Pastor claims upcoming 'blood moon' is 'sign' we're living in 'the last days'
The forthcoming “super blood moon” eclipse, which will peak over the United States between Sunday and Monday nights, might signal the Second Coming of Christ, a pastor has claimed.
In a recent message posted on his YouTube channel, Pastor Paul Begley of West Lafayette, Indiana, argued that the blood moon — which occurs when Earth aligns to block the sun's light from the moon — is a fulfillment of the end times prophecy.
“God is ready to show us that He is in control, and these are the last days,” the pastor charged, calling the lunar eclipse a “very significant sign, according to the Bible.”
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Begley noted that the blood moon will pass over Washington, D.C. on the second anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Additionally, he said, Trump was born on a blood moon on June 14, 1946, exactly 700 days before Israel was declared a nation.
“Did President Trump just stumble into this situation?” Begley asked. “Well, he’s the president that decides to go ahead and declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and then moves the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and dedicates it on May 14, 2018, the exact 70th anniversary of Israel as a nation.”
“Is this a sign? Is this a harbinger for America?” Begley asked. “It seems like the prophetic scriptures of the Bible are starting to play out right on the world stage, right before our very eyes.”
Jesus, the pastor said, “wants to be sure we understand that in the last days there will be signs in the sun, the moon, the stars and of course the stress of nations on the planet.”
He went on to highlight the unrest seen across the world: “Look what’s going on in Europe as the protesting is breaking out ... not only in France, it’s now spread into the Netherlands, into Belgium,” he said. “It got very ugly, it’s getting dangerous in Germany, they’re starting in Italy. And even in Canada, and so we begin to see this unrest in the European nations.
“We’ve already seen the Middle East in a state of madness for seven years, and now Israel is being surrounded by the very nations that Ezekiel 38 says is going to surround Israel,” he continued.
Washington, D.C., too, is in a “state of political turmoil and anguish,” the pastor said, adding: “God is sending a message.”
“What does all this mean?” he asked. “Well back to the super blood moon. Where’s the blood moon in the Bible?”
Begley claimed that Joel 2:28-31 specifically mentions a blood moon. The passage reads, in part: “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
A second reference to a blood moon is found in Revelation 6:12: "I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood."
“Could judgment be coming? Is this super blood moon a sign of the prophetic End Times?” he asked, adding he believes there is “no question” the answer is “yes.”
“We’re living in the end times,” Begley concluded. “Obviously these apocalyptic signs in the heavens are pointing to a catastrophic event that is just on the horizon. We don’t know when. Just because you’re going to have a super blood moon on January 20 and January 21, doesn’t mean on January 22 all hell’s going to break loose. But then again it doesn’t mean it won’t.”
"The urgency, folks, is now,” he said. “The urgency has begun."
Begley is not the only pastor to take the appearance of blood moons to be a sign that the apocalypse is drawing nearer; popular pastor and author John Hagee also frequently weaves together celestial events, Jewish history and prophetic theories.
However, astrophysicist and apologist Jeff Zweerink previously told The Christian Post he would be "very skeptical" of assertions that celestial events are tied to biblical prophecy.
"These things happen all the time,” he said, explaining that while spectacular to behold, there's nothing out of the ordinary about them. "These have happened since the dawn of human civilization and they will happen until the end of humanity is here.”
Still, Zweerink told CP that Christians should use celestial events as an opportunity to share the Gospel with nonbelievers.
"God has made a pretty spectacular creation for us to live in," said Zweerink, adding that these events give Christians "an opportunity to talk to non-Christians about the Gospel and the Creation that God has made. And Creation is remarkably reliable.”
Sunday’s blood moon will be the last total lunar eclipse to grace Earth’s sky until May 26, 2021.
