Can you shed light on the upcoming four blood moons prophecy?

Question:

Hello,

Thanks for taking time out of your day to read my question. I've just recently turned my life over to Christ, and I am intentionally trying to read and study His word in the Bible, and I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on this upcoming four blood moons prophecy.

Answer:

This is yet another in a string of false prophecies. See Date Setters for a long list of such nonsense. People like the thrill of panic and there are endless people who are willing to profit off of such thrills. All you have to realize is that Jesus said that the end of the world is not predictable to understand that anyone claiming to know is lying. "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" (Matthew 24:36). Read from there to the end of Matthew 25 to realize that Jesus repeatedly emphasized this point. God is not going to give us advanced warning regarding the end of the world. "But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" (Matthew 24:44-45).

The Four Blood Moon prophecy uses the following passages out of context:

  • "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD" (Joel 2:31). Peter quoted this passage and said it was fulfilled in the death of Jesus, the founding of the church, and the eventual destruction of Jerusalem (Acts 2:16-24).
  • "I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood" (Revelation 6:12). John said that the things talked about in Revelation would shortly occur in his time. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants -- things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near" (Revelation 1:1-3). Revelation is about the fall of the Roman Empire. It is not about the final judgment because the rulers, the common folk, and the slaves hide and plead to be shielded from God and Christ's wrath. There is no hiding from the end of the world.

A blood moon occurs during partial lunar eclipses. Mark Blitz determined that there would be a solar and lunar eclipse near each other twice in 2015, one near the spring equinox and the other near the fall equinox. He then decided that this would be the time frame when Jesus returns. By avoiding pinning a precise time, he believes he avoids Jesus' statement that no one knows the time of Jesus' return.

But there are monstrous holes in this claim. First, the passages are taken out of context. Second, where in the Bible does it say that Jesus' return is connected to a double blood moon in one year? (The answer is nowhere.) Third, like most false prophecies, it tries to arbitrarily assign literal meaning to what is intended to be a metaphor.

The sun being darkened, the moon turning red, and the stars falling from the heavens are all symbols used repeatedly concerning the fall of a nation (Isaiah 13:9-10; Joel 2:10; Matthew 24:29). When a nation's leaders are destroyed, its "guiding lights" are snuffed out, resulting in mass chaos. This is what God is talking about in these passages.

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (I John 4:1).