by John Hagee
Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one!
(DEUTERONOMY 6:4)
This statement sweeps away polytheism, which is the worship of many gods. The apostle Paul described today’s society when he wrote:
In the last days . . . men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
(2 TIMOTHY 3:1–5)
The world has taken a wrong turn and we need a sign from God to get back on the right track—the Four Blood Moons just may be that signal!
If God gave Joshua and Hezekiah a sign in the heavens and if He posted a sign in the heavens to direct the wise men to the birthplace of our Redeemer, then why wouldn’t He continue to speak to us through signs? God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He has declared that He will give the terminal generation a signal that something big—something earthshaking—is going to happen.
He is the God who flung the glittering stars against the velvet of the night. He calls by name the stars that we have yet to locate even with the sophistication of the Hubble telescope. It is a fact that the Creator of heaven and earth is in control of the universe and He is giving us signs in the heavens to alert us of things to come. The question is, “Are we watching?”
THE FEASTS OF THE LORD
In my book His Glory Revealed I explain the scriptural applications of the seven Feasts of Israel by giving their relevant historical account and their prophetic interpretations.
The Feasts of the Lord (Festivals) are intended to draw the minds and hearts of the people toward God, they are a time of sweet communion and joy, and, finally, they illustrate profound spiritual truths that create a portrait of God’s master plan for the ages. Through these festivals, God is giving us a depiction of what He has already done as well as a prophetic portrait of what is coming in the years ahead.
The Hebrew word for feast is mo’ed, denoting “a set or appointed time.” A very similar meaning is mikrah indicating a “rehearsal or recital.” Each feast, like a dress rehearsal, offers a significant glimpse of God’s prophetic plan. The combined feasts, divinely established shortly after the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt’s bondage, would be a spiritual blueprint of what lies ahead for Israel, Jerusalem, and the rest of the world.
All Jewish holidays begin the evening before the date specified on most calendars. This is because a Jewish “day” begins and ends at sunset, rather than at midnight like the Gregorian calendar.
If you read the story of creation in Genesis 1, you will notice that it records, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” From this, we conclude that a day begins with evening and ends the following evening; that is, sunset to sunset.
As I present the significance of the Four Blood Moons in the chapters to follow, I will mention two feasts that are directly associated with their past and future occurrences. In order to better understand their noteworthy connection, I will briefly describe them; they are Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).
PASSOVER
Passover (Pesach) begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. It is the first of the two major festivals with both historical and agricultural significance that occur in the Tetrad.
These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.
(LEVITICUS 23:4–5)
So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
(EXODUS 12:14)
Agriculturally, it represents the beginning of the harvest season in Israel, but the primary observances of Pesach are related to the Exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery (Exodus, chapters 1–15).
The name Pesach comes from the Hebrew root Pei-Samekh-Cheit, meaning to pass through, to pass over, to exempt, or to spare. It refers to the fact that God “passed over” the houses of the Jewish people that applied the lamb’s blood on the door-posts of their home as He slayed the firstborn of Egypt. Pesach is also the name of the sacrificial offering (a lamb) that was made in the Temple on this holiday.
The moment John the Baptist saw Jesus, he exclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus fulfilled the meaning of the Passover ritual, for He is God’s male lamb without spot or blemish (1 Peter 1:19). Jesus, our Passover Lamb, will yet appear a second time.
John the Revelator looked upon heaven’s throne room and chronicled the following scene in Revelation 5:
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. . . . And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. . . . And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom
and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
(VV. 6–13 NIV)
The Feast of Passover is a time of redemption.
Remember this truth: if you do not understand the prophetical significance of the Feasts of the Lord it’s like breaking the hands off your clock—how will you be able to tell the appointed time?
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
The Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Tishri. The word Sukkot means “booths” and refers to the temporary dwellings that the Jewish people are commanded to live in during this holiday to commemorate the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters.
Say to the Israelites: “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. . . .” So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
(LEVITICUS 23:34–43 NIV1984)
Agriculturally, Sukkot is a harvest festival and is sometimes referred to as the Festi
val of Ingathering. It is so unreservedly joyful that it is commonly referred as the “Season of Our Rejoicing.”2 The Feast of Tabernacles is ultimately a time of thanksgiving for God’s provision.
The Festival of Sukkot is the rehearsal dinner for the millennial reign of Christ. For the first time Israel will possess all the land promised to Abraham in Genesis 15:18–21. Jerusalem, the apple of God’s eye, will become the joy of the world, for Jesus will reign there. The Millennium will be a time of rest for the people of God (Hebrew 4:8–9). The prophet Isaiah echoes the thought: “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10 NIV1984).
The Feast of Tabernacles is a time of remembrance, rejoicing, and rest.
CHAPTER 13
The Four Blood Moons of 1493–94
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
—JOEL 2:31 NIV
As I have stated, three Tetrads that are specifically linked to Jewish history have appeared in the past five hundred years. Each Tetrad series, consisting of four consecutive Blood Moons with a total solar eclipse occurring somewhere within the sequence of the total lunar eclipses, announced a time of tears and tribulation that would end in national triumph for the Jewish people.
In 1493–94, the first Tetrad of Blood Moons occurred on the Jewish holidays of Passover and Feast of Tabernacles:
1. Passover, April 2, 1493
2. Feast of Tabernacles, September 25, 1493
3. Passover, March 22, 1494
4. Feast of Tabernacles, September 15, 1494
The Four Blood Moons graphics in this chapter and the rest to follow were inspired by The Feasts of the Lord DVD set by Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries.1
BLOOD MOONS OF 1493–94
The first Blood Moon in the Tetrad appeared on April 2, 1493—on the first day of Passover after the Jewish events of 1492. There was a total solar eclipse on September 24, 1493—one day before the blood moon of the Feast of Tabernacles, September 25, 1493.
What was happening to the Jewish people during this time?
KING FERDINAND AND QUEEN ISABELLA
Ferdinand II, also known as Ferdinand the Catholic, was king of Aragon and Castile from 1479 to 1516, where he ruled with his wife, Queen Isabella I. They consolidated their power by uniting the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain’s entry into the modern period of imperial expansion.
In 1481, fear of Jewish influence led Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand to pressure Pope Sixtus IV to allow a monarchy-controlled Inquisition in Spain by threatening to withdraw military support at a time when the Turks were a peril to Rome.2 Their request was granted and in 1483 the Dominican confessor of Queen Isabella was appointed Inquisitor General of Spain; his name was Tomas de Torquemada. Through his villainous acts of torture the Spanish Inquisition ultimately surpassed the Medieval Inquisition of 1233 in scope, intensity, and atrocities.
Torquemada quickly established malicious and cruel procedures for the Spanish Inquisition. A new court was announced with a thirty-day grace period for confessions and the gathering of accusations by neighbors. Evidence that was used to identify a crypto-Jew (secretly observant) included the absence of chimney smoke on Saturdays (a sign the family might secretly be honoring the Sabbath) or the buying of many vegetables before Passover or the purchase of meat from a converted butcher.
The Inquisition’s court employed physical torture to extract confessions. Crypto-Jews were allowed to confess and do penance, although those who relapsed were burned at the stake.3
The Medieval Inquisition originated years before as a Roman Catholic tribunal for the discovery and punishment of heresy. It was created under Pope Innocent III of Rome (1198–1216) and later established under Pope Gregory IX in 1233.4
Anti-Semitism sponsored by the Roman Church began to manifest itself openly in 1412, when Jews were told they would have to live in separate quarters. These isolated quarters were the later template of the Polish ghettos established by the Nazis (1939–42) and the Minsk Ghetto of Russia (1941–43).5
In addition to being forced to live in the ghettos, the Jewish people were told they must distinguish themselves from Christians by allowing their beards to grow out and wearing the yellow Star of David on their clothing. The Jews could no longer hold public office, could not be physicians, and could not lend their money with interest. All schools and professions were closed to the Jewish people, and all commerce by which they might make a living was prohibited.6
This was only the beginning of the persecution, torture, and death of the Jewish people by the Roman Church’s Inquisitors. In less than twelve years the Inquisition condemned no fewer than thirteen thousand Jews, men and women who had continued to practice Judaism in secret.7
I now take you back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who established and controlled the Spanish Inquisition. The monarchy took increasingly drastic measures against the Jews and on March 30, 1492, at their palace in Granada, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed a decree ordering the Jews to leave Castile and Aragon by August 1. This was known as the Edict of Expulsion, which banished all Jewish people from Spain who refused to convert to Catholicism.
The ousted Jews were stripped of their wealth, for the Edict prohibited them from taking gold, silver, and precious metals. More than poverty, however, the decree meant homelessness and uncertainty, since the Jews did not know which nations would receive them. They also feared the journey, which would bring death to those too weak to endure it.
Christopher Columbus recorded this infamous edict in his diary:
In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.
The expulsion that Columbus refered to was so cataclysmic an event that since then, the year 1492 has been almost as important in Jewish history as in American history. On July 30 of that year, the entire Jewish community that had not been converted or killed—some 200,000—were expelled from Spain.8
The Jews were given the date of August 1 as the deadline for their departure from Spain, but some left the following day, August 2, which was the 9th of Av (Tishah b’Av) on the Jewish calendar. Tishah b’Av is a fast day that commemorates the destruction of the first and second temples; once again, remember a Jewish day begins and ends at sunset.
The following day, Christopher Columbus and his expedition set sail out of the harbor near Seville, past the ships upon which Jewish exiles were embarking. His voyage of discovery was financed by money confiscated from the Jewish people.9
I call to the witness stand of history the scholar Dagobert D. Runes, who recorded the brutal and godless acts of torture upon the Jews of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition by those who called themselves Christians.
The Spanish Inquisition was perhaps the most cynical plot in the dark history of Catholicism, aimed at expropriating the property of well-to-do Jews and converts in Spain, for the benefit of the royal court and the Church. Even dead “suspects” had their bones dug up for “trial” so estates could be confiscated from their heirs.10
Solemn ritualistic burning of Jews and other “heretics” at the behest of the inquisitional authorities of the Catholic Church began. “Trials” were conducted in the presence of the clergy and invariably ended in confession under torture by fire, skinning alive, bone-crushing, etc. The verdict was almost always; “burn them alive.”11
The infamous “blood libel” tale was employed by the Inquisitors to justify the torture of the Jews of Spain. The blood libel had at its root the rumor that a Christian child had been killed by Jews and his blood used to celebrate Passover.
In Avila, a Spanish town near Madrid in 1491 a child
from “La Guardia,” a village that never existed was allegedly found dead. A Jewish shoemaker, his brother and father were accused by the Church of having killed the child (later canonized) and drinking its blood for Passover. The accused admitted, under torture, all points of the indictment. Following their burning, all Jews in this little town were murdered and their homes sacked. The Catholic clergy appropriated the synagogue for a church.12
In the town of Seville, Fernando Martinez, who was archdeacon of the town, mobilized the people in a massacre against the Jewish quarter. A total of four thousand Jews were killed, and the townspeople forced the remainder to enroll in their so-called religion of love! These church-sponsored pogroms spread throughout Spain. Runes writes, “Synagogues were converted, together with pitifully few Jewish survivors, to the ‘Truth Faith.’ In some ghettos, not a single Jew survived, and the local Christians had their new ‘House of God’ to themselves.”13
Elinor and Robert Slater write about a long night of anti-Semitism in their book, Great Moments in Jewish History:
Any Jew who observed Jewish customs, even the “wearing of clean clothes on the Jewish Sabbath,” became suspect and were brought before the Inquisitors for trial. Some were fined; others suffered confiscation of property and torture. The rack was used not only to extract confessions from the accused but to force them to inform against others. Many of the accused were put to death in theatrical executions staged in public squares of Spanish towns. An execution of this type, usually by fire was known as auto-da-fe, or act of faith.14