Stephan:   We went out tonight to see the eclipse of the moon, having heard it was a once in a 100 year event -- and that it was a Blood Moon. What you might ask is a 'Blood Moon'? Well, first here's what science has to say about the eclipse: "

What is a lunar tetrad? Both astronomers and followers of certain Christian pastors have been talking for many months about the lunar tetrad of 2014-2015. What is a tetrad? It’s four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six lunar months (six full moons). The first Blood Moon eclipse in the ongoing series of four happened on the night of April 14-15, 2014. The second one took place was October 7-8, 2014, and the third one (the shortest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century) was April 4, 2015. The fourth and final total lunar eclipse of the ongoing lunar tetrad – four total lunar eclipses in a row, spaced at six full moons apart – will fall on the night of September 27-28. It’ll be visible to sky watchers in North America. Some will call it a Blood Moon.

O.K. so what's a Blood Moon? Here is Christian fundamentalist Pastor Irvin Baxter, who runs Endtime Ministries in Plano, Texas: “Some prophecy teachers are declaring boldly that this tetrad just ahead signals that something is getting ready to happen, which will change the world forever,” Baxter said on his website, Sign of the 4 Blood Moons.

God has often used “the heavens” for sending signs to mankind, Baxter says. He quotes Genesis, in which God says there should be lights in heaven and says of those lights: “Let them be for signs.” Baxter as quoted in the Guardian points out that three wise men were led to the birthplace of the baby Jesus by star – a sign in the sky. He adds: “There are several prophecies foretelling that the moon will be turned to blood in the endtime.” “Joel 2:30-31 states: ‘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 great and the terrible day of the LORD come.’” Baxter warns that previous tetrads have had stark consequences for Jewish people. The Spanish inquisition took place before the tetrad of 1493-94. The tetrad of 1949-50 occurred just after the founding of Israel. The tetrad of 1967-1968 occurred as the Six-Day War was fought in Jerusalem. The current tetrad, Baxter predicts, will precede the signing of a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. This, in turn, will “mark the beginning of the Final Seven Years to Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus to the earth”.

My guess is most of my readers don't take this sort of prophecy very seriously, because they are on the Blue values side of the Great Schism Trend. But, on the Red values side churches take this matter quite seriously, or at least many of their congregants do. Here is the Mormon response. Before we get to what was said I think it is important to note that leaders of that church felt they had to make a public statement to their believers on this. And I find it very disheartening that millions of American not only believe in but are anxiously awaiting a catastrophe of... well, Biblical proportions.