There has been a lot of talk lately about the blood moon, and it seems like there is always someone who will take that opportunity to tie that lunar eclipse into Bible prophecy but as you will soon see, the facts simply don't line up with what the Bible has to say. I'd love to be able to say, look out your window this is a sign from God, and I know that I will probably upset some people who believe that this things tie into Bible prophecy as well, just like the four blood moons that have been discussed lately and how those are prophetically significant. I simply don't see that because the verses that are sited to qualify this cosmological event for example the Book of Revelation, Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Joel, all in which that context verses are used for the Tribulation Period. Yes, these things will happen, but during the Tribulation period. We need to read the Bible carefully, every time I have made a mistake, it has because I have not read it carefully.
The Bible says that during the Tribulation period, the moon will turn into or look like blood, and the sun will not give its light. We haven't been there yet. You can't pick and choose, what astronomical thing takes place and what doesn't. In that day, in its singular, the moon will look like blood in the sky, because of the smoke or the ash in the sky, and the sun will not give its light. Not moons plural. It's very specific that these other events are taking place on earth, when this happens. As much as I'd love to say that we are in Revelation 6, in the Tribulation Period, and when the recent "blood moons" happened, they didn't turn red, more like dark brown. It was brown, it wasn't red, and the sun came up the next day. My point is to know your Bible very, very, carefully. Don't try to read things into the Bible, let the Bible read itself into you.
All of creation is under the curse of mankind, and is waiting for the day of redemption to come. When you look at nature all around you, you can't help but marvel at the hand God has played in the brilliant paint job that you see in the colors of birds like hummingbirds. Why would God do that? Why didn't He just make all birds black? He didn't and that is spectacular. I think He did it for our viewing pleasure and to show us His handiwork! God made nature and the creation that is. But if you look real close you will see its flaws and factually it is under the curse of man, according to the Bible. Beautiful creation that is out of balance. When you see a beautiful bird and then a cat comes along and catches it and eats it. That is the result of a fallen world. It was not supposed to be like that according to Father God, not Mother Nature. This is the fall out from man's sin. The Bible says that sin marches onward, its scaling upward. The Bible says that sin has to reach a certain point before God intervenes. When we look around, we see nature being held hostage, by sin and the power of sin.
What we do see here now is God's intervention via judgment into the affairs of men. Verse 12, tells us that it is Jesus Christ who is executing His wrath. The Bible tells us in Luke's gospel, when Jesus went into the synagogue preaching, the attendant brought Him the scroll of Isaiah. Jesus would have turned to Isaiah 61 and begins to read the first verse. He just gets into the second verse when he pauses, at that comma.
Luke 4:18-21 ~ "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
What is interesting is that Jesus stopped at a comma. He didn't complete the verse. He didn't complete Isaiah 61:2. Why didn't He complete it? Because 2000 years ago, He came to take away our sins on the cross. He died on the cross. His ministry was to set people free who were bound free and that comma has lasted 2000 years. If He would have kept reading would have stated:
Isaiah 61:2 ~ "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (comma), And the day of vengeance of our God:"
It is the announcement of the great Tribulation Period of God that would come upon the world. Jesus stops at the comma. It is the time to preach the acceptable year of the Lord at this time through the gospel. There is a time coming where the vengeance of God will be deposited upon the earth. Right now, we need to understand that we are living in a time of grace. We are living in a time that is referred to as the 'church age.' Where the good news of Christ is preached around the world. That you can be forgiven of your sins. God says in the Book of Genesis, "My Spirit will not always strive or put up with mankind and his antics." A day is coming when God will execute judgment.
This is where our studying and teaching and focus really needs to be in tune. God is Judge, and when He comes to judge it will be like no other event in human history. It will be greater than the great flood and will be greater than anything He has ever brought upon the earth. It was be greater than Sodom and Gomorrah. You might be tempted to say, "Well that is why I don't want to know your God!" But you have to understand something, God doesn't go around judging people. He doesn't walk around with a giant fly swatter waiting for you to step out of line. God, who is Holy, has implemented a law of righteousness, and if you violate that law, you pay the price. There is only one way that you can get out of paying the price, and that is through Jesus Christ, that is why He is called the Savior. It's so simple.
You might say, "Well if it's so simple, than why are people going to be judged?" I don't know, that is a great question. Why would they resist Him? Think about it. If we were in an airplane and it began to go down and we had parachutes, and we began to disburse parachutes to you, would you not take a parachute to jump out of the airplane? " I don't know, that just isn't my color." or "I don't want it to wrinkle my shirt." That's insane! That's crazy. Why is it that people even on their death bed, that say, "I don't want to hear about God!" It's in our hearts. It's in our minds to reject God and His goodness and His love. Just like that Muslim girl who heard about the love of God, it stopped her in her tracks. Tears filled her eyes. Why would you reject the love of God? These people in this portion of Scripture have rejected God's offer of love. Jesus Christ, must execute judgment upon the world.
He came, he was beaten, he was scourged, His beard was plucked out of His face (Isaiah 53:6), He was treated worse than any other human ever. Isaiah says He was disfigured more than any other human being ever. You couldn't even distinguish Him as a man. And yet the Bible says that God put this upon Him for our redemption. Jesus didn't suffer one iota beyond what was necessary. When you think about what He paid for us on that cross, why we don't fall on our knees and say, "God you are so awesome! You are so wonderful and I pledge my allegiance to You Lord!" He is so good!
These people have decided to reject God, and Jesus Christ at this time and judgment is coming. It's a terrible thing and the Bible says that these great cataclysmic things will happen. It is amazing to understand that Jesus Christ is the One who holds it all together.
Colossians 1:13-17 ~ "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in who we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the Invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
For any of you that have a background in Physics, that is a wonderful answer if you're willing to accept it. What binds the universe together? They have nicknamed it "cosmic glue." The Bible says, it is Jesus Christ! God said, "Let there be light." To some people that is unacceptable, so they believe in a Big Bang instead. Well this is cosmic glue, but if you knew better, you would know that is Jesus Christ! The Bible says there is a time coming where He will let go. You begin to see in Revelation that He begins to loosen His grip and things begin to happen. What are those things?
Revelation 6:13- ~ and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind."
The word "fall or fell" here means "pipto," the falling or casting earthward of a celestial matter ( a comet, a star, an asteroid), or to be cast down, to strike the earth, to arrive.
Scholars believe that it is not planets that will fall from the sky but asteroid or that kind of activity instead. Things are going to start happening in the heavens! After the Tribulation period begins, radical things, and you would think that when people see these things, they would say, "I give up!" But they don't do that.
Revelation 6:14 ~ "The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place."
There are going to be geological problems. The word "receded" here means like if you have ever had a poster or map that when its laid out flat, and you are holding it down, and the moment you let go it snaps back into a roll again. That is the word here that is used in the original Greek language. That when Jesus lets go of the universe, it rolls back up. But then look at what happens. It says that every mountain and island was removed out of its place. We are talking about an earthquake that brings forth all of these strange events and at the same time atmospheric disturbances are going to take place in the heavens above. It will affect the earth beneath.
This is what is referred to as cosmological equilibrium. It is amazing when you consider that we are sitting here right now, while our planet is rotating on its axis and all the things in our solar system are rotating around us in a general proximity and within 24 hours from this moment, all of the movements taken into consideration, we will have moved 1,000,000 miles from this distance now that we are at, 24 hours from tomorrow, we will have moved 1,000,000 miles. It is as if everything is on a flat bed truck heading down the freeway, while everything on the back of that flat bed, and total all of those movement together and we will have moved 1 million miles in 24 hours by this time tomorrow. And it's in perfect order!
We are not going to bump into anything. We are not going to hit anything. It's all under the command of God. Do you remember Job, and he was questioning this and saying that, and God said, "All right Job, you've done all the questioning, now sit down I want to ask you a question. Where were you, Job, when I brought out Orion, and Pleiades and the constellations and can you steer them through the air? Through the sky?" You could just imagine Job in a small voice answering No to God.
That is exactly what we see. Not only is God steering the universe, but did you know that there are universes, and clusters of universes? And there are clusters of clusters of universes? God steers them all. If we were just 5 miles closer to the sun, it's 93 million miles away, you'd be throwing off your clothes in an effort to stay cool enough. You'd burn up. Did you know that? If we were just 5 miles farther from the sun, we'd be freezing to death. God holds it. He ordains it. This is all the Hand of God.
We marvel at the computers who have landed on Mars and have said water may have been here at one time. Who cares? My God put it there. What's the big deal? "Well we are searching for intelligent life!" Look at it! It all speaks of God's handiwork! It's all His doing and everything has His fingerprints on it! But God is going to start releasing it in the Tribulation period of time. Things are going to go terribly wrong in that day. We have these laws that are in effect now, and when those begin to be altered it affects everything else. For example, what causes our tides today? The slight influence of the moon. Can you imagine if God began to shake things up. Did you know that some scientists believe that our earth on its 23 1/4 axis was not always that way? That shift may have cause the polar shift and the great disaster that resulted in the loss of prehistoric life that was? Evidence shows that something happened. Just a little movement.
Can you imagine if things began to wobble, what would happen? Because everything is tied together atmospheric and geological disturbances. The Bible says that that is coming.
Isaiah 24:18-21 ~ "Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls - never to rise again. In that day, the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below."
The Bible says that there will come a day and the Book of Revelation agrees, that the earth will stagger. Thank God if you are a Christian today! You are going to miss this stuff. This is stuff that happens during the Tribulation period, after the church has been removed by God, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 tells us.
Hard to imagine the sky above us, rolling up like a window shade in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Imagine the celestial stars shifting that dramatically? Everybody in the world will see that in the Tribulation period and every mountain and island will be moved out of its place. The earth will shake, in such a way that the mountains will be moved and islands in the sea will be moved.
Isaiah 24:18-21 ~ "Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls - never to rise again. In that day, the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below."
Remember this, there will be no escape for those on the earth at that time. Notice the reason why this happens, "so heavy upon it is the guilt of rebellion that it falls." The world is weighed down by its sin. It will collapse and never rise again. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. So who is being punished here? Those who refuse the salvation that is offered through Jesus Christ.
We will finish up this chapter in Revelation 6 Monday. It's just getting interesting!
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