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Instructions to GloryHe Is Coming Back Sooner Than You May Think |
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Schematic diagram of the shadow cast by the Earth. Within the central umbra shadow, the Moon is totally shielded from direct illumination by the Sun. Source: |
"A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon travels completely into the Earth's umbra, which is the shadow of the earth in which there is no direct solar radiation. The Moon does not completely disappear as it passes through the umbra because of the refraction of sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere into the shadow cone. The red coloring arises because sunlight reaching the Moon must pass through a long and dense layer of the Earth's atmosphere, where it is scattered. This resulting light we perceive as red." (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse)
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Lunar eclipse of May 15, 2003 taken by Loyd Overcash of Houston, Texas. Source: |
Eclipses are nice to look at, but they have another purpose as well. In the Bible, God tells us to pay attention to the eclipses that will be happening on the earth, because He will be using these as a sign to indicate the time and the season of the Lord's return.
The prophet Joel describes the day of the Lord's return as "the great and awesome day of the LORD" (Joel 2:31). But the entire verse is even more interesting. "The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes." (Joel 2:31)
In short, God is telling us to watch for the eclipses. Two types of eclipses are mentioned here - both solar and lunar. And both are significant. This presentation will primarily deal with the lunar eclipses, since the bulk of the scientific analysis lies with these.
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A total solar eclipse. Source: www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/ features/eclipse/index.html |
For the purposes of this presentation, we are going to consider all dates that fall within the modern or Gregorian calendar. These are all dates from October 15, 1582, onwards (Great Britain did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752 but all of the data presented here goes back to 1582). We could go back even further, but there is no need as the results would amount to the same thing, except with yet more data to support it, and it is slightly more complicated to work the numbers. The following numbers have been carefully worked using numbers from the NASA website. Note that the numbers are worked all the way up to the year 3000, which is as far as the NASA data provides. You will be amazed at the results and you can freely verify the data. Since the data amounts to more than 60 pages in written format, it is included via a link, instead, available at www.fcet.org/eclipsedata.html or via downloadable PDF file at www.fcet.org/eclipsedata.pdf.
Between October 15, 1582 and December 31, 3000 there are a total of 3478 lunar eclipses.
Of these, 974 are total eclipses.
Of these, there are 37 tetrads. A tetrad is when 4 total lunar eclipses occur consecutively, at a rate of two per year (kind of like slow-motion "fireworks"). So there are 148 eclipses that fall into this category (37 tetrads x 4 eclipses per tetrad = 148 eclipses).
Of these 37 tetrads, there are only 5 that fall into yet a smaller grouping still (that's a total of 20 eclipses). Here's why they are so special. They fall on specific Messianic Jewish festival dates! And the dates are hardly random, for they fall on the first and last of the Messianic Jewish festivals.
Let's briefly cover the festivals.
Note that these festivals are in order. And they were commanded by God to be celebrated on specific days. God obviously knew which days they would line up with, according to the lunar cycles, and according to the eclipses, because He set up everything in order to line up with the following!
The very first of the five tetrads came within one year of the nation of Israel becoming an independent nation. Specifically, 334 days after Israel gained her independence on May 14, 1948, the Lord put on His first perfectly synchronized "light show" to line up with the festivals and as an indication that the prophetic countdown had indeed begun. Carefully pay attention to these dates and cross-check them as much as you want, for you will find them accurate and trustworthy and pointing to the soon-and-coming return of Jesus Christ our Savior.
May 14, 1948 - Israel becomes a nation
April 13, 1949 * - Start of Passover (the first Messianic festival) and a total lunar eclipse.
October 7, 1949 * - Start of Feast of Tabernacles (the last Messianic festival) and a total lunar eclipse.
April 2, 1950 * - Start of Passover and a total lunar eclipse again.
September 26, 1950 * - Start of Feast of Tabernacles and a total lunar eclipse again.
* Please see the credits at the end for details on the eclipse data.
This, then, was the first of three Messianic signs that God began to do when He lined up the elements perfectly to be synchronized with the rebirth of the nation of Israel.
By the way, "first and the last" is a common expression in the Bible. When Jesus said, "I am the first and the last", it's an expression which is used to symbolize not only the first and the last, but everything in between, as well. And so in the same way, we see these total lunar eclipses landing precisely on the first and last of the Jewish Messianic festivals. This symbolizes the totality of all seven Messianic festivals, starting with Passover and ending with the Feast of Tabernacles. Not only this, but the last festival symbolizes the return of Jesus Christ and the culmination of all things.
To recap, in His word, God tells us to pay attention to the eclipses so that we can understand the season in which the Lord himself will return to the earth (Joel 2:31). Joel describes this as "the great and awesome day of the LORD" and, even though no one knows the day or the hour, the Scripture tells us we should be able to discern the season (Matthew 16:3). We can do that by paying close attention to God's word and what God has shown us.
If then the first great "light show" happened at the rebirth of the nation of Israel, when do you suppose the second one occurred?
The second one (like the first), is a precursor to the return of the Lord to the earth and the snatching away of his body (sometimes called the rapture), in which the true followers of Christ at that time will be suddenly "snatched away" to meet the Lord in the air. It will be an awesome time! No wonder God provides for us some awesome signs that are completely verifiable by which we can know the season with an accuracy of plus or minus just a few years!
Perhaps it will surprise you to find out that the second tetrad of lunar eclipses that also aligned perfectly with the Jewish Messianic festivals occurred in 1967, at the same time that Israel won the six day war and captured east Jerusalem.
This then is the second sign that the Lord provided through lunar eclipses that are precursors to what Joel describes as "the great and awesome day of the LORD" (Joel 2:31).
You need to keep going back to the fact that the Lord specifically tells us in his word that these special eclipses are precursors to "the great and awesome day of the LORD". "The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes." (Joel 2:31)
Jun 10, 1967 - Israel wins the six day war.
Apr 24, 1967 * - Start of Passover (the first Messianic festival) and a total lunar eclipse.
Oct 18, 1967 * - Start of Feast of Tabernacles (the last Messianic festival) and a total lunar eclipse.
Apr 13, 1968 * - Start of Passover and a total lunar eclipse again.
Oct 6, 1968 * - Start of Feast of Tabernacles and a total lunar eclipse again.
* Please see the credits at the end for details on the eclipse data.
This then is only the second such tetrad in the entire Gregorian calendar! It's a sign from the Lord that we need to pay special attention to.
The most significant and vital tetrad is coming, and you'll probably be surprised at the dates, verifiable through NASA's own records!
The final Messianic Tetrad is about to occur!
We could be forgiven for not catching on in 1949 and 1950, when the first Messianic Tetrad occurred. And we could also be forgiven for not catching on in 1967 and 1968 when the second Messianic Tetrad occurred, but we had better do our very best not to miss this next one which is the last Messianic Tetrad. The last Messianic Tetrad is coming up very soon!
Apr 15, 2014 * - Start of Passover (the first Messianic festival) and a total lunar eclipse.
Oct 8, 2014 * - Start of Feast of Tabernacles (the last Messianic festival) and a total lunar eclipse.
Apr 4, 2015 * - Start of Passover and a total lunar eclipse again.
Sep 28, 2015 * - Start of Feast of Tabernacles and a total lunar eclipse again.
* Please see the credits at the end for details on the eclipse data.
Even though other Messianic Tetrads will be coming in the future, the next one after the 2014/2015 Messianic Tetrad occurs more than 500 years later! Because other prophecies are simultaneously being fulfilled in these last days that we find ourselves in, it is beyond any doubt that the last Messianic Tetrad to be considered before the Lord returns is indeed this next one! For you to have missed the first and second, is not so perilous. For you to miss this next one has dire consequences that may be both perilous and irreversible. For example, if you decide to ignore this next up and coming Messianic Tetrad, you will also ignore the importance of completely selling yourself out for the Lord during these last days. You will also be ignoring the Lord's mandate to pay attention to the eclipses as found in Joel 2:31.
In Conclusion
It's now time to compare the data, and formulate a reasonable, scientific conclusion. After all, the Lord is reasonable. Based on the data presented, we can see that in the first instance, the eclipse occurred 334 days after the fulfillment of the event. However, in the second case, the eclipse occurred 47 days before the fulfillment. What does this mean for us? It means that the Lord has specifically not given us the means to know for sure the exact time of the fulfillment. However, we can be certain that the time of his return will be within a range of plus or minus some time period surrounding that date. What this time period is, is anyone's reasonable guess. Regardless of the exact date, which no man can know, we do know that we are in the season of the Lord's return. Are you ready?
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Messianic Tetrad |
First |
Second |
Third |
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Event Name |
Israel receives her country |
Israel receives her capital |
Israel receives her Messiah and King |
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Event Date |
May 14, 1948 |
June 10, 1967 |
See comments |
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Eclipse 1 |
April 13, 1949 |
April 24, 1967 |
April 15, 2014 |
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Eclipse 2 |
October 7, 1949 |
October 18, 1967 |
October 9, 2014 |
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Eclipse 3 |
April 2, 1950 |
April 13, 1968 |
April 4, 2015 |
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Eclipse 4 |
Sept 26, 1950 |
October 6, 1968 |
Sept 28, 2015 |
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The time from the event date to the first total lunar eclipse. |
Eclipse occurred 334 days after the fulfillment of the event. |
Eclipse occurred 47 days before the fulfillment of the event. |
Based on the 1st and 2nd tetrads, the eclipse may come before or after the event fulfilled.* |
*The Lord has not given us the ability to know for sure, in accordance with his word, "But of that day and hour no one knows" (Matthew 24:36). However, we are expected to know the season (Matthew 16:3).
Credits and acknowledgements
Great care has been taken in the production of this presentation to ensure that all data is accurate.
As per the NASA website from which the lunar eclipse data was taken, "All eclipse calculations are by Fred Espenak, and he assumes full responsibility for their accuracy. Some of the information presented on this web site is based on data originally published in Fifty Year Canon of Lunar Eclipses: 1986 - 2035."
The Hebrew Calculator at www.hebcal.com has been in use since 1992 with no known flaws or defects concerning the precision of the Jewish festivals and the dates on which they occur.
The data provided by both of these has been compiled by Daniel Parkes, president of Fellowship of Christian Engineers and Technologists at www.fcet.org, using custom designed computer software written in PERL. The compiled data constitutes a synchronization of the lunar eclipse data with the Hebrew festival dates. To view this data, please visit http://www.fcet.org/eclipsedata.html or in downloadable format at http://www.fcet.org/eclipsedata.pdf.
Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
Hebrew festival dates provided by hebcal 3.7 for UNIX, Copyright © 2006 Danny Sadinoff. All rights reserved.
Bible references are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.
The inspiration for producing this presentation was originally derived from a must-see video available at:
http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1328e98be6f216e8a05a
"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done." (Revelation 22:12)
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