While space enthusiasts prepare to watch a rare supermoon eclipse Sunday night, some are preparing for the end of the world.
Christian minister John Hagee is leading the way in claiming that the final “tetrad” in a series of lunar eclipses is a sign from God that will bring about doomsday. “The coming four blood moons points to a world-shaking event that will happen between April 2014 and October 2015,” Hagee said in his 2013 book, “Four Blood Moons.”
Pastor John Hagee. (Getty)
The first three blood moons in the series referenced by Hagee took place on April 15, 2014, October 8, 2014, and April 4, 2015.
Hagee says the final eclipse fulfills a biblical prophecy. According to his book, he is referencing two specific passages from the bible.
First, Joel 2:30-31, “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.”
And second, Revelation 6:12, “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.”
Scientists say that the connection between the blood moons and the end of times is unfortunate. Geoff Gaherty writes for Space.com about the prophecy:
When the mechanisms behind eclipses were less well understood, they were thought to be omens of bad tidings, just as comets were. Now people know that these are just normal events in the clockwork of the solar system, things which have occurred regularly for thousands of years and which will occur for thousands of years into the future.
Associations between “disastrous” events and normal astronomical events are all fabrications of the human mind, as people attempt to find explanations for why disasters affect them.
The four blood moons and rare supermoon eclipse have caused others to worry. The Mormon church had to send out a message to its followers, reassuring them that the blood moon does not mean the end of the world.
Read more about the blood moons in Spanish at AhoraMismo.com:
