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  • Blood Moon 2015: What Hagee Didn’t Bother to Mention

    Repent! Blood Moon 2015 is upon us!

    This Sunday — that’s Easter Sunday to you uninformed and doomed — there will be a lunar eclipse the likes of which the Earth has only seen dozens of times. When that happens, atmospheric factors and the natural refraction of light will make the reflected light that reaches the observing human eye appear to be more red.

    It’s Blood Moon (2015)!

    Professional prognosticator and collector of loose change John Hagee is making bank off this natural phenomenon. He wrote a book back in 2013 called Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change. In this book, Hagee plucked a Bible verse that has often been used to drum up Doomsday fears.

    “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.” Joel 2:31

    Of course, that’s an Old Testament verse. Some people might write that off as “old news.” But Hagee backs that one up with this New Testament humdinger, leaving no doubt that this Sunday’s light show is somehow relevant to something, somewhere.

    “…There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars…Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Luke 21:25a, 28

    Hagee’s assertion is that there are four of these “blood moons” (not a scientific term) in a row, one of which lands on Easter. He believes that these four in a row are significant because they all land on Jewish Holy Days. Spooky stuff.

    Here’s what Hagee doesn’t tell you about Blood Moon 2015 — or any other Blood Moon, for that matter:

    1) All “blood moons” are, by definition, full moons
    2) Jewish festivals are always based around new or full moons, since the Jewish calendar is lunar
    3) Whether you can see an eclipse — “blood moon” or not — depends on where you stand on Earth

    When you combine these facts, the notion of some divine significance to a “blood moon” is pretty far-fetched. These are scientifically predictable events that are unremarkable when viewed without religious passion attached to them. Sure, they look beautiful — or scary, depending on your bent. But in the end, they are just shadows and timing, and no more serendipitous than noticing that your windshield wipers happen to match the rhythm of the song on the car radio — for a few seconds.

    It would be like Hagee telling you that he predicts a cold Thursday in November wherein far more turkey will be consumed than on any other day of the year, followed by a day of lavish spending and beastly shopping behavior.

    It doesn’t matter how far out he predicts it. Thanksgiving in the U.S. falls on a Thursday in November, just like how Jewish festivals fall on full and new moons.

    It’s cold in November … in this hemisphere. You can see a “blood moon” this Sunday … but only in Asia, Australia and North America. Not even in The Holy Land, where Hagee feels this event will have the most significance.

    But do buy the book and decide for yourself.

  • Blood Moon 2015: John Hagee Counts His Money in the Dark

    Blood Moon 2015 is just one more in a series of astronomical events that have caught the fascination of some religious folks.

    A “blood moon” — not a scientific term — is a lunar eclipse phenomenon that only occasionally occurs. There is no blood, of course. Light refraction through the Earth’s atmosphere gives the upcoming lunar eclipse a reddish hue.

    In terms of significance, it holds no real value in and of itself. It’s simply a chance alignment of shadows and orbits that is only observable from where we happen to be in this solar system — and only certain places on our globe. If you were on any other planet, it would be a non-event.

    But that doesn’t stop evangelical author and doomsday-sayer John Hagee from making Armageddon hay over Blood Moon 2015.

    In his best-selling book Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change, Hagee quotes from the Old Testament book of Joel as the basis for his prognostications:

    “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.” Joel 2:31

    Hagee says that it is rare for these “blood moons” to land on so many Jewish holidays in a row. He states several times that “NASA” is forecasting these events, to lend his argument some air of scientific authority.

    “None of these dates are mine, half of them belong to God and the other half to NASA. And they are both to reasonable intelligent sources of reference.”

    But full moons and lunar eclipses — including lunar eclipse 2015 — are not NASA-grade predictions. Any decent almanac will list them. What he does not mention is that the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar. Most Jewish holidays are based around full moons.

    And, because of the overlap distance between the Jewish calendar and a standard western calendar, there is a lot of room for fudging on dates.

    But Hagee asks that faith-pinging and wallet-swelling question about Blood Moon 2015: “Is this the end of the age?”

    “They will be a world shaking event… The heavens are God’s billboard, and when something big is about to happen He gives planet earth a signal that something significant is about to happen. Pay attention! NASA said these four blood moons are coming. God has said through Joel and St. Peter, Listen!”

    Even some more mainstream church organizations are dismissing Hagee’s argument as book-selling hype.

    “The coming four blood moons will be the eighth time this has happened since 1 AD. They mean nothing as far as the Bible is concerned… When these four blood moons come and go, Hagee will change his view and keep right on preaching to his faithful undiscerning crowd.”

    Look to the skies for Blood Moon 2015. You’ll get to see a cool-looking red moon. If you also see someone Raptured up, that’s a bonus. But mostly you’ll see John Hagee counting his money.