Pope Francis and Jesus the Palestinian

As the whole world knows, Pope Francis has now visited the Holy Land. Now when it comes to Israel and the Middle East, words and photo-ops are all very symbolic and communicate subtle attitudes.

The fact that the Pope visited the Holy Land and not Israel is certainly a big signal that the Roman Catholic Church still has difficulty recognizing the State of Israel as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. They are still captive to their teaching of replacement theology. Furthermore, the Pope flew directly from Jordan to Bethlehem bypassing Israel. This is a huge signal that the Pope, and the Vatican led Roman Catholic Church, recognizes a Palestinian State on the holy soil God promised to the Jewish people.

Among other signals, during his visit to Jerusalem, the Pope met with the Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammed Hussein. The Pope addressed the mufti and his associates as his “dear brothers.” This is the same Hussein who has said it was the destiny of Muslims to kill Jews, who he claims are subhuman beasts and “the enemies of Allah.”

In a lighter moment, the Pope argued with Prime Minister Netanyahu about whether Jesus spoke Hebrew or Aramaic. The Pope argued that Jesus spoke Aramaic. Netanyahu rightly argued that Jesus spoke Hebrew as it clearly says in the New Testament (Acts 26:14). While this may not seem significant, those who argue that Jesus spoke Aramaic contribute towards denying the Jewishness of Jesus.
Furthermore, the Pope invited President Peres and pretend president Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican to pray and discuss peace strategies between the Palestinians and Israel. I am sure the Pope wants peace but this is all such a farce. President Peres has never seen a phony peace agreement he didn’t fawn over and Abbas has never seen a young
“Palestinian” child who was not a future terrorist. Mark my words, Pope Francis will not be good for Israel.

But the worse symbol was the huge mural behind the Pope when he spoke at Bethlehem. The whole watching world saw it. It shows Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus in a manager scene appropriate for Bethlehem. But instead of Jesus being wrapped in swaddling clothes, he was wrapped in a kufiah. The kufiah is the Palestinian head dress that has become the symbol of Palestinian defiance and rejection of Israel.

No one listening to the Pope’s speech would ever know that Jesus was and always will be a Jew. They saw him as a Palestinian. If there ever was such a thing as a Palestinian, which there is not, it would be the Jews because they were the ones living in Israel when the Romans changed the name of Israel to Palestine.

The Pope called Abbas a “man of peace.” I am certain that if the real Jesus would have somehow showed up at the Bethlehem gathering to hear the Pope, this man of peace and his murderous followers would have killed Jesus in a rage of anti-Semitic hatred.

Saul Alinsky – Community Organizer and God Father of Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Socialist State of America

One of the most influential Americans in the twentieth century was a man named Saul Alinsky. He was a genius at organizing local communities with the goal of helping the poor. While we should always want to help the poor, Alinsky’s way of helping the poor was not to teach them how to improve their lives by hard work but to teach them how to take from others who have worked hard to improve their lives. He believed that crime and poverty were caused by capitalism rather than “characterism” by which I mean taking personal responsibility for our own lives.

In 1971, Alinsky published his book entitled, Rules for Radicals. Alinsky’s book was a handbook for radicals on how to change America from a capitalistic system that rewards hard work to a socialistic system of taking from those who have earned their blessings and giving their hard-earned money to those who have not earned it. This is called the re-distribution of wealth. Alinsky begins his book with these words:

What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.

It is thought that Alinsky taught eight areas of control of people’s lives that are necessary for the Have-Nots to take from the Haves. These are:

1.      Healthcare – Control healthcare and you control the people.
2.      Poverty – Increase the poverty level as high as possible because poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing them everything to live.
3.      Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4.      Gun control – Remove the ability of them to defend themselves from the government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5.      Welfare – take control of every aspect of their lives (food, housing, and income).
6.      Education – take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what people learn in school.
7.      Religion – remove the belief in God from the government and the schools.
8.      Class warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.

Alinsky gave the following rules of “power tactics” for radical socialists.

RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why they avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)

RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different than any other human being. We all avoid “un-fun” activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)

RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)

RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)

RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

About Saul Alinsky the Person

Saul Alinsky was born in Chicago in 1909 to Russian Jewish immigrant Orthodox parents.  He rebelled against his parents Orthodoxy and considered himself to be an agnostic.

Alinsky graduated from the University of Chicago and became involved in organizing labor movements. He soon found his purpose and effectiveness in organizing local communities, first in poor areas in the south side of Chicago and then in various cities across the U.S. Because of his success, all “community organizers” have followed his example and writings in their own efforts to organize the masses of Have-Nots to take from the Haves.

It is clear from their policies and practices, that Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton have been greatly influenced by Alinsky. In fact, Hillary Clinton wrote her senior thesis at Wellesley College on Saul Alinsky. Her thesis was entitled, “An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.”

Two months before his death in 1972, Playboy Magazine interviewed Alinsky about his views of death and the hereafter. Alinsky said that “if there was an afterlife, he would prefer to go to hell so he could organize all the have-nots in hell who are short of virtue. They are my kind of people.” (Playboy Magazine, March 1972)

Sharia Law in America, the Omar Charter, and Christians in Syria

In various states across our Judeo-Christian America, Islamists are petitioning the courts for the right to practice Sharia law. This is an attempt to promote Islamic law over our Constitution and establish Islamic law as the law of the United States. Please don’t be naïve and think this cannot happen in America. It is happening right now – little by little – like the frog in the kettle. What would be the consequences of Sharia law replacing our Constitution and the rights it guarantees us?

One aspect of Sharia law is the concept of Dhimma. Dhimma is the Islamic policy and practice of placing non-Muslims under a protected status by requiring them to pay a special protection tax called a jizya. This is in effect, the same as paying the Mafia protection money to keep them from killing you. Non-Muslims living under Islamic rule have a choice of converting to Islam, paying the special protection tax or being murdered, usually by having your head chopped off. Where did this idea come from?

The Arab leader who succeeded Mohammed was Omar. He produced a document called the “Omar Charter.” Here are some of the conditions placed on Jews living as dhimma. Similar conditions were placed on Christians.

The Omar Charter

1. Jews were forbidden to touch the Koran.
2. Jews were required to wear distinctive clothing.
3. Jews were required to wear a yellow piece of cloth as a badge (blue for Christians).
4. Jews were not allowed to perform their religious practices in public.
5. Jews were not allowed to own a horse which was a sign of a nobleman.
6. Jews were required to bury their dead without grieving in public.
7. Jews were required to pay special taxes.
8. Jews were not allowed to defend themselves against a Moslem.
9. Jews were not allowed to testify against a Moslem.
10. Jews were forbidden to build new synagogues.

11.The houses and tombs of Jews were not allowed to be higher than those of the Moslems.

12. The graves of Jews had to be level so that anyone could walk over them.

Throughout the centuries, Jews and Christians living under Islamic rule suffered persecution and humiliation, the intensity of which was determined by the character of the particular Moslem ruler. There was never a “good time” for Jews and Christians living under Islamic rule.

Applying the Omar Charter to Christians in Syria

Islamists have taken control of the northern city of Raqqa in Syria. This terrorists group is known as the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). They have given the Christian community there the clear choice mentioned above; convert to Islam, accept the status of dhimma or be murdered.

In order to survive and maintain their Christian presence, some leading members of the Christian community have agreed to submit to the special status of dhimma. Here are some of the conditions they must live under.

1. They can no longer ring their church bells or repair their church buildings.
2. They cannot pray or worship in public only in the privacy of their homes.
3. They cannot display or wear a cross.
4. They cannot own weapons.
5. They cannot consume alcohol in public or sell alcohol or pork to Muslims.
6. They cannot smoke tobacco.
7. Women must wear veils in public.
8. The dhimma can be murdered if they fail to pay the protection money.
9. The dhimma can be murdered at the whim of the Islamists if they feel slighted by the dhimma.
10. The terms of the payment can be changed at the discretion of the Islamists.

Sharia Law in America

Same as above. Applies to both churches and synagogues.

Since I could not come anywhere near saying this so well, I thought it important to share this article with you as my weekly blog.

As the prophet Joel tells us, “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehosaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land” (Joel 3:1-2).

The Times of Israel is a Jerusalem-based online newspaper founded in 2012 to document developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world.

GREATER MEN HAVE TRIED

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Jerusalem Connection
Posted in U.S. Foreign Policy

By TIMES OF ISRAEL—

Dear Secretary of State John Kerry:

Because of my respect for the United States, I will attempt to afford you the honor you think you so richly deserve. It’s hard to speak to you with anything but anger, hard to feel the need, again, to start from the beginning because you clearly choose to ignore history in your quest for glory. It is a quest destined to fail but its outcome, even, or more accurately especially, in failure, will hurt Israel.

Greater men than you have tried to make, to force, peace on the Middle East. I promise you, you will fail too. You will fail because you are not addressing the root cause of the problem. You, like so many before you, take the easy way out. Blame Israel. It is so easy to do, and so stupid.

I could speak to you of history – a history longer and greater than you can imagine. I could speak to you of injustices – yes, our land is filled with the graves of those murdered for the unjust reason that they lived here, or traveled abroad, or ate in the wrong restaurant, or took the wrong bus.

I could speak to you of justice – of a population exchange similar to those that have taken place throughout history as nations settle between war and peace. They left their lands to go there, most voluntarily so that their invading brothers would have a clear path as they pushed the Jews into the sea. And our people, who left their homes and possessions in Arab lands, most forced, not voluntarily, and came here.

We fed our brothers, clothed them, gave them homes. And most importantly, we loved them and gave them the most precious of gifts – a future, a present, as integral parts of the land and people of this country. My neighbor, the family across the street – they live in the same houses that I do, drive the same cars, attend the same schools. He is an engineer; he is a judge in the courts. She is a nurse; she is a lawyer. All my neighbors, though their grandparents came here with nothing.

And at the same time, across many borders, the Arabs put their “brothers” in refugee camps, all but starved them. They raised them to be embittered – not at those who kept them in squalor, but those they had hoped to defeat. They blame us and you are naive enough to blame us as well?

They chose war, John Kerry, while we chose compromise. And you would blame us for this horrible chain of the decades? They invaded – five Arab nations, in 1949. They attacked. Out of sheer desperation, we won enough of our land to give us a measure of security…it lasted only 7 years, until they attacked again. But oh what we did in those 7 years. We welcomed our refugees from Europe, from Arab lands. We built them tent cities and turned them into real cities. We conquered swamp land and made it habitable and we raised our children to dream that someday there would be peace. We created universities and schools and parks.

But the Arabs would have none of it. In 1948, in 1956, again in 1967 and again in 1973 and again and again, almost daily, we fight off their attempts to do in 2014 what they failed to do in 1948. They have not learned and amazingly enough, John Kerry, neither have you.

We have built and evacuated whole communities; we have withdrawn from land in exchange for nothing but the hope that we could appease the “unappeasable.” We have flown around the world to help others – from earthquakes, tsunamis, devastating storms, famine and more.

We have allowed the Arabs – yes, allowed them, to fire tens of thousands of missiles at our cities and we know they have more than 170,000 more rockets and missiles ready to try again. At any time and with no notice whatsoever, we have the power to flatten Gaza into the world’s largest, flattest parking lot. And each time they attack, we think of it and know we can’t do it, won’t do it. And you would blame us for the failure to make peace?

When we attempt to stop them, to push back their military capabilities, just a bit, we aim for the rocket launchers, the arsenals, the training camps while they aim for our cities – Beersheva, Shderot, Ashkelon, Netivot, Ashdod. And you would threaten us for the ongoing state of war?

There cannot be peace until you recognize your enemy. There cannot be successful negotiations if you fail to understand those you would bring to the table. You fail on both counts.

After hearing that you threatened Israel unless the peace talks succeed, I can only conclude that your ignorance is even greater than I thought. I knew, years ago, that you had no clue what the Arab world is thinking, feeling, dreaming of. Now I know the same is true about Israel – you don’t understand us any better than you understand the Arabs and that amazes me.

Unlike the Arab world, Israel is an open society – read our newspapers, speak to the people on the street. No one will stop you and we won’t escort you with secret police to control your experience. Pick any town, city, village, settlement and you will hear the same thing. Pick any street, any person and ask them what they dream of, what they want for their children. We do not dream of glorious death and martyrdom for our sons. We dream that they will never have to even serve in the army.

I have friends who agonized over their sons going into the army. I could understand my agony, as I grew up in the United States where all my friends promised they would run away from the US before they would ever be drafted. I knew nothing of army and war and guns. But my friends here in Israel? They had served in the army; why did they suffer so when their sons were drafted.

“We served so that they wouldn’t have to,” I’ve been told over and over again. They never believed, 20+ years later that their sons and daughters would have to sacrifice three years of their lives, that we’d still be at war.

You won’t hear that in the Arab world. Oh, they’ll tell you that they dream of peace because they know that is what you want to hear, but in Arabic, they will talk of a time when there will be no Jews in the entire Middle East, never mind no Jews in the Palestine they envision. Their religious leaders will whip them up to the glory of Allah and jihad. But still you would expect us to make peace with them?

Theirs is a culture built on a dream – a dream that they will own the world…my corner, John Kerry, and even yours. Theirs is a society that believes in a heaven earned by causing the deaths of others and so when their sons blow themselves up and kill those Jews, they celebrate. And yes, they celebrated on 9/11 when they killed your people just as they celebrated when we released their terrorists and killers in yet another attempt to appease them…and you.

If you don’t understand their ability to celebrate, I will confess that neither do I. I have seen the mothers hugging their sons in a video, made the night before they killed themselves…and the innocent men, women, and children, of their enemies who happened to be on that bus, in that mall, or asleep in their homes. It doesn’t matter to them if they kill a soldier, a man with a gun, a pregnant woman, or a helpless child. The more, the better, in their twisted interpretation of what their God wants. You don’t understand this and I can see where it is hard, given your western mentality. But not understanding it doesn’t give you the right to ignore it.

You won’t fail in your goal of ramming peace down our throats because of this, however. You will fail because, amazingly enough, you don’t even understand Israel. We are the easiest to get, the easiest, honestly. All you have to do is listen and see – but even that is beyond you.

Listen to our national anthem – it does not speak of war. It is called, “The Hope” and speaks of a dream of 2,000 years to be a free people. We value that – the ability to protect ourselves, to be free in the land of our forefathers. Even the most right wing among us would be willing to compromise for a real peace, a peace where our children and grandchildren could live without the fears we deal with daily. We do not interfere in how they raise their children; we are stupid enough to even fund some of their text books – all in our own misguided belief that we can make peace with those who do not yet want it.

You threaten us with economic sanctions, with international isolation. This is your latest blunder, and it is a big one. Israel is laughing at you this morning. Economic sanctions?

They gassed us, beat us, bombed us, burned us. They haunted us, hunted us, hated us through the centuries across many lands and through this land in the last several decades. They burned the synagogue where my grandmother was hiding; they gassed my great grandmother to death.

International isolation? They put us in ghettos, they exploded our buses and shot our babies in the head. They lynched my neighbor, attacked the buses on which my friends travel. They shot my daughter’s teacher (and his infant son) and ambushed and killed a colleague of mine.

We are fighting for our lives, John Kerry – no less today than we were in 1948. The ONLY difference is that through the greed and stupidity of the Arab nations, we are stronger than we ever were, not weaker. You will fail, John Kerry, because you are fool enough to think you can come here, wave your American flag, look at your watch and tell us you’d like to finish these peace negotiations by 5:00 p.m. because you have a date at the opera or a baseball game to go to.

For a long time now, the Arabs have fooled you. They’ll speak to you of peace over the coffee they serve you and then when you leave the room, they slap each other on the backs and laugh – another successful day at making the US look stupid.

Now, this time, we will have that in common with the Arabs; we are laughing at you too. Naftali Bennet has tried to explain it to you, “There has not yet been a nation that has given up its land due to economic threats, and nor will we. Only security will bring economic stability, not a terrorist state near Ben-Gurion Airport.”

Greater men have failed, John Kerry – and I promise you, until you know Israel and until you understand the Arabs, you don’t have a prayer of succeeding. Go watch the Superbowl, at least then, maybe you’ll have done something worthwhile.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/greater-men-have-tried 

Bible Believers and Conservatives Not Welcome in New York

During a radio interview last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told Bible believers and conservatives they are not welcome in New York. His comments are as follows:

“Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives, who are right to life, pro-assault weapon, anti-gay? …Because if that is who they are and if they are extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York.”

Governor Cuomo believes that people who believe the Bible, who believe that a baby in the mother’s womb has the right to be born, that the Constitution gives us the right to bear arms, and that marriage is between a man and a woman are extremists.

Perhaps the millions of conservatives living in New York State should accommodate him and move to Texas. We can teach them how to say “Yall.”

GLOBAL WARMING – NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

Nelson Mandela – Now for the rest of the story …

Nelson Mandela is being mourned by world leaders and made into a saint. While we certainly respect his desire and ability to reconcile with the political leaders he fought against, and did not set himself in place as a dictator, he is not the saintly figure world leaders and the press wants us to believe.

As Paul Harvey would say, now for the rest of the story.

Nelson Mandela was the head of the terrorist wing of the ANC and the South African Communist party. He pleaded guilty to 156 acts of terrorism including overseeing the planting of bombs in public places that killed many innocent people, including women and children.

Mandela honored and praised great human rights leaders such as Fidel Castor, Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat, Red China and other brutal Communist dictators. The irony of all ironies is the Syrian dictator and murderer, Bashar Assad had praised Mandela’s life as a “lesson to tyrants.” Yes, you read that correctly.

On moral issues, Mandela promoted the legislation of pornography abortion, homosexuality and other devout lifestyles in South Africa. This means that he forced the South African people to legally accept these practices.

Regarding Israel, he declared Israel a racist state and supported Arafat and the PLO. He has made South Africa an anti-Semitic nation to the point that Jews in South Africa should make aliyah to Israel.

While we all have our shortcomings, Mandela used terrorism in his fight against the government and people of South Africa who opposed him while fighting against Judeo-Christian values and the moral teachings of God.

Hanukkah, Thanksgiving and Jesus

In This Blog

1. The Muslim Brotherhood Vision Statement
2. Four Blood Moons

1. The Muslim Brotherhood Vision Statement

“Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way.
Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu akbar!

To put this in perspective, the current President of the United States, as well as the former Secretary of State (you know who that is – she is preparing to run for President), has Muslim Brotherhood operatives as their top advisors. They LOVE the Muslim Brotherhood and enjoy their regular visits to the White House. No wonder God’s judgment on America will soon turn into His wrath as our American leaders call evil good and good evil. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is sovereign. While He will soon pour out His wrath on the unrighteous, He will also pour out His Spirit on the righteous. The greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever seen is at hand. ARE YOU READY?

2. Four Blood Moons

There is a lot of interest in the four blood moons appearing in 2014 and 2015.

What is a blood moon? A blood moon is a lunar eclipse which happens when the shadow of the earth falls on the moon. The shadow of the earth falls on the moon when the earth is between the sun and the moon. A partial lunar eclipse happens when only a part of the earth’s shadow falls on the moon. A full lunar eclipse is when the earth’s shadow completely covers the moon. Because a total lunar eclipse often, but not always, appears red, it is referred to as a “blood moon.”

Because of the relationship between the moon’s orbit around the earth and the earth’s orbit around the sun, a total lunar eclipse only happens when there is a full moon. According to astronomers, unless the Lord intervenes, there will be 85 total lunar eclipses in the 21th century. For a more technical explanation of this subject, see the following web site of Dr. Danny R. Faulkner:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/07/12/lunar-eclipses-cause-blood-moons

Since the Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles (Succot) happen when there is a full moon, it is no surprise that a total lunar eclipse often occurs during these Feast days. In 2014, a total lunar eclipse is scheduled at Passover on April 15 and at Tabernacles on October 8. In 2015, a total lunar eclipse is scheduled at Passover on April 4 and at Tabernacles on September 13.  What makes this even more intriguing is that a total solar eclipse is scheduled to happen on March 20, 2015 and a partial solar eclipse on September 13, 2015. When four consecutive lunar eclipses are all total eclipses, the group is known as a tetrad.

It has been pointed out that there were blood moons when Israel became a nation in 1948 and when Israel liberated Jerusalem in 1967. Perhaps it is worth noting that the blood moons appeared a year after these momentous events in 1949 and 1968.

As believers, how should we view this interesting phenomenon? Is this a sign from God or simply a normal, but unusual, astronomical happening?

The Bible is clear that God does control the heavenly bodies and does use them as signs and wonders for us to observe and discern. For example, the star of Bethlehem.

Genesis 1:14 tells us that God put the lights in the heaven for signs and seasons (moedim – festivals). The moon tells us when to celebrate the Feasts of the Lord.

In Joel 2:30-31, we learn that at the end of the age just before the coming of the Lord, there will be cataclysmic changes in the sky when the sun turns into darkness and the moon into blood.

In Acts 2:19-21, Peter quoted the Joel prophecy and again placed the event happening at the time of the coming of the Lord.

Jesus also referred to this sign and wonder in Matthew 24:29-31 and says this will happen at the end of the tribulation period.

In Revelation 6:12, the same sign and wonder happens with the opening of the sixth seal which happens at/very near the end of the tribulation period.

It is clear that all of the Scripture references are talking about the same event that happens at/toward the end of the tribulation period when Jesus returns, or as the prophet said, “in the Day of the Lord, the Great Day of His wrath.” Since these are apocalyptic statements, we can’t be sure if they are meant to be taken symbolically or literally. We will certainly know when the time comes.

The Lord clearly tells us we should be aware of the prophetic signs and seasons (Matthew 16:1-3). These four blood moons could be signs telling us that Israel will be at war in these years, and capture more land and that America will experience more severe judgments from God that will bring about America’s collapse. But we should be able to understand this without any special signs. While the four blood moons are astronomically significant, are they significant as prophetic signs? We should keep our “spiritual balance” and not be overly focused on celestial signs. We certainly should not make life decisions based on these events.

Our focus should be on loving God and loving our neighbor and the stranger as ourselves. Our focus should be on treating our spouse with unconditional love and respect, preferring the other over ourselves. Our focus should be on being a good witness in our work ethic on the job. Our focus should be on being a good steward and giving of our time and finances to the kingdom of God. Our focus should be on forgiving those who have wronged us. Our focus should be on helping those in need. Our focus should be on praying for righteous leaders and repenting of the sins of our nation. Our focus should be on speaking out for Israel and speaking against anti-Semitism. Our focus should be on preparing for the end times. Our focus should be on living a godly life that pleases the Lord and makes a difference in our circle of influence.