Posted May 16, 2008

Much e-mail has been received concerning the appearance of Mark Biltz on the J.R. Church program, Prophecy in the News. On it Mark Biltz discussed how four consecutive full lunar eclipses occur on the Lord’s Feast Days in 2014 and 2015. Four consecutive lunar eclipses are known as a tetrad and they do not occur very often. The first eclipse will be on April 15, 2014, which will be at the time of Passover. The next will be October 8, 2014, which will be at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. This is followed by April 4, 2015, which will be Passover. The final occurrence is September 28, 2015, which will be Tabernacles again. Since Tabernacles is the festival marking the dwelling of Christ on Earth after his return, this would seem to indicate that this may mark the end of the seven-year Tribulation.

Therefore, if the Tribulation ends in the fall of 2015, it would place the Tribulation as beginning sometime at the close of 2008—this year. This would then require that the Gog and Magog War of Ezekiel 38-39 occur very soon, which logically must conclude after the Feast of Trumpets and the Rapture of the Church. If this theory is correct, then the war clouds must form very soon this summer to start the sequence of events. However, there are still pieces to this puzzle that are missing. Turkey is still aligned to the West and it will need to be aligned with Iran and Russia in that day. The United States also seems to still be at the point where it would assist Israel. In any regard, this summer of 2008 holds the key to the 2015 scenario as the conclusion of the Tribulation.

However, there is also difficulty concerning the visibility of these four lunar eclipses. Of the four eclipses, only the last one is visible from Israel and only partially before the moon sets. As indicated on the program, it would seem that a blood moon will appear over Jerusalem, but this will not be the case. But be that as it may, the eclipses will still be seen throughout other parts of the world. If the 2010-2017 timeline for the Tribulation in Signs of the End is correct, then the first eclipse will be just five days before the time of the Abomination of Desolation—the halfway point of the seven year Tribulation. The eclipses then might herald the last portion of the Tribulation that begins the genocide of God’s followers. Again the key seems to be what happens the summer of 2008 as to where the tetrad might fit into the scenario. If nothing develops over the summer of 2008, then a time for the Tribulation for 2008-2015 would seem doubtful.

Interestingly, there were also two sets of significant tetrads last century. Only 13 tetrads have occurred in the last 500 years by the definition of four consecutive total lunar eclipses. Of those only three tetrads have all fallen on the Feasts of the Lord. Those three are found in the years 1949-1950, 1967-1968, and 2014-2015. Though Israel was declared an independent state sixty years ago in 1948, the war with its neighbors began after its first day and lasted for a year. Therefore, the first lunar eclipse of 1949 occurred during this war for the establishment of Israel. The next tetrad began on Passover 1967, which was just six weeks before the Six-Day-War. Therefore, these two significant wars of Israel were covered by each tetrad period. Therefore, it would make sense that the tetrad of 2014-2015 would cover another significant war in Israel. The question then remains if the tetrad marks the beginning or end.

However, of the two previous tetrads for 1949-1950 and 1967-1968, visibility from Israel was also an issue. As can be seen in the chart below, only one of the lunar eclipses could be seen in Israel. That one was on April 2, 1950 and it was the only one of the three tetrads (12 eclipses) to be clearly visible. Though there seems to some significance to the tetrads, the fact that they are not visible from Israel might seem to lessen their importance. However, there does seem to be something to them. Actually on Passover 1996 the last total lunar eclipse occurred that was totally visible from Israel. This eclipse occurred in the 6000^th year from Creation if the chronology developed in Signs of the End is correct.

Besides the lunar eclipses, there are three solar eclipses that are also mentioned on the program. These eclipses are in the summer of 2008, 2009, and 2010. However, all three are not visible from Israel and none occur on festival days. As can be seen from the NASA website, none of the eclipses’ paths seem very significant as compared to previous ones such as in 1999 or 2006 that crossed the Middle East. So the significance of these eclipses with regards to a 2008 to 2015 scenario for the Tribulation seems to be a stretch. But there is one more item of possibility.

Another item of interest is that the Day of Atonement 2015 is precisely 2,520 weeks from the regaining of Jerusalem during the Six-Day-War on June 7, 1967. This span of time is 17,640 days or can also be figured as 49 times 360. This comes five days before the final lunar eclipse of the 2014-2015 tetrad. Does this then further clarify the significance of this day as the time of Christ’s Second Coming?

Though remarkable there have been many other timings based off of the Six-Day-War that did not find a direct fulfillment. The Feast of Trumpets 2005 was exactly 14,000 days from June 7, 1967, just as the time from the numbering of Israel to the crossing of the Jordan River or also from Palm Sunday to Av 9, AD 70, which was the day of the destruction of the Second Temple. But Christ did not return for the Church on the Feast of Trumpets 2005 as some had expected. However, exactly 40 weeks later, Israel went to war with Hezbollah on July 12, 2006. It was its largest war since the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In another interesting twist this war came 120 days before the anniversary day of the Flood of Noah according to the Hebrew Calendar. That day turned out to be November 8, 2006 (Heshvan 17), which this author had discovered in 2002 as being forty 360-day years from June 7, 1967. This calculated to 14,400 days, which also equaled 120 times 120 days. But the "coincidences" do not end there and can be found in the coming version of Signs of the End. The point though is that there may always be more to the calculation.

With Israel’s 60^th Anniversary now past and the period of a generation being seventy years, there are only so many years left in the equation. The tetrad of 2014-2015 falls in the 67^th and 68^th years. Therefore, there must be some significance if the Tribulation spans the last seven years of the seventy. We will have to wait and see what now develops. As the time of the Rapture approaches, it should become increasingly clear to students of the Bible that the time has come. Though we know we are at the end, we are now left to fine-tuning to know the hour (Rev. 3:3). The clearer we can see Ezekiel 38-39 approaching, the clearer we should be able to see the coming Rapture. If it is 2008, then things must develop quickly. If it is 2010, then there is still only a little room left. In any regard the time is shorter than most would have us believe. Though Signs of the End looks to 2010-2017 as being the time of the Tribulation, there is no reason to not watch for the coming day until then. That makes three possible Rapture days, which is the feast of Trumpets 2008, 2009, and 2010.