Popular Bible preacher John Hagee has authored a book and produced a movie by the same name, Four Blood Moons (in theaters March 23 only). On the film’s website the San Antonio megachurch pastor states, “The heavens are ‘God’s billboard.’ He’s been sending signals to earth, and we haven’t been picking them up.” In part 1 of this series, as an astronomer I analyzed those “signals,” a series of four (tetrad) total lunar eclipses that supposedly ushers in prophetic activity ahead of the return of Christ. Now, as a student of Scripture and as one who believes in premillennial eschatology, I convey my primary, biblical criticism.

Biblical Concerns

1. Earth phenomena might be responsible for lunar darkening. Three biblical passages mention the Moon taking on a blood-like appearance: Joel 2:31, Acts 2:20, and Revelation 6:12. All three state that both the Moon and the Sun take on a darkened appearance. These passages also imply that the darkening will be visible to all of humanity. However, there is no darkening of the Sun during a total lunar eclipse. Furthermore, total lunar eclipses last only a couple of hours and are visible to a fraction of humanity.

Eight other biblical texts describe the darkening of the Moon’s light, but not the blood color: Ecclesiastes 12:2; Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:7–8; Joel 2:10; 3:15; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24; and Revelation 8:12. In all these passages not only is the Moon’s light darkened but that of the Sun and stars as well. In Revelation 8 the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and stars is preceded by a third of the world’s forests and grasslands being burnt up and a huge mountain set ablaze. Ash from volcanic eruptions and from forest and grass fires both reddens and dims sunlight, moonlight, and starlight.

I personally have seen the reddening and dimming effect of forest fire smoke several times. Not only does the Moon look blood-red but the Sun and stars do as well. I have seen the noontime Sun dimmed to such a degree by forest fire smoke that my environs were as dark as night.

The worldwide injection of dust into the atmosphere offers a consistent and satisfactory explanation for all the Bible passages describing the dimming or reddening (or both) of the Moon’s light. It explains, too, how the entire human population would notice the phenomenon and that many people would begin to fear God as a result. The same cannot be said for Hagee’s lunar eclipse hypothesis.

2. “Great lights” benefit animals but say nothing about prophecy. Another interpretive concern lies in the treatment of Genesis 1:14. Hagee and others (such as Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries and Larry Huch of Larry Huch Ministries) appeal to this verse as justification for looking to the Moon for signs of God’s interventions in human history.Genesis 1:14 (and 1:16) does say that the two great lights (the Sun and the Moon) will serve as signs. However, it says that from creation day four forward they will serve as signs to mark seasons, days, and years, not that they will serve as signs to mark prophesied events.

Throughout creation days one, two, and three, light from the Sun and Moon penetrated Earth’s atmosphere, but because of overcast skies at that time, creatures on Earth’s surface could not make out the form of the bodies responsible for the light. On creation day four Earth’s atmosphere first became transparent. Now creatures on Earth’s surface could discern the positions of the Sun, Moon, and stars in the sky. Knowledge of those positions enabled them to determine what part of the year and day they were in and, thus, determine when they should feed, reproduce, migrate, hibernate, and so on. Support for this interpretation stems from the observation that all the life described in Genesis 1 before creation day four does not require knowledge of the positions of the Sun, Moon, and stars to perform their life functions, but all the life described after creation day four in Genesis 1 needs that knowledge to regulate their complex biological clocks.

3. Numerous world events have yet to occur. Finally, Old Testament prophecies regarding the second rebirth of Israel indicate that several events must yet take place before anyone can conclude that the Great Tribulation, the time of the end that precedes Christ’s return, is at hand. A sampling of these events (again, from a premillennial perspective) includes:

• a dictator takes control of a confederation that includes all the world’s nations (Daniel 7:7–8, 23–25; 2 Thessalonians 2:3–12)
• the nation of Israel agrees to disarm (Ezekiel 38:3–11)
• all adherents of Judaism reside in Israel (Ezekiel 34:6–16; 36:8–12, 24; 37:20–21; 38:8; 39:25–28)
• Israel achieves great economic prosperity (Ezekiel 36:8–12, 33–36; 38:12–13)
• Israel gains some degree of political control over the lands known in the ancient world as Edom, Moab, and Ammon (Isaiah 11:14; Ezekiel 38:3–8; Daniel 11:36–45; Amos 9:11–12; Obadiah 1:19–21; Zephaniah 2:8–11; Zechariah 10:10)
• the Great Commission nears completion as Christ’s followers raise up disciples in every ethnicity, kith, or people group throughout the world (Matthew 28:18–20)

While one can argue that these political and economic events could happen in the very near future, so far none have occurred.

Rather than get caught up in the fulfillment of end-times prophecy, I believe Christians should take comfort in Christ’s promise to return and should remain busy promulgating the Gospel. He will return to Earth once his followers have taken the good news of salvation to all the people groups of the world and have raised up many disciples. Instead of waiting for a sign in the sky, we can make his return imminent by completing the task he assigned us. His Holy Spirit promises to help.

Four Blood Moons, a theatrical one-night event scheduled for March 23, 2015, and based on Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee’s New York Times bestseller of the same name, has garnered attention. I’m featured briefly in the film as a skeptic of Hagee’s central claim that a sequence of four total lunar eclipses signifies that “world history is about to change,” bringing about the rapid fulfillment of a biblical end-times prophecy. I’m also included in a 20-minute panel discussion on the movie that was recorded at Hagee’s San Antonio headquarters.

Hagee knew in advance my views on his claims and I’m impressed that he would allow a “skeptic” of his view to participate. For that, he is to be commended.

The biblical basis for the four blood moons claim as an eschatological event appears in Joel 2:31, which states, “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The scientific basis rests on the fact that often during a total lunar eclipse, the Moon, as seen from Earth’s surface, takes on an orange or red hue (see figures 1 and 2).

My greater concern centers on biblical, rather than scientific, misinterpretations of the blood-moon sign, and I will address those in part 2. First I will address the science and history of lunar eclipses.

Scientific Concerns

John Hagee, Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries, and Larry Huch of Larry Huch Ministries note in their books¹ and television broadcasts that in 1493–94, 1949–50, and 1967–68, a series of four (tetrad) total lunar eclipses occurred on the dates for the Jewish Passover and Tabernacles festivals. Each of these eclipse tetrads occurred within a year or two of significant events in Jewish history. In 1492, Columbus landed in America, which later became a haven for persecuted Jews. In 1948, the nation of Israel was founded. In 1967, the Six-Day War brought the Old City and its temple site under Israeli control. Thus, the authors claim that another eclipse tetrad on the dates of the Passover and Tabernacles festivals in 2014–15 is an unmistakable sign that an important end-times event is upon us.

All three authors insist that an occurrence of four total lunar eclipses on the Passover and Tabernacles dates is rare and unexpected. As an astronomer, I beg to differ. First, lunar eclipses are common. Two to five lunar eclipses, including partial eclipses, occur every year. The number of total lunar eclipses ranges from zero to three per year.

Second, lunar eclipses can occur only when the Moon is exactly at the full moon phase. Likewise, the dates for the Passover and Tabernacles festivals are determined by when the Moon is at a full moon phase just after the spring equinox (Passover) and just after the fall equinox (Tabernacles). Lunar eclipses are most frequently spaced about six months apart; so it isn’t surprising that eclipse tetrads occur on the Passover and Tabernacles dates.

Third, unlike solar eclipses, total lunar eclipses can be seen as total from anywhere on Earth’s night side. Since age ten, I’ve resided in locations where 34 total lunar eclipses were visible and have personally witnessed over a dozen.

Fourth, an orange-red hue is the most common color of a totally eclipsed moon. The illumination observed on these occasions is sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere and refracted into Earth’s shadow. This light appears reddish because red light is of longer wavelength than blue, green, and yellow light and penetrates Earth’s atmosphere more easily. If the part of Earth’s atmosphere that refracts light on the eclipsed moon is exceptionally overcast or smoky, the eclipsed moon will be much dimmer and more brownish. The normative color, however, is a copper or reddish hue.

Historical Concerns

Hagee, Biltz, and Huch do acknowledge that lunar eclipses are common. They claim the sequence of four consecutive total lunar eclipses is rare. But why four? I imagine they would’ve been equally impressed had the events of 1492, 1948, and 1967 corresponded with a sequence of two, three, or five sets of total lunar eclipses. Varying the number in a sequence raises the probability of finding a match with significant historical events dramatically. I found no statistical significance in the claimed correlations² because of: (1) the subjective nature of what ranks as a significant historical event; (2) the ± 2-year date matches; and (3) the possible variability of the number in the sequence.

Moreover, total lunar eclipse tetrads occurred on Passover and Tabernacle festival dates in AD 162–63, 795–96, 841–43, and 860–61, during which no outstanding events in Jewish history happened. Finally, of the 16 lunar eclipses that occurred or will occur in 1493–94, 1949–50, 1967–68, and 2014–15, only the first and third in the 1493–94 sequence and only the third in the 1949–50 sequence appeared as blood moons in Israel. For the current tetrad, the only location where all four eclipses will be visible as blood moons is a small region in northern Baja California, Mexico.

Unlike Biltz, Huch, and others, Hagee remains ambiguous about what kind of event qualifies as significant both to Jewish history and to biblical end-times prophecy. His ambiguity virtually guarantees that later this year he can claim that his hypothesis has been proven correct. Has there ever been a year since 1948 when some momentous historical event has not occurred in Israel? Assuming a premillennial eschatological perspective and given that the book of Ezekiel prophesies much about Israel’s second rebirth, Hagee won’t have difficulty in finding a correlation. I can name several significant events since the beginning of 2014: the increasing exodus of Jews from Europe to Israel; the rise of ISIS; Israel’s worsening relationships with Iran and the United States; increasing success and prosperity of Israel’s technology sector; and the need for land to accommodate the rising Jewish population in Israel.

These three men have several “outs” if the 2014–15 eclipse tetrad doesn’t usher in events prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation, events that precede the second coming of Christ. Eight more total lunar eclipse tetrads will occur in what remains of the twenty-first century. It is simply a matter of time before a correlation occurs. When that happens, such Bible teachers can adjust and rewrite, but skeptics will not be impressed and the cause of Christ will be hampered. By focusing on what scientific and biblical data we do know, believers can better help humanity and honor Christ.

Figure 1: The Moon during a Total Eclipse on April 15, 2014
Credit: Tomruen, Wikimedia/Creative Commons

Figure 2: The Moon during a Total Eclipse on October 8, 2014
Credit: Tomruen, Wikimedia/Creative Commons

From Jerry in Los Angeles, CA
I’m reading your book Navigating Genesis. On page 66 you say, “Given that dinosaurs were reptiles, not mammals…” Wait a minute! I thought it was shown decades ago that dinosaurs were not reptiles. They were warm-blooded and some were feathered. I thought it was common knowledge that dinosaurs were not reptiles. Am I wrong? 

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Some scientists have speculated that a few of the dinosaur species were warm-blooded and that some dinosaurs were feathered. However, these claims are not yet scientifically validated. Scientists do know that dinosaurs were not mammals. Dinosaurs, like reptiles today, laid eggs. Mammals have placentas.

Scientists also know for certain that many of the dinosaur species could not have been warm-blooded. The sheer size of the larger land-dwelling dinosaurs rules out the possibility. Additionally, many dinosaurs had small mouths, which means they could not have consumed enough food to maintain blood temperatures significantly different from the ambient temperatures of their environments. Thus, they could not have been warm-blooded.

The problem with identifying dinosaurs as feathered creatures is that land-dwelling dinosaurs overlapped birds in the fossil record by more than 70 million years. In some cases the “feather evidence” is ambiguous. In other instances, it is not possible to determine whether the fossil find is a dinosaur or a flightless bird.

For more on whether or not dinosaurs were warm-blooded, check out “Were Dinosaurs Warm-Blooded?” (podcast). For more on whether or not dinosaurs had feathers, check out “Feathered Dinosaur or Flightless Bird?” (article).

From Nate in Fullerton, CA:

Recently I’ve been referred by some young-earth creationist friends to a couple of articles about a Tyrannosaurus rex tooth and a Triceratops-type horn that both underwent an autopsy showing (relatively speaking) “fresher” organic material. Does this affect the time line for the existence of dinosaurs? I appreciate the thought put into this and would love support on how to respond to maintain the old-earth perspective.

****The claim made by young-earth creationists is that discovery of soft tissue evidence in dinosaur fossils proves that these fossils cannot be millions of years old. Soft tissue, they insist, cannot be preserved for that long of a time period.

Paleontologists who have studied these fossils disagree. It is true that such evidence usually decays into an unrecognizable form in just a few hundred thousand years or less. However, if a sample is isolated from any exposure to bacteria and oxygen, then the soft tissue evidence easily can be preserved for over a hundred million years.

Tissue inside a tooth or a horn, where that tooth or horn is quickly buried by mud or volcanic ash, will be effectively cut off from bacteria and oxygen. Thus, it is not at all surprising that soft tissue evidence inside the tooth and horn was preserved for tens of millions of years. If you read the peer-reviewed science papers in which these discoveries were announced, you will note that the authors do not express shock at their findings.

For more in-depth responses to young-earth creationists’ claims about soft tissue evidence in dinosaurs and the tactics certain young-earth creationists employ to distort paleontological findings, see the following articles on the Reasons to Believe website:

• “Dinosaur Blood?“
• “Dinosaur Blood Revisited, Part 1 (of 2)”
• “Dinosaur Blood Revisited, Part 2 (of 2)”
• “Structure of Dinosaur Collagen Unravels the Case for a Young Earth“
• “Do Fossilized Ink Sacs Discolor the Case for an Old Earth?“

From Gavin:

I always enjoy and profit by listening to RTB’s scholars discussing and interviewing others on various creation-science, theological-philosophical, and biblical topics. I am interested to hear what you have to say about the following. A commentator on a young-earth creation (YEC) website said,

I am very impressed with the way YEC cosmologists have broken out of the clearly defective Big Bang-Inflation scenarios, which have to invoke the imaginary fudge factors of “dark matter” and “dark energy” (for which there is no scientific evidence) to keep the Big Bang scenario credible to the cosmological community and the largely uninformed public. As Spike Psarris has pointed out…scientists generally acknowledge that they get to invoke the Tooth Fairy only once to semi-justify a theory with problems and the Big Bang community has had to invoke the Tooth Fairy twice.

My question is, are mainstream cosmologists using “dark matter” and “dark energy” to prop up inherent problems of the big bang model of the universe’s origin?

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I understand that some people take issue with inflationary big bang models, but to say that dark matter and dark energy were invented without any scientific justification (i.e., invoking the Tooth Fairy) paints a distorted picture. Although much about dark matter and dark energy remains to be discovered, both stand on a strong evidential basis.

The concept of dark matter readily flows from observations of our galaxy (and many others) and a straightforward application of Newtonian gravity. Measurement of an object’s orbit uniquely determines the amount of mass inside that orbit.¹ For decades, astronomers have measured the orbits of Milky Way stars and stars in other galaxies. They used this information to determine the amount of mass in each respective galaxy. They have also added up all the mass from stars emitting detectable light (any form of electromagnetic radiation) for those galaxies. In every instance, astronomers find that the mass needed to explain the orbits exceeds the mass of the visible stars. Astronomers refer to the difference between required mass and visible mass as dark matter (you can charge scientists with a lack of creativity in naming things). Using a similar process, scientists find abundant evidence for dark matter in the vicinity of the Sun as well as in gigantic clusters of galaxies.

Strong evidence also supports the existence dark energy, which was discovered more recently than dark matter. One interesting measurement—independent of the methods that discovered dark energy in the first place—pertains to the large-scale structure of the universe (or how galaxies are clustered together).

Obviously, scientists don’t have a complete and final understanding of the cosmos. Thus, room for alternative models exists, even models without dark matter or dark energy. However, those competing models must explain the current evidence at least as well as inflationary big-bang models do, and right now non-big-bang models fail to meet that standard.