations,” he said. “Maybe Christians are more gullible. One has to twist the data to make it appear as if these are the fulfillment of some biblical prophecy.” What sucks about this is that after it's all over and Hagee has been proven thoroughly wrong, since obviously no supernatural event will take place, just as every other false prediction, he'll find some way to side step it. People will likely look for another date to set and keep the carrot on a stick plunging forward into the future. You'd think these jack asses would have taken a lesson from Herald Camping whose rapture predictions fell flaccid, very publicly, in just 2012.
bornagainathiest Posted May 28, 2014 Posted May 28, 2014 I dunno Josh. Camping made a very specific prediction, not just in terms of WHEN it was going to happen but also, WHAT was going to happen. Hagee's taking a different line. He predicts that...'something'...will happen. 'Something' to do with Israel will change. Given that his window closes on Sept 28 next year, he could interpret almost any major Middle Eastern event before then as being the vindication of his Bible-based prediction. Camping set himself up for a fall by being too specific. But Hagee's different. He may be batshit crazy most of the time, but in this case he's crazy like a fox. You and I know that there's bound to be some major event in or near Israel between now and 09/28/15. It doesn't even matter what it is. It could be political. military, economic, religious or any combination thereof. It could be some kind natural disaster or ecological catastrophe. It could even be a major industrial, chemical, biological or nuclear accident. Doesn't matter what. Whatever does happen will simply be taken by the Bible fanatics as "proof" they're right. Sorry to be so gloomy about this Josh, but there's no arguing (on a rational basis) with irrational people. They see what they want to see, even if it's not really there. . . . Perhaps the only 'good' outcome we can hope for is that Hagee gets too bold and gets too specific about what'll happen. Then he'll join Camping in the trash can of failed (and false) prophets. . . . That, or peace and reconciliation breaks out in the Middle East, instead of war! Thanks, BAA
Moderator Joshpantera Posted May 29, 2014 Author Moderator Posted May 29, 2014 Hagee is pretty specific in this case: In his book, Hagee says something will happen to the nation of Israel due to the tetrad. The four eclipses occur on April 15 and Oct. 8, 2014, and April 4 and Sept. 28 next year. The ones in April occur during Passover, and the ones in October occur during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. Jewish holy days revolve around a lunar calendar with Passover beginning on the first full moon after the beginning of spring, and the Feast of Tabernacles occurring on the first full moon after the beginning of fall. Hagee writes that every time a tetrad occurs on Jewish feast days, something traumatic and “world-changing” happens to Israel. In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain and Christopher Columbus discovered America, giving the Jews a place to go. In 1948, the modern state of Israel was born, and in 1967, Israel won the Six-Day War and recaptured Jerusalem..... This time, Hagee suggests that a Rapture will occur where Christians will be taken to heaven, Israel will go to war in a great battle called Armageddon, and Jesus will return to earth. Hagee planned a special televised event on Tuesday (April 15) on the Global Evangelism Television channel.... A publicist for Hagee said the pastor was not available for an interview. “When you see these signs, the Bible says, lift up your head and rejoice, your redemption draweth nigh,” Hagee said in a sermon, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “I believe that the Heavens are God’s billboard, that He has been sending signals to Planet Earth but we just have not been picking them up.” He's beyond vague generalizations at this point. I think that like Herald Camping he really believes in his heart that this will be it. He's generations deep in this type of ministry and believes that this current generation will be the last before the apocalypse. He thinks that he has insight into uncovering prophecy that his forefathers could not have imagined. All of his cards are laid on this generation as the last. And the way he's headed it looks like his ministry is being fine tuned to the next 2 years as the last.
bornagainathiest Posted May 29, 2014 Posted May 29, 2014 Ok Josh. My bad for not reading things thru properly. I suppose when I was writing I had the example of the Jehovah's Witnesses in mind. They prophesied that Jesus would return in 1914 and... he did. Invisibly! Look, if Hagee falls flat on his fat face with this, I'll be quietly pleased. What won't be so pleasing is the damage from the fallout of this coming fiasco. How many of his followers will impoverish themselves, because they think they'll have no future no need for a home, a car or a job? Will there be any suicides? Will he face up to his failure or skedaddle with his riches like a thief in the night? Whatever happens, it won't be pretty.
Moderator Joshpantera Posted May 29, 2014 Author Moderator Posted May 29, 2014 No, it won't be. I was alerted to Camping years ago by a guy I knew down at the beach. After surfing one day he felt convicted to give me a sermon in the parking lot about the coming rapture. This was around 08'. He was completely invested in Camping's rapture. I decided to act interested and stay close with the guy because I knew what was going to happen and thought it best to perhaps be there to guide him through the after math. We had a light debate going but I granted him that it could be possible. I asked him what he'd do if it didn't happen, because he was absolute that it would. He said he wouldn't know what to do with himself, everything he thought was real would be a lie if it didn't happen. I told him that he must remain open to the possibility that it may not happen just as I'm open to the possibility that it may. I wound up moving away in 11' and after the failed prophecy's in May and October of 12' no one has ever heard from or seen him again. He was preaching with absolute conviction to everyone at the beach so I'm sure that if he's still alive he's probably moved away out of embarrassment. Poor guy. He was thoroughly deluded by Camping's cocky and arrogant attitude towards the absolute truth of his message. I would listen to the radio program with this guy every once in a while just to gain insight into what was going on. Camping would rip into any one that challenged his predictions. He left no margin of error. And he fell the hardest in the end as everyone witnessed. Now it seems Hagee's positioned himself for the same fall....
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