September 27/28 came and went without any untoward incident. So did the
last event of the “blood moon tetrad”. For the time being, the flurry of posts and
forwards from "cry-wolf-ers” has subsided. How
do we as believers respond to this kind of social media hype? Well, eschatology
(the study of last things) has been a favorite realm for scare-mongers right
from the first century. From Emperor Nero onwards, scores of political/social/religious
leaders have been identified with the Antichrist. The current favorites seem to
be President Obama and Pope Francis. And then, the recurring cosmic events, of
which the latest was the “blood moons”. Two guys, Biltz and Hagee got
catapulted into media fame by publishing books apparently tallying scientific
facts with biblical prophecies and predicting the end times. People were
carried away by the neat images, diagrams, and calculations. No one bothered
much about the manipulations involved. “Something Is About To Change”, cried
John Hagee in 2013. Unsuspecting enthusiasts kept on posting and forwarding
doomsday warnings based on his and Mark Biltz’s surmises. Even after the events
are over, an occasional post appears with colorful moon charts and danger
warnings! How non-sensical!
Reproduced below is a concise but very clear refutation of the blood
moon theory from an article at Christianity.about.com:
“Despite the popularity of the blood moons books, several problems
exist. First, the four blood moons theory was thought up by Mark Biltz. It is not stated anywhere in the Bible. Second, contrary to what Biltz and Hagee
imply, past blood moon tetrads did not neatly coincide with the events they
mention. For example, the Alhambra
Decree came down in 1492 but the blood moons happened a year after that. The
tetrad near the state of Israel's 1948 independence occurred in 1949-1950, one
and two years after the event. Third, other tetrads happened throughout
history, but there were no major events affecting Jews at those times,
reflecting inconsistency, at the least.
Fourth, two of the most significant catastrophes for Jews had no tetrad
activity at all: the destruction of the
Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D. by Roman legions, leading to the deaths of 1
million Jews; and the 20th century Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of
more than 6 million Jews. Fifth, some of the events Biltz and Hagee cite were
favorable to Jews (Israel's independence in 1948 and the Six-Day war), while
the expulsion from Spain was unfavorable.
With no sign whether an event would be good or bad, the prophetic value
of tetrads would be confusing. Finally, many people assume the four 2014-2015
blood moons will precede Jesus Christ's second coming, but Jesus himself warned
against trying to predict when he will return:
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor
the Son, but only the Father.. Be on
guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come." (Mark13:32-33
NIV)”
That’s that!
Then there were posts about the “Obamacare” health program in the US
which would require all US residents to have an RFID microchip on the
forehead/arm and how they could be tracked for every detail! Again, a blatant
hoax. The details of the Affordable Care Act (nicknamed “Obamacare”) have been
widely published, and there is no mention of tracking chips! Well, we don’t
need to go into the merits or demerits of Obama’s pet Project, but to rake up a
frenzy about a presumed identity with the reign of the Antichrist is much worse
than a practical joke! To be sure, there is mention of a CHIP in the Obamacare
Project, but that is just an acronym for Children’s Health Insurance Program!
After all, the US admin can already track financial and other transactions of
every resident through just one portal, the Social Security Number. Obama’s
official limousine is jovially referred to as the Beast, and this has been
another triumph for Antichrist spotters. Does the Bible say that the Antichrist
will be an armored tank compressed into the most luxurious Cadillac One? That
is what the President’s limo is. Some Antichrist!
A meeting that took place in
the Vatican in late 2014 recently caught social media attention with a picture
of the Pope, Amritanandamayi and some others with the caption, “The World Moves
Towards One Religion”. The fact is, that meeting was for a declaration about
ending modern slavery (human trafficking) and had nothing to do with a common
world religion!
I personally believe the Rapture can occur any moment. No
prediction needs fulfillment for this.
Most, if not all, the signs given in Scripture about the end times refer to the
visible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory to the earth, not the Rapture
when the world will not be seeing the Son of Man coming in the clouds. It is an
event for the Church and not for the world. The Tribulation will follow this,
and that is when the Antichrist will be manifest. I know there are well-meaning
Bible students who hold other views on this, and we need not make it a test of
fellowship. However, our Lord was very explicit in His teaching that the date of
His Second Coming was known only to the Father, not even to Him (as a human
being, of course). So all date setting and end-of-the-world predictions are
totally unscriptural. In fact those who revel in such activities are favoring
the scheme of the Devil who thrives on substitutes, the culmination of which
will be The Antichrist. At present, Satan loves to draw the attention of people
away from the real event of the Second Coming of Christ, and just scare them
with false alarms. Remember that many cults had their origin in such
predictions.
We are instructed in the Word of God to live expectantly about the
coming of the Lord, but not to be obsessed with scary predictions. “Watch” is
how the Lord concluded His “Olivet discourse” on eschatology in Mark 13. That
means living in the light of the imminent appearance of the Lord, witnessing to
the world by our life and example. 2 Peter 3:11-14. As author and Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe has succinctly said, “We are
not looking for a sign; we are looking for the Savior!”
