Be ready for Four Blood moons
By Julia Fernandes
April 15, 2014
Today, sky gazers have a lot to look forward to, while for the Christian and Jewish community members, today appears to hold a lot of religious significance. A lunar eclipse will occur today. But, it is not an ordinary one; it is a lunar Tetrad.
A lunar Tetrad is when four consecutive total lunar eclipses occur, with no partial eclipses in between, and each eclipse has a gap of around six months. People are naming it four blood moons because the moon will turn into a coppery red colour. The next tetrad will not happen until 2032.
Religious Significance
A Christian pastor, John Hagee, has written a book on the Tetrad titled, 'Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change'. According to Hagee, a significant religious event occurs each time the Tetrad occurs. When the first Tetrad occurred in 1493, Jews were expelled by the Catholic Spanish Inquisition. In 1949, after Israel was founded, the second one occurred. The third happened during the war between Arabs and Israeli in 1967.
According to Hagee, the first of the blood moons will happen during Passover, the second during the Feast of the Tabernacle, the third during Passover and the last during the Feast of the Tabernacle.
Meanwhile, the King James Bible does mention about the blood moons and the end of the world: 'The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes.' Some are taking this sentence and fear an upcoming disaster while some feel it is not a sign of Apocalypse.
What makes this upcoming lunar eclipse even more significant is that on April 8, 2014 Mars, Earth, and the Sun were all aligned. It is called opposition because Mars was exactly opposite the Sun in a rare cosmic alignment that happens once every 778 days.
My personal view is neutral. While I respect these events for their significance, I personally feel that one should stay calm and collected, and not get carried away by doomsday talks and keep praying and be positive. If you pray God will always protect you and all that the future holds for you. So, let us look forward to these unique cosmic events lined up till next year and observe the corresponding changes that occur in our lives as well as in the world!
2014
Total lunar eclipse: April 14-15
Total lunar eclipse: October 8
2015
Total lunar eclipse: April 4
Total lunar eclipse: September 28
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/artic le-2600355/Unusual-alignment-Mars-Earth-sun-mean-end-days-ap proaching.html
http://earthsky.org/space/what-is-a-bloo d-moon-lunar-eclipses-2014-2015#tetradhttp://www.dailymail.c o.uk/sciencetech/article-2600355/Unusual-alignment-Mars-Eart h-sun-mean-end-days-approaching.html