Why the world didn't end
and an eclipse is just an eclipse-- an open letter to Christianity
I started writing this 18 months ago when I stumbled upon Mark Blitz and John Hagee’s blood moon theory. I thought about sharing my thoughts then, but I realized that most people wouldn't be able to openly consider alternative views until the dates John Hagee and Mark Blitz predicted have come and gone. When you make predictions about the future, we can easily wait and see how your predictions interact with reality. Now that the Supermoon eclipse has passed with no minor events anywhere on earth, here's why God isn't trying to communicate with us through the moon.
If you're unaware of the blood moons theory, here's a link to John Hagee’s Theory. In short, he claims 4 solar eclipses in 2 years, commonly called a tetrad, are God "shouting at the top of his lungs," as God tries to tell us not to abandon Israel with a warning of the end of the world. He goes on to say the three previous tetrads, which have eclipses occurring on the Jewish Holidays, have all happens on historically significant periods in Jewish history.
Let's start by looking at the science behind why the moon turns red, then we will take a look at the past 3 instance of a tetrad and see what they have to offer our current situation, then I’ll ask some questions that the blood moon theory creates, and finally we’ll look at a different way to view world events.
First, here’s the science behind why the moon turns red. I think it is important to understand that an eclipse is a naturally occurring event just like any other found in nature. For a lunar eclipse, which are the types John Hagee talks about, the moon phases through the shadow of the earth. The earth bends the sun’s rays, like water does to create a rainbow, and projects those bent sun rays out into space. Sunlight is made up of all colors of the visible spectrum, the lighter colors are easier for our atmosphere to stop, or scatter, while red continues to travel on. That's why red makes it through during sunset and the sky turns red. When the earth bends the sunlight onto the moon, the red is the hardest to stop and it makes it through to the moon turning it shades of red. In the past 5,000 years, we've had 3,479 blood moons, they are very common. Our shadow makes the moon turn red. When we fear this even we are literally afraid of our own shadow. Why the Sun is Yellow and the Sky is Blue
Now that we understand the moon turns red due to very normal circumstances that have occurred almost 4,000 times in recorded history, let’s look at the previous 3 tetrads that coincide with the Jewish holidays (as John Hagee believes these are omens to be watched).
The first tetrad John haggle talks about started in 1492 and, in his conclusion, coincided with the Spanish inquisition. The Spanish inquisition started in January 1492 with a decree from the queen. The first, of 4, eclipse took place in April of 1492. This eclipse would have been very low on the horizon in Spain as it was centered over Central America. At that elevation, its view could have been blocked by a tree, building, or small cloud. It would be very hard to know exactly what you're looking at. Over the next 18 months, the remaining 3 eclipse weren't visible from Spain or Israel. They were centered over the pacific (on the other side of the world). If God was trying to communicate or warn the Jewish people of Spain, why couldn't they see the warning? They could only see 1 eclipse and an eclipse is very common. They happen multiple times a year. Keep in mind, the first eclipse happened 4 months after the event John Hagee says God was warning people about with the final event being almost two and a half years later. If you were a Jew in Spain, would you have thought anything unusual was going on? Is this God shouting at the top of his lungs?
The second tetrad was in 1949 to 1950 after the formation of Israel as a nation. As a quick side note, can you think of a major event in Jewish history that happens before 1948? I'll give you a hint, it starts with holo...
Yep, the holocaust, for some reason, God chose to not use John Hagee’s early warning system to let the Jews know 8 million of them would be killed. To me, it seems this should have been mentioned. If you were God, wouldn't this get honorable mention?
Back to 1948, none of the 4 eclipses (that started a year later) were viewable from Israel, Britain, or the U.S. They were centered over the pacific. As an FYI, where an eclipse is viewable from is pretty random along 15 degrees of the earth’s equator (as the moon orbits the earth on a plane roughly near the equator). When you look at a map, the majority of our planet near the equator is cover by ocean, about 75% of it, so it stands to reason that the majority of eclipses will be over the ocean. This is the case in 1948. Israel was established as a nation on May 4th 1948. The first eclipse, which wasn't visible, didn't happen until April of 1949. Then 2 and a half years after the formation of Israel as a nation, the final eclipse took place. Again, we see the event take place and eclipses take place later. If God is using the standard mention of the moon to warn us, why is it late? Why doesn't it happen before the event? Why isn't it visible for the people he is trying to warn?
I started writing this 18 months ago when I stumbled upon Mark Blitz and John Hagee’s blood moon theory. I thought about sharing my thoughts then, but I realized that most people wouldn't be able to openly consider alternative views until the dates John Hagee and Mark Blitz predicted have come and gone. When you make predictions about the future, we can easily wait and see how your predictions interact with reality. Now that the Supermoon eclipse has passed with no minor events anywhere on earth, here's why God isn't trying to communicate with us through the moon.
If you're unaware of the blood moons theory, here's a link to John Hagee’s Theory. In short, he claims 4 solar eclipses in 2 years, commonly called a tetrad, are God "shouting at the top of his lungs," as God tries to tell us not to abandon Israel with a warning of the end of the world. He goes on to say the three previous tetrads, which have eclipses occurring on the Jewish Holidays, have all happens on historically significant periods in Jewish history.
Let's start by looking at the science behind why the moon turns red, then we will take a look at the past 3 instance of a tetrad and see what they have to offer our current situation, then I’ll ask some questions that the blood moon theory creates, and finally we’ll look at a different way to view world events.
First, here’s the science behind why the moon turns red. I think it is important to understand that an eclipse is a naturally occurring event just like any other found in nature. For a lunar eclipse, which are the types John Hagee talks about, the moon phases through the shadow of the earth. The earth bends the sun’s rays, like water does to create a rainbow, and projects those bent sun rays out into space. Sunlight is made up of all colors of the visible spectrum, the lighter colors are easier for our atmosphere to stop, or scatter, while red continues to travel on. That's why red makes it through during sunset and the sky turns red. When the earth bends the sunlight onto the moon, the red is the hardest to stop and it makes it through to the moon turning it shades of red. In the past 5,000 years, we've had 3,479 blood moons, they are very common. Our shadow makes the moon turn red. When we fear this even we are literally afraid of our own shadow. Why the Sun is Yellow and the Sky is Blue
Now that we understand the moon turns red due to very normal circumstances that have occurred almost 4,000 times in recorded history, let’s look at the previous 3 tetrads that coincide with the Jewish holidays (as John Hagee believes these are omens to be watched).
The first tetrad John haggle talks about started in 1492 and, in his conclusion, coincided with the Spanish inquisition. The Spanish inquisition started in January 1492 with a decree from the queen. The first, of 4, eclipse took place in April of 1492. This eclipse would have been very low on the horizon in Spain as it was centered over Central America. At that elevation, its view could have been blocked by a tree, building, or small cloud. It would be very hard to know exactly what you're looking at. Over the next 18 months, the remaining 3 eclipse weren't visible from Spain or Israel. They were centered over the pacific (on the other side of the world). If God was trying to communicate or warn the Jewish people of Spain, why couldn't they see the warning? They could only see 1 eclipse and an eclipse is very common. They happen multiple times a year. Keep in mind, the first eclipse happened 4 months after the event John Hagee says God was warning people about with the final event being almost two and a half years later. If you were a Jew in Spain, would you have thought anything unusual was going on? Is this God shouting at the top of his lungs?
The second tetrad was in 1949 to 1950 after the formation of Israel as a nation. As a quick side note, can you think of a major event in Jewish history that happens before 1948? I'll give you a hint, it starts with holo...
Yep, the holocaust, for some reason, God chose to not use John Hagee’s early warning system to let the Jews know 8 million of them would be killed. To me, it seems this should have been mentioned. If you were God, wouldn't this get honorable mention?
Back to 1948, none of the 4 eclipses (that started a year later) were viewable from Israel, Britain, or the U.S. They were centered over the pacific. As an FYI, where an eclipse is viewable from is pretty random along 15 degrees of the earth’s equator (as the moon orbits the earth on a plane roughly near the equator). When you look at a map, the majority of our planet near the equator is cover by ocean, about 75% of it, so it stands to reason that the majority of eclipses will be over the ocean. This is the case in 1948. Israel was established as a nation on May 4th 1948. The first eclipse, which wasn't visible, didn't happen until April of 1949. Then 2 and a half years after the formation of Israel as a nation, the final eclipse took place. Again, we see the event take place and eclipses take place later. If God is using the standard mention of the moon to warn us, why is it late? Why doesn't it happen before the event? Why isn't it visible for the people he is trying to warn?
Finally, let’s look at the tetrad of 1967 and 1968. John
Hagee believes God was trying to warn Israel about the 6 day war was in June of
1967. The first eclipse in this tetrad was in April of 1967. So, before the
event there was only 1 eclipse. This isn’t unusual in any way. Imagine you are
in control of the Army of Israel. Would you deploy every soldier because there
was an eclipse? Then, would you keep them deployed, costing millions per day,
for another 3 months? The first eclipse wouldn’t have been anything special,
and it took another 2 years for the remaining eclipses to happen. Again, this
isn’t anything unusual.
As a side note, the reason John Hagee only addresses 3
tetrads is due to the fact that NASA had only run the eclipse simulation back
500 years at the time John Hagee wrote his book. After the book was published,
they ran the simulation back another 5,000 years. We now have information John
Hagee didn’t have and know that there have been 142 lunar tetrads in the past
500 years. Again, a tetrad is a normally occurring event that doesn’t require
God to insert himself into the physical realities of the world to change the
orbit of our moon.
Here are some questions I have after thinking about this
theory.
Why is the moon’s path unchanged? The reason we
can predict the eclipse is the moon travels in a predictable pattern. The moon
doing what it always does is not an indication that things will not continue to
be what they’ve always been. Why would God warn us through something that he
didn’t change?
Why are the eclipses not visible to the people
he's trying to warn? If you’re a
powerful God and wanted to warn someone, would you make the warning visible and
understandable to the people you are trying to warn?
Why do the eclipses take place AFTER the event John Hagee says God
is warning us about? If you’re a powerful God and
wanted to warn someone, wouldn’t you make the warning before the event you want
to warn them about?
Why does God try to communicate through ordinary, un-miraculous events? If you’re a powerful God and wanted to warn someone, wouldn’t you simply warn them? Wouldn’t you whisper in their ear or bring a piece of evidence to them? Throughout the Bible, we see God interact with humanity in much simpler, direct ways.
Why does the bible never mention a tetrad? Fun fact, the bible never mentions an eclipse. Simply because they didn’t have the words to describe what they were seeing. If God is all-knowing, and wrote the Bible, why not use the words people didn’t know at the time to give us a clue today? The bible never mentions a series of eclipses. This is all created by Mark Blitz and John Hagee.
Why do we let John Hagee make us afraid of our
own shadow? Why do we believe these
people time and time again? It seems every few years, someone pops up claiming
the world will end or that big change is on the way. Next time, let’s not buy
their books, DVD’s, and sermon series. Let’s not let them profit off our fear.
Now for a fun though, here are three ways God ours use the moon to communicate with humanity.
First, he could turn the moon purple, or Pink. These colors doesn’t exist in the visible spectrum. When you separate light into its parts you don't get these colors as they are a combination of colors on different ends of the spectrum. God could do something that is physically impossible and get our attention. Why Purple Isn't Really in the Rainbow
Second, the moon is tidally locked to earth. We always see the same side of the moon and never see "the dark side of the moon" from earth. It wasn't until Apollo 8 launched to orbit the moon and went around it on Christmas Eve of 1968 that a human ever looked at the dark side. God could spin the moon so we see the dark side. Every scientist on earth would lose their minds as that's impossible to happen naturally.
Finally, God could
alternate the rotation of the moon by rotating the moon back and forth to tap
out Morse Code. We're a smart species, we'd figure that out in under a day. Why
not do that? If you want to communicate, do it. Don't make us try and guess
through eclipses we can’t see.
So, where do we go from here? I suggest we all take a step
back and realize when Christ died on the cross he shouted, “It is finished.”
What if we approached each day as if we had the tools needed to complete the
task? What if we didn’t sit back and wait for God to finish things for us? What
if we looked at the world as a place worth saving rather than a place worth
ending? What if we didn’t long for the demise of people who think differently
than us? What if we actually loved our neighbor as ourselves and didn’t long for
their destruction? If we did these things, I think we wouldn’t believe the next
John Hagee that comes along to sell us a book.
