When we see a total lunar eclipse, we call it a blood moon because the moon takes a reddish color when the earth comes between the sun and moon. It is a natural phenomenon. But the Bible talks about a supernatural phenomenon in which the moon turns into a blood red color.
Hello welcome to Defender’s Voice. This is Paul Kattupalli. Thank you for joining us today. In today’s message, I would like to draw your attention to the moon. It has been 50 years since the first man set his foot on the surface of the moon. India sent a lunar explorer named Chandrayaan -2. Its main scientific objective is to map the southernmost surface of the moon and to explore for lunar water.
We are all so busy on this planet. We feel like we don’t have sufficient time to attend to the demands of our daily lives. But whenever we can, we should take some time to look into the space, because the Bible says heavens declare the glory of God. We have atheists and secularists around us who tell us, ‘Choose God or choose science. You can’t have both’. That’s a false dichotomy. We want both God and science. We named our organization God & Science Foundation because we want to explore both sources of knowledge.
The founders of modern science were very devout Christians. They said they believed in two books: The Book of Revelation and the Book of Nature. The Book of Revelation is the Bible,
and the Book of Nature is science. They studied both books to understand the mind of God. Just to name a few. Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer. He was described as the ‘first competent mind in modern astronomy’. He used astronomy to discover the wisdom of God.
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician. We all studied Kepler’s laws of
planetary motion when we went to college. Kepler was led by the conviction that God created the world according to an intelligible plan. His scientific exploration was to find that intelligible design of God. Kepler was not disappointed. He found a mathematical order among the planets.
Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician and astronomer. He is considered the most brilliant scientist ever lived. In his great work Principia Mathematica, Newton described his famous laws of motion and universal gravitation. In a section of this book called General Scholium, Newton praised God for his awesome creation. We all heard the story about Newton,
standing under a tree, with an apple in his hand, and looking at the moon. The gravitational force of earth on the apple and on the moon. Are they the same or different? Newton realized it is the same force of gravity. Newton thought that God filled the whole universe with one force of gravitation. Thus born the Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation. There would have been no space missions, or Apollo missions or lunar probes without understanding this great law of
gravitation. Newton came out with his equation, F = G m1 m2/d² to calculate the gravitational force between any two objects in the universe. Newton wrote books of science and also commentaries on the books of the Bible, because he believed that God revealed to us through two books: the Book of Revelation and the Book of Nature.
Atheists in our time force us to choose just one book. Either you go with the Book of Revelation or the Book of Nature. They insist you can’t have both. They fail to realize that both books had one author: God. My sincere request to atheists is: Spend some time reading the history of science. Please stop forcing this false dichotomy on Christians. Christians love God. They also love science because it reveals the wisdom and love of God. Newton believed in the Genesis account of creation. Let us see Genesis chapter 1, starting from verse 14.
- And God said, “Let there
be lights in the expanse of the
sky to separate the day from the night,
and let them serve as signs to mark
seasons and days and years,
- and let them be lights in the
expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.”
And it was so.
- God made two great lights–
the greater light to govern the day
and the lesser light to govern the night.
He also made the stars.
- God set them in the expanse
of the sky to give light on the earth,
- to govern the day and the night,
and to separate light from darkness.
And God saw that it was good.
- And there was evening, and
there was morning– the fourth day.
Here in Genesis chapter 1, we have the true account of the origin of the universe. During 6 Day Creation, God made the sun, moon and the stars on 4th day. The first two chapters give us a short account of creation. “He also made the stars” that rattles many people. They say, how can you say that in just a few works. You see, truth does not depend on the loudness of a claim. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is now the richest man in the entire world. He could say, ‘I created Amazon’.
He does not have to write a 500 page book to prove that he created Amazon. He could make a truthful statement in three simple words: I created Amazon’. ‘I created the stars’: If God were to allot the entire book of Genesis or even half or whole Bible just about creation, that would not make him more of a Creator than when he told us about Creation in just two chapters.
Why did God create the sun and moon? to separate the day from the night, to be the signs to mark seasons and days and years, and to separate light from darkness. During day time, we live under the sunlight, during night time, we get light from the moon. The earth is revolving around the sun, and the moon is revolving around the earth. God said he put the sun and earth as signs to mark our time. The earth takes one year to revolve around the sun. We measure our mortal lives in terms of years. The moon takes one month to revolve around the earth. We divided our years into months.
My grandfather: he lived in a seaside town and remembered many events of his life by the phases of the moon and tidal waves. He used to tell me, so and so year, so and so month, it was a full moon and a high tide, when I visited that town; it was a half moon when I got that job. His stories would start with the words, ‘It was a full moon and high tide’. Today we don’t care much about full moons, half moons, gibbous moons and tidal waves. But a few generations ago, people depended on them to remember the main events and incidents of their lives. We say ‘how beautiful the moon this evening, what a pleasant moonlight’.
In Zen Buddhism, there is a shloka.
Being in the world:
To what might it be compared?
Dwelling in a dewdrop
Fallen from a waterfowl’s beak,
The image of the moon
That shloka talks about the impermanence and beauty. A dew drop….it is so beautiful. Inside the drop you can see the image of the moon, but the drop is sliding off the bird’s beak. Life is beautiful but it is marked by impermanence. The moon is beautiful, but it is marked by impermanence. God is speaking to us through the moon:enjoy the beauty of the moon, cherish its moonlight, but also remember your time.
When I was a little boy, I used to spend a lot of my evenings with my friends under the moon. I was mesmerized by different figures I saw over the moon. My brothers used to tell me, you see that tree on the moon, under the tree you can see our aunt she is making pancakes for us. Today we know that there are no trees,no aunts, no pancakes over the moon. Modern science has liberated us from such misconceptions about the moon.
If we look into world history, we see many civilizations worshiping the moon as a god or goddess. Even today we have religions which worship the moon god. But in the Bible, God commanded us not to worship the moon. For example, Deuteronomy 4:19 states,
And when you look up to the sky
and see the sun, the moon and the stars–
all the heavenly array–
do not be enticed into bowing down
to them and worshiping things
the LORD your God has apportioned
to all the nations under heaven.
When you look up to the sky, when you see the sun, the moon and the stars do not be tempted to worship those heavenly bodies, your worship belongs only to God, the Creator. God showed to Israel His mighty power over His Creation.
When Joshua was fighting his enemies God performed miracles on the battlefield. He stopped the sun and the moon for Joshua and his army. That was a supernatural act only God could perform. I don’t have to, and I don’t want to explain those supernatural events. All I can say is, nothing is impossible for God, even stopping the Sun and the moon in their orbits. It’s like Jeff Bezos writing a 1000 dollar check. He is the richest man in the world that a thousand dollars would be like throwing peanuts for him.
But sadly, Israel was not faithful to this commandment from God. In Second Kings chapter 23, we see the Israelites worshiping and offering sacrifices to the moon.
When the first human beings walked over the moon, thankfully, they did not worship the moon but worshipped its Creator. On July 16, 1969, two astronauts of Apollo 11,
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked over the moon. All together, there were 6 Apollo missions to the moon.
Apollo 11: July 1969
Apollo 12: November 1969
Apollo 14: January 1971
Apollo 15: July 1971
Apollo 16: April 1972
Apollo 17: December 1972
During the Cold War, the tensions between the United States and the USSR extended into the Space. A space war was set between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Apollo astronauts took a Bible to the moon. Thus, the Bible became the first and only book to visit the moon. As they got the first glimpse of the marvelous beauty of planet earth, they expressed their wonder in the words of the first sentence of the Bible: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The second man to set his foot on the moon, Buzz Aldrin explained in his book Magnificent Desolation, how he took some time to worship the Lord Jesus Christ on the moon. He took bread and wine with him and had a communion over the moon! What does it mean to be human? Buzz Aldrin wrote that communion gave him a sense of meaning to his life as he walked over the moon.
We read in Psalm 148:3,
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars.
What is humanity’s purpose in this universe? to praise God and enjoy His creation.
Apollo mission was an enormously complex task. You would need control centres, space vehicles, command modules, land rovers, satellites – all working in unison to achieve the goal of reaching the moon. Any discord would destroy the whole mission. God gave such insight, wisdom and power over his creation – only to human beings because He created them in His own image. Monkeys, dogs and cats cannot do such great things because God created them only to be animals. The Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova into the space. Gagarin became the first human to journey into outer space. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to have flown in space. To this day she remains the only woman to have been on a solo space mission. Great achievements. But how did USSR respond? Soviet statesman Nikita Krushchev said in a speech, ‘Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any god there’ That’s the spirit of humanism we saw at the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. There we see people stating their mission:
Come, let us build ourselves a city,
with a tower that reaches to the heavens,
so that we may make a name for ourselves.
The tower of Babel never completed, it was a complete disaster. The Soviet mission to put a human being on the moon was never realized. The Soviet Union itself collapsed and dissolved a day after Christmas in 1991. Today our world nations showing the same spirit of Babel in their space endeavors. Let us go to the moon, let us go to Mars,let us search for extraterrestrial life – they never take a moment to praise God they never take a moment to worship God or to show Him any gratitude. We are going to save this world, we are going to save this solar system. We are going to stop climate change. Great objectives. They never remember God, they never take a moment to ask God for help. That’s human arrogance. We read in Psalm 8:3-4,
When I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psalm 8:3-4
You can see a spirit of humility in the words of the psalmist. When I see your universe, what is man that you are mindful of him?
The first step of Neil Armstrong got permanently etched over the surface of the moon. Standing on the moon, he said, ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ To this day, many people do not believe that human beings visited the moon. Buzz Aldrin wrote his book Magnificent Desolation about his encounters with the skeptics, after returning from the moon. People were stopping him and asking him, ‘You walked on the moon, ah, really? is this a kind of a joke? You went to a photo studio and got these photos standing in front of a moon and you are fooling people that you visited the real moon. Don’t you?’
Lot of people don’t believe that man actually visited the moon. Lot of people don’t believe in Jesus because the thought of God visiting this planet is too much for them. It’s a fact that man set his foot on the moon, and it’s also a fact that God set His foot on this earth. God visited this planet, yes, the God of the whole universe, visited this planet as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you believe this truth, your life will never be the same.
The Jews celebrate Passover under full moon. Jesus is our Passover Lamb. During the Passover, they kill the lamb under the full moon. The day Jesus died on the cross, there was a full moon over Jerusalem. During the night, when the darkness engulfs us, it is the moon which gives us the reflected light of the sun. This world is in darkness. Jesus Christ our Lord is the full moon who shines the light of God on our lives. He is the God who visited us to give us heavenly light.
Now, what is the future of our moon? The moon is not going to stay forever. This beautiful moon has a deadline. It is sad but true. God has put an expiration date on the moon. God has told us in His word about these events. Let us start with
the earth shakes,
the sky trembles,
the sun and moon are darkened,
and the stars no longer shine
Joel 2:10
the earth shakes and the sky trembles. Today our leaders say, we can fix every problem with science. This is called scientism, the worship of science. It is humanism masquerading as science.
It is the spirit of the Tower of Babel.
Breaking News: An asteroid named 2019OK horrified our scientists. On July 25th , 2019 this 100-meter wide asteroid passed within 73,000 kilometers of Earth. Astronomers were shocked to see this asteroid coming so close to our planet. Its get much worse, they did not even see it coming.
Had it hit the earth there would have been a lot of devastation on our earth. This asteroid was big enough to destroy a whole city killing millions of people. Prophet Joel told us, it does not take much for God to get our attention.
the earth shakes,
the sky trembles,
the sun and moon are darkened,
and the stars no longer shine
The main theme of Joel is the Day of the Lord. Apostle Peter in his famous Day of the Pentecost speech in Acts chapter 2 spoke about this prophecy from the Book of Joel. Lord Jesus came to this world, died for the sins of humanity, rose again from the dead and offered us the Day of Salvation. Those who refuse the Day of Salvation will have to face the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is filled with intense cosmic activity. Lord Jesus talked about it in his famous speech on the Mount Olives recorded in Matthew chapter 24. He said,
Immediately after the tribulation
of those days shall the sun be darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens
shall be shaken. (Matthew 24:29)
The moon shall not give her light. How is this going to happen? Let us turn to Revelation chapter 6,
verse 12.
And I beheld when he had
opened the sixth seal, and,
lo, there was a great earthquake;
and the sun became black
as sackcloth of hair,
and the moon became as blood
Revelation 6:12
Please note those words: The moon became as blood.
During 7 years tribulation, 7 seals of God’s judgment will be unleashed on this world. When the sixth seal was opened, the moon became as blood. The Apollo astronauts brought down some moon rocks with them. They have been studying these moon rocks and the surface of the moon for the last 50 years. They found very interesting facts about the moon. The figures we see on the moon – when I was a boy, I used to think there was my aunt sitting on the moon under a tree making pancakes for me. Now we know those appearances are actually craters. Craters formed by intense volcanic activity. The redness of the moon in certain regions is due to basaltic lava flowing out of its volcanoes.
We’ve seen the prophecies of Joel, Jesus and John. They all said that the entire Solar System will be shaken up during the Tribulation Years. There will be earthquakes on the earth on an unprecedented scale. When the Bible says the moon became as blood, it might happen due to the basaltic lava covering the moon due to intense earthquakes which happen during Tribulation Years.
In the Book of Genesis, we have seen that God created the moon as a sign of our times on this earth. In the Book of Revelation, He told us, when the moon becomes like blood it is over for humanity.
the human history is over.
the Day of Salvation is over.
the Age of Grace is over.
It’s time for the judgment.
Today, I hope you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, confess your sins and accept Him into your life as your Lord and Savior.
PRAYER: “Lord Jesus, we thank you for creating the moon. Yet human beings in their rebellion against you corrupted your creation. ‘And the moon became as blood’. You’ve appointed a day for the moon to become red as blood. Thank you for offering us salvation through the precious blood you shed on the cross. We ask that you help the listeners and readers to come to you and accept you as their Lord and Savior. Amen”
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