The Blood Moon

On October 8, I was awakened by a call from my new friend and neighbor Joy Wintersteen.  I had asked Joy to call to wake me for a rare spectacle, the Blood Moon.  In this lunar eclipse, the moon is a red-orange shade.  The color is caused by Rayleigh scattering of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere, refracted light from around Earth.

The first in four consecutive total lunar eclipses, a tetrad, occurred on April 15, 2014.  The second was the Blood Moon I saw on October 8, 2014.  It was quite an experience, and I am very glad I climbed out of bed to witness the spectacle.  The remaining two eclipses will take place on April 4, 2015 and September 28, 2015.  This tetrad is one of eight during the 21st century AD.

Last century (can you believe we can call the 20^th century “last century”?), Mark Biltz predicted that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur in the fall of 2015.  The seven years of the great tribulation were to begin in the fall of 2008.   He claimed that the next tetrad would coincide with the Apocalypse. He was wrong, of course.

Joy let me borrow a book called Four Blood Moons by John Hagee.  In April, Hagee’s book was No. 4 on the The New York Times Best Sellers list in the advice category.  Hagee does not preach that the Blood Moons are a sign of the end times but stated in his sermons to his congregation at Cornerstone Church that every prior tetrad of the last 500 years coincided with events in Jewish and Israeli history that were originally tragic followed by triumph.

The proclamations that a "blood moon" serves as an omen of the coming of Jesus is derived from the Book of Joel.  “The sun will turn into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes,” again mentioned during Pentecost by St. Peter, as recorded in Acts.

The only other time I have been this interested in religious lore was when I was researching my book about the angel Lucifer.  Originally titled I, Lucifer, and written in first person from Lucifer’s point of view, it has since been rewritten and is now titled Redemption.  It is currently with a publisher and I have my fingers crossed that it will be accepted for publication.

In my research, I found that the idea Lucifer is the devil comes from this passage in Isaiah 14.12 (New American Standard Bible):  “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!”  As I understand it, this was said in a conversation between the King of Mesopotamia and Lucifer, and there is some doubt, in this version, whether the King speaks to Lucifer or Lucifer speaks to the King.  Don't stone me here, but if Lucifer was speaking to the King, it gives rise to the question, is Lucifer the devil?


Happy Weekend Eve, Everyone!

Linda