The Final Blood Moon

                                                                 

Weather permitting, tonight many people around the world will be able to watch the final total eclipse of the moon of the 2014-2015 tetrad, which will be the very last of its kind ever.

While there will be more tetrads happening in the near future, the next one beginning in 2032, this one is the LAST one that has all four of its eclipses coincide with the first days of Biblical feasts and that is why, many Christians and Jewish people around the world believe this tetrad to have a special significance.

This does NOT mean as many people in the media have wrongly reported that we believe that the “apocalypse” or “the end of the world” will take place immediately after tonight, but many of us do believe that it is indeed a sign from God who is letting us know that it is indeed the beginning of the end of this present age that will actually end with Jesus’ return and not the end of the world.

It has nothing to do with astrology, superstition, or omens as even some badly informed fellow Christians have accused us of believing in, but it could be exactly what The Lord Jesus Himself predicted will signal the beginning of the very end of the end times by stating the following in the Gospel of Luke chapter 21 verses 25 through 28.

“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. “Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Was Jesus superstitious? Obviously not and I don’t think that He was talking here about any ordinary eclipses of the moon and the sun either as so many of them do take place quite often and are really nothing extraordinary, but a tetrad of eclipses falling on the first days of The Lord’s feasts including the total eclipse of the sun that also falls on a Biblical feast day is something else entirely.

As a Christian , I believe in Jesus’ words because He is the Son of the living God and  He knew the future that is why it is foolish to dismiss such signs as “superstitious nonsense” and attack fellow Christians for believing in it.

I am also convinced that because of these and other signs that I discuss on this blog, we can expect the fulfillment of many Bible prophecies in the coming years and perhaps decades that will eventually culminate and the literal, physical return of Jesus to this earth to reign here for 1,000 years.

As you can see, “the end of the world” is still quite far off though quite turbulent times are ahead of us. That being said, those of us who belong to Jesus have nothing to fear. Yes, many of us will be persecuted, especially when the Antichrist shows up on the world’s scene and establishes his global dictatorship, but we have the promise that the gates of hell itself will not prevail against us.

We will overcome him by the blood of the lamb, and the word of our testimony even if many of us will have to and already do lay down their very lives for our faith. Still, we will have the power from on high to destroy the works of the evil one and shine ever brighter in this darkening world. There will be harvest of souls like never before with people by the billions turning to our Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit will be demonstrated even in a greater measure than in the days of Pentecost. The Lord always leaves the best wine for last.

The Long Term Consequences of Syrian Refugee Crisis

As Elul 29, which is today, also known as the last day of Shemitah draws to its end, the world is railing amid the Syrian refugee crisis, the greatest migration of displaced people since the second world war.

And I am sorry to say, but it will not get better. The world leaders are not dealing with the root cause of it, which is the rampage of so called Islamic State through Middle East and to be fair there isn't really that much that they can do as military options are limited due to the nature of this enemy.

ISIS militants are not any conventional army that can be fought out right and defeated by sheer military power, though western troops who are helping the Kurdish army in Iraq are keeping it from taking over all of Iraq, but it is not enough to defeat it.

The equally ruthless army of Syria's government under dictatorial regime of Bashar Assad despite of all the help they are getting from Iran and Russia are not succeeding either, barely keeping ISIS from taking over all of Syria and the fight is now that much harder since those terrorist fighters are also using chemical weapons that they either are making themselves or have stolen  from Syria.

Now enter Europe that was even before that facing economical challenges with EU countries such as Greece, Spain, and Italy being on a verge of economic collapse which were kept from the catastrophe thanks to the money flowing to them from Germany, who is now dealing with a flood of mainly Muslim refugees from the region, the number of which will probably reach close to one million by the end of this year as they are arriving at the rate of 2,000 persons a day in Greece and Turkey.

This will have huge economical and social implications because Germany alone simply does not have the money to take care of all the basic needs of these people. It will cost a lot to find them shelter, provide their food, clothing, and medical care.

Most of the refugees do not know any language other than Arabic, so it will take some time until they learn German and will be able to work and take care of themselves, and even then the jobs will not be easy to find.

And what happens when ISIS will get even stronger, with no one there to fight them? Many of those fleeing are able bodied men who could have been trained to fight, now there will be no one left to train.

What happens when countries such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia get attacked, and God forbid, their governments fall? Who will then take care of the next flood of millions of more refugees?

Then, there are social implications as well, as many Europeans are wary of accepting more Muslims into their country because of social unrest some of those who came as immigrants during the past decade or so are still causing, creating Sharia zones within European cities and harassing native nationals, sometimes even raping unveiled women and committing terrorist acts such as London subway bombing in England or Charlie Hebodo shooting in France, openly saying during public demonstrations that their aim is to take over Europe for Islam and subjugate all who live there under Islamic law.

We have already seen far right nationalists in Germany attacking refugee shelters and I am afraid there will be more violence, eventually from both sides. God only knows how it will all end, we do not know all the details, but we know from the Scripture that eventually Israel will be puled into it all and will be forced to confront the ISIS forces, especially if they attack Jordan with whom Israel has peaceful relations, which is the very reason that the terrorists want to attack Jordan, seeing its King as a traitor and if Palestinians decide to join ISIS fighters against the king of Jordan and Israel, then God will have to intervene and we know that He will win and defeat Islamic forces both as an army and as an ideology.

On the other hand, there are thousands of Muslims who are coming to Christ in Germany, Turkey, and other places where Christians reach out to them with the love of Jesus even as Christians who could not get away are being martyred daily, so amongst all this evil there is always much good that is happening. We need to pray for wisdom for our political leaders, for salvation of the Muslims even the fanatical ones, and for strength of faith for those who are laying down their lives for their faith in Jesus.

There were also clashes today between the Palestinian youth and Israeli police on the Temple Mount, which might be the beginning of a larger conflict over this holy site.

Author's note: Photo courtesy of  www.ibitimes.co.uk