The Choice is Yours! (Written October 2014 by Pat Holloran)
So there has been a lot of “hoopla” from many people that I know over the last few weeks with regards to “Left Behind” the movie, and then the upsurge of people wanting to know my opinion about the blood moon(s) and prophecy.
It all started back a few weeks ago when I was doing a School of Spiritual Warfare 101. Unbeknown to myself, it was the very same day as the opening of the remake of the Left Behind series, this time with Nicholas Cage.
So when the question and answer period came up during the school, there were some people who wanted to know why we should become involved in spiritual warfare today since the blood moon was occurring and it was now showing that Jesus Christ was coming even sooner for His Bride.
First of all, there are people of big names in the fellowship of saints and people who are not that well known, who are promoting that the end is near and that we are entering into the days of Noah.
Two things to first of all make very clear on this. Number one, if you read the account of Noah in the book of Genesis, you will discover that Noah was the only man left upon the earth whose DNA had not been affected by the time which we call “the giants”, or in English, “The Nephillim.”
The bible clearly says in Luke 17:22-30 “ 2And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
Have you ever examined this scripture in its original language? The eating that is being referred to here is that of human flesh. That’s right, cannibalism! This is the ultimate lust! And the drinking that they were doing is not of wine, but of blood! And let us not forget about the marrying and being given in marriage. This refers not to human bonding, but to have ungodly unions with animals, with same sex intimacies, and even of swapping partners!
But most notable about this scripture and the writings of the days of Noah in Genesis is the documentation where it tells us that only Noah was perfect in his generations (Genesis 6:8-10
“ 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
And then again, in Genesis 7:1
“ 1Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.”
If we truly examine this word of being blameless, then we learn that it is the meaning of not having any defilement or anti-human blemishes upon the double helix of your DNA ladder. In other words, the DNA that was in Noah was not defiled by the angels in the time of Enoch coming into this world and finding the “daughters of men attractive…”
In truth, the days of Noah shows that he is the last human being on the planet to have the DNA of God the Father from the time of Adam and Eve that is not manipulated or defiled by a race of “rebellious angels” from the days of Enoch.
And upon further study, we can determine that because of the DNA misconduct that came upon mankind, this is why God destroyed the earth with a flood. So to say that the end days are going to be like they were in the days of Noah, you and I are either not human beings, or there is a deception that is in operation here that is trying to get people to think they are the last of the humans! Seriously! If we truly believe the word of God, and if what certain “bible scholars” and fiction writers are declaring, then there is only one human being on this world right now and everyone else is part of a false thinking that we are the human race.
So do I have your attention? Good! Now to get on with more of this learning.
I must first of all speak out that if you enjoy fiction, then the “left behind” series is a good one for you. But to be truthful, and to hold on to the fear of the Lord, I cannot in good conscience tell you that the movie is true. In fact, it is an out and out falsehood!
Now before you condemn me to internet purgatory, read a little bit more!
When I became born again, I was in my late 20’s. And the message that I received was not to choose Jesus as a way out of hell or to get away from the tribulation. In fact, I didn’t hear anything like that until after I became part of the Kingdom of heaven on this earth.
I had a very good bible instructor and he gave me solid teaching from the very beginning.
After being a “Christian” for several months, I heard on a mid-week bible study the term rapture and tribulation. After listening to these new developments that I had never heard of before, I became fascinated with the word “anti-christ”, 7 year tribulation, and then about the prophecy of Daniel.
I would listen to people such as Chuck Smith, Jack Van Impe, Pat Robertson, and more. Each one was saying that same message; Jesus is coming back. Are you ready?
I glanced at the book, “Late Great Planet Earth”, and then I saw the Baptist movie of the tribulation. It made me really happy to be a Christian.
Then I started to listen to people in home groups as they started talking about all the signs coming true for the end of the days to be here. And I became convinced of this. Everyday I started to look at the news as a prophetic means to give myself clues as to when Christ would be returning and we would get married to Him.
And then I started to hear of “bible scholars” who were saying that Jesus Christ was coming back on this date and we had all better be ready. I remember thinking one night, what if Jesus Christ came back during the night and I had not yet told all my family.
So the first one I told was one of my brothers. I scared him so much, that he went and told his future wife what I had learned. She became so scared of God that to this day she will not go to church as she is quite certain she has not place in the rapture. So she lives without hope of a King. Yes, well played rapture teaching. My brother’s wife is so fearful of God, that she doesn’t even want to hear His name! Her biggest concern is that her family, which is not “Christian,” will get to heaven. And she does not want to be separate from them.
I can’t help but wonder how many others I scared away from a true revelation of the Son of God as a King and true lover of people?
Anyway, as time grew on, I started to study more and more of the teachings of the Kingdom, and I was startled to discover that in Kingdom thinking, there is no thought about the return of Jesus Christ or getting married, or of even establishing the Kingdom of heaven in the future upon this earth!
In fact, I was startled to read that when Jesus Christ sent out the 72 to enter into the cities that He wanted to visit, the bible tells us that he gave them literally just two commands of action; heal the sick (not pray for them) and declare that “the Kingdom of God has come.” Whoa! How can we be looking for the Kingdom of God to come if Jesus Christ said it has already arrived?!?
Of course the answer today is that the Kingdom is here (although there are certain traditionalists who will tell you it hasn’t come yet so they can be right in their wrong instruction).
It also came to my attention in this time of shifting, of why does Jesus Christ need a second chance to do what He was supposed to do the first time He came? That’s right! We talk about how Jesus needs to come back today in order to establish his marriage, to declare his victory, and to have His kingdom come. That is saying that the perfect living sacrifice, the Son of God, without spot or blemish, couldn’t get his instructions right the first time and now needs to come back again to set things right. That my friends, is preposterous!
Now here is my simple idea as to why it is wrong to think that Jesus Christ is going to create a rapture. This is the world that He died for. It belongs to His Father! This world is to give God a bigger family! That’s why He said to Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Our God wants a bigger family.
You see, the bible is a great account of a all consuming God who doesn’t pull His people out of bad times, but walks with them and through them. He did it for Abraham, he did it for Israel out of Egypt, and even with Babylon and Assyria. He didn’t do it when Rome sacked Jerusalem (although history does tell us that the prophets who spoke in that time gave a warning for all of the blood bought saints of God to leave and they did).
What I am trying to make clear here is that God doesn’t want to remove us from certain life threatening snares just for the sake of escape and of forfeiting our destinies. He never intended for the church, the ecclesia, to abandon the work of the Lord’s commands for this earth. In fact, he never wanted the church to think more about itself than of others. But it has happened.
So if what I am saying here is true, then the rapture mentality reveals a shocking and false security to resist loving a world that the King of kings came to die for. That is almost blasphemous!
On another related note, why is it that many people are turning the book of Revelation into a study book of future events? If you look at the book of Revelation in context with history, you discover not only have “bad” events that match the foretelling in revelation happened, but that they are not future events. If we look at the prologue of the book of Revelation, we read that it is the testimony of Jesus Christ!
How can we continually miss the real revelation that is here in this wonder-filled book of how great, mighty, and unconquerable is our God? It’s time for a change in thinking!
The second part of this article is about what I previously mentioned with many people asking me about the blood moon prophecies that some more of the same “Big Names” are speaking about as signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
One person actually stated to me that it is really important to watch the blood moons and their occurrences as it pertains to important events about Israel.
While I had heard some of this before, the adamant nature of the people telling me that something would happen in Israel and the Middle East very soon really caused me to wonder about this claim. Upon further investigation, I discovered that there are many preachers on television and the Internet that are trying to convince people of this correlation with “blood Moons” and history. So I did a little (okay, a lot) of digging!
I found out that much of what these historical experts are inferring to in in fact not even true! Yes, their dates are wrong, their explanations are wrong, and in truth – their presumptuousness that people would take their word for what they are saying without checking into it is full of the knowledge of deceit and not of the Lord.
Let’s talk first of all about what is a “blood moon.”
First of all, what is a lunar eclipse? According to Wikipedia, (which I do not always use as a good resource, but this time it will work for showing an explanation), a lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly behind the earth into its umbra (shadow). This can occur only when the sun, earth, and moon are aligned exactly (in “syzygy”), or very closely so, with the earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a full moon.
A blood moon of a lunar eclipse happens when there comes a red shadow on the moon because of the light that passes through the atmosphere of the earth and goes to the moon’s surface.
Now the reason for this being a significant occurrence for Christians is that they are getting excited about the Jewish Feasts of Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles that are coming in 2015. There are those who will say that it is important to look at these lunar eclipses because the feasts are the same time as the blood moons.
These same writers, preachers, and publicists are also saying that everytime a blood moon happened in the history of Israel, it coincided with a major event. This is where I started to question their findings as well as their declarations.
Perhaps what really concerned me was how these “experts” were saying that the bible is centered on Israel and its events. This is totally inaccurate! And it is a misleading of questionable authority. You see, the bible does not have Israel as its center subject. In truth, the centerpiece of the word of God is without a question, Jesus Christ! That’s right.
Even the prophecies that speak of the future are not about Israel, but about the True King of kings. Just a side note, that is the gospel of the Kingdom!
I did examine one book by a well known pastor and I must tell you that in his writings, he and his co-author declare that the occurrences of the blood moon appearing in the past is a sign of something that happened historically. And what many of those who are writing about the blood moon occurrences are saying is that each historical event with regards to Israel meant something to be on the lookout for.
One of the major things that I have learned from my wife, who is a “born again” Jew is that the Jewish calendar is not based on our calendar, but that of the moon. And the major feasts of the Jewish people always involves a full moon. That makes their festival time and calendar a lunar model.
Now follow along with me please.
In investigating what has been taught and publicly spoken by leaders referring to the blood moon issue, I discovered that NASA has confirmed that there have been “blood moons” seven times on the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Sukkoth, since quite literally when Jesus Christ was a toddler (1AD).
Now when we speak of lunar eclipses, I am referring to when they were total eclipses, not partial. If you observe not only NASA and its lunar observations, but other reliable resources, you will discover that there were total lunar eclipses on 2 April, 1493 (Passover), 25 September, 1493 (Feast of Tabernacle), 22 March, 1494 (Feast of Passover) and 15 September, 1494 (Feast of Tabernacles).
While these dates are again verifiable, to explain that they were the warning signs to a nation that was not existing then is not exactly correct.
Now the Jewish Talmud tells us, “when the moon is in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel. If its face is as red as blood, (it is a sign that) the sword is coming to the world.”
So this is speaking about a land, a nation. Not as an individual people. Please remember that in the teaching of the Talmud, the lessons that are to be learned are not about individuals, but about national movements and the people in a corporate setting or gathering. And in the 1400’s, Israel was not a nation yet. The people had become scattered and the prophecy of Isaiah 66 did come to pass. But that is in another time of history.
The reason that I start with this is because certain theologians are saying that the blood moon happened in 1492. History tells us that this is when Christopher Columbus started out for the “new world.”
History also teaches us that this was the time of persecution in Spain of the Jewish people. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella made a ruling that all Jewish people had to leave the country if they would not convert to Christianity. Many suffered persecution and death at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church and its leaders/zealots.
While I do not want to make light here of this trauma in the history of the Jewish people, I do want to make it very clear that declaring the blood moon was a time for the Jews to be put to death astronomically is not a truth.
Now pay particular attention to this next part of history and bringing about factual documentation.
While the order to remove the Jewish people came in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, history tells us that the Roman Catholic Tribunal that made this decree and convinced the King and Queen to issue the edict did not happen in 1492. It clearly was 15 years before Columbus set out on his ocean going voyage, that the tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church made its documentation. The actual date for this to have happened was November 1, 1478 – and was initiated by Pope Sixtus IV.
While a lot is not understood of this time by many Christians, it was a time when the Roman Catholic Church went after “former Jewish faith People” because of their prosperity. You see the people who were Jewish in that time did convert to Christianity. But the church did not take into account how this conversion would affect the business world and open doors of even greater wealth to the Jewish converts. So the Roman Catholic Church at that time said that the “new converts/Christians” were not sincere in their changing of religions, and must now leave the nation or suffer death. And in truth, we do know that many died even after obeying the commands issued by the church and the royalty of Spain.
Now to stay on track. As we examine some other uses of the time of blood moons and Israel’s history, it should be pointed out that the next important date according to practicing theologians is when Israel became a nation (14 May 1948).
That war of Independence and Israel becoming a nation in one day went from 14 May, 1948 until 10 March, 1949. That is when the first Knesset went forward in being established and the “official” border lines at that time were decided by the United Nations. Now while it is great that the Jewish people were able to establish a nation of their own, to say that the blood moon(s) were a sign of this is not exactly correct. You see, the documentation of total lunar eclipses and them being “blood moons” does not verify this. The lunar eclipses that occurred after this war, happened on 13 April, 1949 (Feast of Passover), 7 October 1949 (Feast of Sukkoth), 2 April, 1950 (Feast of Passover), and 25 September, 1950 (Feast of Sukkoth).
If you do the mathematics, you will discover that the blood moons were not a sign from God prophetically, as the events that people are discussing had already happened. Again, look at the records: the war of Israel’s independence was fought from 14 May 1948 until 10 March 1949. The recorded blood moons did not happen until after this war was completed.
The next historical event that these people are saying was affected was the “six day war in 1967”. This war was fought from 5 June 1967 to 10 June 1967. The taking of Jerusalem by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) was on 7 June, 1967. Again, there was no lunar eclipse in that time.
The blood moon eclipses that did occur were:
First Day of Passover, 24 April, 1967
First Day of Sukkoth, 18 October, 1967
First Day of Passover, 13 April, 1968
First Day of Sukkoth, 6 October, 1968
And interestingly enough, these lunar eclipses were not seen in Jerusalem. So first of all, if God wanted to use the eclipses as a sign to Israel, wouldn’t He have made then visible for the people of the nation to see?
But second of all, for people to say that the lunar eclipses were a sign of Israel taking Jerusalem is again not accurate, as the events of the eclipse happened 194 days later after Jerusalem was a victory for Israel.
Now realize that I am not opposed to what you may believe. But if it is more hype than biblical fact, change your outlook and your approach to eschatology and don’t become a victim of “hoopla!” (that means spiritual hype!).
Jesus said that “14And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14
Matthew 4:23 “23And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.”
Matthew 9:35 “35And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.”
There is a command that we are to fulfill in order to see the end coming. And right now we have a great commission to follow through on and make happen.
Remind yourself that since the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, you will have several other opportunities to see the eclipse of the moon again and presumably, it will be on one of the feasts of Israel. There is nothing prophetic about that. I figure if God wants to have us see something coming in the system of the universe, He will use His instruments, His fruit of His lips, to prophecy to be on the lookout for a new thing. But please realize, that to say the Lord is trying to show us something prophetically today in this capacity of the blood moon, let’s get our facts correct on history happenings versus the occurrence of “total Lunar Eclipses.”
Of the 55 Blood Moons that have occurred since the First Century AD, there have been 7 which coincided with Jewish Holy Days, and none of them were seen as signs of anything significant at the time.
To put everything in another perspective, here are some very significant events in the history of the nation of Israel which DID NOT coincide with any Blood Moon signs.
There were no Blood Moons during:
1446 BC (Israel left Egypt in the Exodus)
1406 BC (Joshua entered Canaan)
723 BC (Ten northern tribes went into Assyrian Captivity)
587 BC (Judah went into Babylonian captivity)
538 BC (Cyrus proclaims the Jews could return to Canaan)
533 BC (Jews began return from Babylon and arrived in Jerusalem)
1-2 BC (Jesus was born)
33 AD (Jesus was crucified) *Solar, but not lunar eclipse
70 AD (Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed by Romans)
135 AD (Hadrian renamed the city of Jerusalem, killed many Jews and expelled the rest)
1943 AD (Hitler killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust)
Put another way, here are four more examples of when Tetrarchs (or a series of four Blood Moons) fell on all four Jewish feast days:
162 AD
795 AD
842 AD
860 AD
Guess what significant historic events happened during these Blood Moons?
Wrong! Nothing happened.