(WND)—On Monday, March 25, 2024, the sun, earth and moon will perfectly align, creating a penumbral lunar eclipse two weeks after a total solar eclipse transverses the continental U.S.
WND spoke with Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries about the celestial events. Biltz deeply understands the connection between eclipses and biblical holidays.
The scientific explanation of a lunar eclipse is that it takes place when the earth passes between the sun and the moon, and the moon passes through the earth’s shadow. A penumbral eclipse occurs when the outer part of Earth’s shadow blankets the moon. About 35% of all eclipses are of the penumbral type, which can be difficult to detect even with a telescope. Another 30% are partial eclipses, which are easy to see with the unaided eye. The final 35% or so are total eclipses.
In the upcoming lunar eclipse, the Earth’s shadow will block out 97% of the moon’s surface. This eclipse will be a “blood moon,” the result of atmospheric conditions that give the moon a reddish tint rather than black when it moves into the shadow. The red color comes from some of the sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere where it gets bent and colors like blue and green are filtered out, leaving behind longer wavelengths like the color red.
While the science is clear, Biltz emphasizes that the deeper significance of these phenomena is biblical.
“From a biblical point of view, an eclipse is meant to be a sign from God,” said Biltz, citing Genesis 1:14: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”
“The number one reason for an eclipse is to be a sign,” he explained. “It is a sign that is beyond man’s control, something he cannot manipulate.”
Pastor Biltz emphasized that the Hebrew calendar must be studied to understand the significance of these celestial signs.
“Our Gregorian calendar is based only on the sun. It’s a great calendar, very scientific, but it’s not the one God uses,” he emphasized. “God said to let both the sun and the moon determine the times. And we can only have a total lunar eclipse or a solar eclipse on a full moon. What good are eclipses if you’re not recognizing when they can occur? Passover and Sukkot are on a full moon, but the Hebrew calendar does have a solar element. It’s adjusted so that the holidays occur in the same season every year. The month begins with a new moon, but the years are adjusted with a leap year. So, for example, Passover is always in the springtime and we adjusted through the use of a leap month.”
“Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time for everything, but by using a solar calendar, most of Christianity’s plucking at planting time and planting at plucking time, because they don’t know what time it is,” Biltz said. “They don’t know what the season is.”
He explained that a leap month is added seven times over a 19-year cycle because the lunar and solar cycles come back together again every 19 years.
“This is also why, on the solar calendar, you have to add one day every four years,” Biltz added.
While lunar eclipses occur on average one or two times a year, Pastor Biltz explained that when they fall on the biblical holidays, they are significant. This convergence is what Biltz refers to as a “blood moon tetrad,” a phenomenon he first identified in 2008.
His blood moons prophecy is based on a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses coinciding with Jewish holidays with six full moons in between that have no intervening partial lunar eclipses. This series is referred to as a tetrad.
The most recent tetrad began with a total lunar eclipse on April 15, 2014, the first night of Pesach (Passover). This marked the first of four consecutive eclipses. The second lunar eclipse took place on Oct. 8, 2014, marking the second night of Sukkot. The third lunar eclipse was on April 4, 2015, the second night of Pesach, and the fourth occurred on Sept. 28, 2015, the second night of Sukkot.
“NASA declares you can mathematically only have one total lunar eclipse in a year and a half,” Pastor Biltz said. “But here, there were four total lunar eclipses in a year and a half. This is like hitting the lottery.”
Indeed, in the past 2,000 years, a blood moon tetrad (four sequential lunar eclipses with no partial eclipses in between) has occurred on the Jewish holy days of Passover and Sukkot only eight times, most recently in 2014-2015.
However, the tetrad in 2014 was the second of eight tetrads to take place during the 21st century. This is remarkable, as in the past millennium, only four documented tetrads have occurred on or around the Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot, and each one was followed by a major event that shifted Jewish and global history. Those tetrads occurred in the years 1428-1429, 1493-1494, 1949-1950 and 1967-1968.
For instance, the Tetrad in 1428-1429 marked the end of a big wave of forced conversions for the Jews in Spain, and the Tetrad in 1493-1494 signaled the end of the Spanish Inquisition, which concluded with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Then there were the blood moon tetrads of 1949-1950 (corresponding with the creation of Israel as a nation in 1948) and 1967-1968 (with the unification of Jerusalem occurring in 1967).
The notable exception was the blood moon tetrad that occurred in 2014-2015. No major war or significant event happened that year.
“I was trying to figure out what it was, but it was October 7 that showed me what that Tetrad meant,” Pastor Biltz said. “The 1967-1968 tetrad of blood moons was a seven-year warning of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Yom Kippur in 1073 was the very first day of the Jubilee cycle. And then the 2014-2015 Protective Edge incursion into Gaza and the Blood Moon that accompanied it were a seven-year warning before the October 7 war which happened on Simchat Torah, the very last day of that same 50-year Jubilee cycle. So, the last Jubilee cycle was bookended with wars and blood moons.”
Pastor Biltz emphasized that not only will a total solar eclipse traverse North America on Monday, April 8, 2024, but it will be followed by an “almost” blood moon tetrad.
“The first eclipse will be a partial lunar eclipse,” Biltz noted, “But then there are three total lunar eclipses in a row. There are four lunar eclipses in a row, which is phenomenal, but only three are total.”
“But they are all happening on the feasts, two years in a row,” Biltz said. “That should be a wake-up call to Israel.”
The first lunar eclipse on March 25 will coincide with the Jewish holiday of Purim. Biltz noted that it was fitting that the moon should be eclipsed on Purim, as Esther literally means “hidden.”
“Purim is not in the Torah, but it is important for the Jews because the story of Esther is about the dangers of assimilation,” Biltz said. “No one knew Esther was Jewish. The Jews wanted to assimilate, but God miraculously delivered them. The Jews have enemies, but they have to fight the assimilation as well.”
Pastor Biltz referred to the Talmud in its discussion of eclipses (Sukkot 29a), which specifically described solar eclipses as being a bad omen for the nations who base their calendars on the solar cycle. He noted that since the United States became a nation in 1776, only eight total solar eclipses have completely crossed the continent.
“And when did they occur?” Biltz asked rhetorically. “The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Vietnam War.”
He remarked that the upcoming total solar eclipse will cross the border into Canada, passing over a city called Economy in the end.
“I think this is a warning we’re going to see an economic tragedy coming to the whole world,” Biltz said. “It will begin in the United States, but it will reverberate throughout the whole world.”
Thankfully, the next blood moon tetrad that falls on the biblical feasts will not take place for another 500 years. It should be noted that a prophecy in the Book of Joel indicates that the coming of the Messiah will be preceded by a blood moon.
“Before the great and terrible day of God comes, I will set portents in the sky and on earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke; The sun shall turn into darkness And the moon into blood. But everyone who invokes the name of Hashem shall escape; for there shall be a remnant on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as God promised. Anyone who invokes God will be among the survivors.” (Joel 3:3-5)
This is also stated in the New Testament in Acts 2:20 and Revelation 6:12.
Pastor Mark Biltz’s new book “America at War 2024-2026: The Sons of Light vs The Sons of Darkness” is available for preorder.
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