The return of Jesus and the Blood-Red Moon of 2015!

Blood-red moon Aug. 5, 2014

Gaining in popularity today is the teaching that a series of blood-red moons in the next two
years will be a portent of Jesus' second coming and
a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Astronomical
charts show four lunar eclipses will occur from
2014 to 2015.
Because a full lunar eclipse often
makes the moon look red or orange, it is sometimes referred to as a "blood moon" or
"blood-red moon." Some teachers of prophecy say
that this tetrad of blood moons will fulfill end-times
prophecies in Joel and Revelation.
What has interested prophecy teachers is not just
the number of lunar eclipses in the next two years
but the timing of the eclipses. In both 2014 and
2015, a full lunar eclipse will occur on the first day
of Passover and the first day of Sukkot (the Feast of
Tabernacles). In addition to the two lunar eclipses of 2015, two solar eclipses will also occur.
Similar
lunar eclipses in back-to-back years have
happened seven times since the time of Christ.
Some of those have occurred in years of
significance for the Jewish people, such as 1948
(when Israel was granted statehood) and 1967 (when the Six-Day War was fought). References to a moon like "blood" are found in two
passages of the Bible. Joel 2:30–31 says, "I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will
be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of
the Lord."

Blood-red moon calender

   In Revelation 6:12, John describes one of the seal judgments of the Tribulation: "I watched as
he opened the sixth seal. There was a great
earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth
made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood
red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs
drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up,
and every mountain and island was removed from
its place." Other passages refer to the moon being
"darkened" (Matthew 24:29; Joel 2:10). A tetrad of lunar eclipses—and the timing of those
eclipses in the Jewish calendar—is fairly unusual,
but not unprecedented. So the fact of the eclipses,
while interesting, is no proof that Jesus will return
by 2015. Furthermore, John's and Joel's
descriptions of the signs of the Day of the Lord could refer to solar and lunar eclipses, but there are
other possible explanations for those phenomena,
such as changes in the atmosphere (mentioned in Revelation 6:12). The blood-red moon theory is just that—a theory.
Even as a theory, it comes close to doing what the
Bible warns against: setting dates for the coming of
the Lord. "About that day or hour no one
knows" (Mark 13:32).
Dedan C G Jn Baptiste