Prophecy and the Blood Moon Tetrad – Beginning April 15th 2014

For millennia, a rare celestial event known as the “Blood Moon Tetrad” has coincided with periods of monumental change affecting the Holy Land and ultimately the world.
April 15th will bring us to the first of a series of four “Blood Moons” in 2014 and 2015. This is what is known as a Tetrad. There are many Biblical prophecies of a “Blood Moon” being a sign of the Return of Christ. What is interesting is that this phenomenon, this tetrad of four Blood Moons, has only happened 7 times since the birth of Jesus. Many have looked for the Return of Christ in the past during these occurrences. Is this the one?

“And 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 Lord.” Joel 2:30-31.

After a long period of few Tetrads, the last Tetrad was in 2003 and the next will not be until 2032. Are we looking here at an indication of the times and the seasons for the return of Jesus?

The visual appearance of the “Blood Moon” that’s alluded to in Revelation is a real phenomenon that you can see next week from North and South America as the Moon enters into the dark umbra or core of the shadow of the Earth. The redness of the Moon is due to the scattering of sunlight through the Earth’s atmosphere. This redness can vary considerably due to the amount of dust, ash, and particulate aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in anything from a bright cherry red eclipse during totality to a dark black eclipsed Moon almost disappearing from view altogether.

What’s In Store

Here’s what’s in store for the upcoming cycle of “Blood Moon” eclipses. The April 15th total lunar eclipse is the first in a series of four total eclipses spanning back-to-back years, known as a tetrad. There are eight tetrads in the 21st century, the maximum that is possible. If you observed the set total lunar eclipses back in 2003 and 2004, you saw the first tetrad of the 21st century.

The eclipses in this particular tetrad, however, coincide with the Full Moon marking Passover on April 15th, and the Jewish observance of Sukkot on October 8th. So will this be the fulfillment of Revelations 6:12? Are we now about to experience the fulfillment of the prophecy of the sixth seal?

“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.”

The Revelation passage refers to a total solar eclipse as well, though astronomically both can never happen on the same day. Lunar and solar eclipses occur in pairs two weeks apart at Full and New Moon phases when the nodes of the Moon’s ecliptic crossing comes into alignment with the Sun — known as a syzygy, an ultimate triple word score in Scrabble, by the way — and this eclipse season sees a non-central annular eclipse following the April 15th eclipse on April 29th.

Pray For Israel

These seasons of lunar and solar eclipses have often marked pivotal times for Israel and the church:

• A series of lunar eclipses, but not a tetrad, marked the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
• The first tetrad since the Middle Ages, in 1493, saw the expulsion of Jews from Spain by the Inquisition – rocking western Europe.
• The second tetrad coincided with the establishment of the State of Israel – after thousands of years of struggle – in 1949.
• Strangely, the last one occurred in 1967 – far earlier than expected – precisely at the time of the Six-Day Arab–Israeli War.

It seems that something difficult, and then triumphant for Israel has been connected with these Tetrads, so we should be praying for Israel during this time. But does this Tetrad herald the end? We are hurrying toward the Return of Jesus, yet there is much of Biblical prophecy still unfulfilled. I see this prophetically as an image of the curtain rising on the End-time stage. In my post on the Mayan Apocalypse I said prophetically: “I hear the end-time prelude music starting”. It seemed like the earth was a vast theater and the energetic opening music had begun. It was clearly time to take your seats for the show to begin!

Now, during the Year of the Door, it prophetically seems as though the Door is swinging open – the curtains are sweeping open and the action is ready to begin! I was seeing this prophetically, and my wife prophesied this very word to me as confirmation. Does this mean that the upcoming “Blood Moon Tetrad” will mark the End? Bible prophecy speaks of much that is clearly yet unfulfilled, so I do not think that this is the one. But with the “Blood Moon Tetrads” expected in coming decades, we can take this one as an indication that the time is indeed drawing closer. Jesus is coming back soon!