John Hagee Repeats His “Blood Moon” Errors–On Film

Posted on by
blood moon

Total lunar eclipse. October 17, 2014.  (Photo by the author.)

With a beautiful total lunar eclipse on slate for Saturday, April 4, old earth creationist John Hagee has resurfaced with revived claims of prophecies in the skies.  I wrote about Hagee earlier this year, debunking his claim that a tetrad (series of 4) “blood moons” was a sign from the heavens that something significant was about to happen in Israel.

This time, Hagee is back with a movie.  “Four Blood Moons”1 rehashes the false claims the pastor made in his book by the same name.  The film opened with a special one-day release on March 23 and returns for an encore on April 9.  Based on the movie’s trailer and interviews with Hagee, it doesn’t look like the creationist has added anything new to the claims I’ve already debunked.  So I’d like to just hit the highlights here.  For a thorough point-by-point refutation of Hagee’s claims, complete with references (NASA tables of solar eclipses, information on the Hebrew calendar, the pastor’s historical mistakes, etc.), please see my article “Oh Bloody…“.2

To review: the pastor claims that major events in the history of Israel are linked to total lunar eclipses occurring on the Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot.  The pattern that he sees goes something like this:

  1. Tragedy knocks on the door of Israel and/or the Jewish people.
  2. Miraculous victory is somehow snatched from the jaws of defeat.
  3. (1) and (2) are announced in the heavens by a tetrad of “blood moons” (total lunar eclipses) that magically occur during one of two Jewish holy weeks.

Hagee’s conclusion: divine intervention in Israel, proven by an invisible hand controlling the positions of the sun, earth, and moon.

Wow.

As I explained in (excruciating?) detail in my earlier piece on this subject,2 Hagee is wrong in nearly every way imaginable:

1. Holidays on the Hebrew calendar are tied to lunar phases because humans designed the calendar that way.  Periodic adjustments are made to the calendar–by humans–to keep seasons (and, as a result, religious holidays) “aligned”.  It’s no accident that the sun, moon, and earth are lined up in a certain way on a given Jewish holiday.  People constructed the calendar in that manner–and they go to a lot of trouble to keep it from changing, even periodically adding a temporary month to keep the holidays from drifting out of alignment.

2. Major events cited as miraculous by Hagee do not actually coincide with “blood moons”.  He apparently never bothered to check an almanac of eclipses.  His 1967 “Six Day War” example is a great illustration.  Yes, it was triumph from tragedy for Israel.  Unfortunately for the good pastor, there was no lunar eclipse on Passover or Sukkot in ’67.  Oops.

3. In fact, most major events in Israel’s history don’t occur anywhere near an eclipse.  If the heavens are being used as a signalling device, it’s broken most of the time.  I offer as evidence the Yom Kippur War of 1973.  If ever Israel turned tragedy into triumph, wouldn’t beating off the overwhelming surprise attack in 1973 be a prime example?  Where were the holiday eclipses?  Answer: there weren’t any.

4. Hagee’s command of history is shaky at best.  For example, America wasn’t “discovered” by Columbus as Hagee claims–there were already people living there when the explorer arrived.  In any event, he wasn’t the first outsider to arrive in North America.  And, while credence could be given to the minister’s claim that the United States became an eventual safe haven for the Jewish people, it certainly didn’t remain that way for the millions of Native Americans who died at the hands of European settlers.

And, dare I mention… there was no Passover/Sukkot eclipse in 1492?

John Hagee

John Hagee gets it wrong again.

Other than the simple truth that eclipses actually happen, John Hagee doesn’t even try to get his story straight.  And, for some reason, his followers eat his nonsense up.  It’s a shame that an event that’s beautiful and wondrous in its own right has to be linked to superstition and fear, and that those who follow Hagee won’t take the time to fact check him.

While not as awe-inspiring as total eclipses of the sun, lunar eclipses are still a treat–and visible from a larger portion of the earth’s surface than their solar counterparts.  To check visibility of the April 4 eclipse from your area of the world, NASA provides a nice map.3 Sky & Telescope magazine offers up a brief article on the eclipse along with timetables.4

Image Credits
Lunar eclipse photography by the author.  Copyright (c) 2015 Mark Aaron Alsip.  All rights reserved.

“John Hagee at Podium” from Wiki Commons, by owner Christians United for Israel.  Released into public domain by owner.  Image owner does not necessarily agree with or endorse the views expressed by the author.

References
Note: to avoid increasing search engine exposure for quack web sites, I use the DoNotLink service to obfuscate URLs.   You have my promise you’re being redirected to the web site indicated in the title 🙂

(1) Four Blood Moons (Movie Official Page–Facebook)
http://www.donotlink.com/eeey

(2) Oh Bloody…
https://badscidebunked.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/oh-bloody/

(3) Total Lunar Eclipse of 2015 Apr 04 (NASA)
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2015Apr04T.pdf

15 thoughts on “John Hagee Repeats His “Blood Moon” Errors–On Film”

    • No, I’m saying the “facts” Hagee presents are incorrect. I gave several examples. One of the most glaring errors are that there are no eclipses occurring when he says there are. But yes, I must agree I don’t think much of the intelligence of his arguments 🙂

      Like

      Reply ↓

  2. Yawn!!Long ago and far away I realized that Hagee;Robertson and crew are just con artists out to fleece the gullible out of their money!!
    Four Blood Moons are just that:Four Red Moons!!
    John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival sang about it way back in 1969 with their song”Bad Moon Rising”:
    “Don’t Go Around Tonight
    Cause It’s Bound To Take
    Your Life.
    There’s a Bad Moon on
    The Rise.”
    Remember,this is the same John Hagee who said that”The Jews Should Be Grateful to Hitler Because he Helped Them Find Their Homeland in Israel”.
    -“Thank You The Word’Omelet’for Being A Nicer Way of Saying’Egg Taco’.”.-Jimmy Fallon

    Like

    Reply ↓

  3. “blood moon”….sounds like part of a pagan religious ritual.

    The Jews and others hype up this “cult like” observation of the appearance of a “red / blood moon” …but it is caused by a Total Lunar Eclipse (the Sun, Earth and Moon form a straight line). The Earth blocks any direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. The Sun is behind the Earth, so the Sun’s light casts the Earth’s shadow on the Moon. This shadow covers the entire Moon and causes a total lunar eclipse, which makes the moon color to appear to be reddish.
    This is what it is and nothing more.

    The important significance of the mention in scripture that the moon will turn red / will darken is that the earth will darken the light of the moon.

    In a symbolic way, this means that the WAY OF THE EARTH ( of MAN) will cause to obscure the light of the moon, the light reflected from the sun…that it will obscure the Light of the One God , the Light of the One Truth in His assembly…that the WAY of MAN will place itself in between the One Truth of the Creator and His Son Jesus Christ….making itself into an image of ‘god’ that all of mankind will worship and carry its mark on their foreheads and hands.

    There is only one belief that ALL of mankind has embraced as his way of life…and that is FREEDOM ( freedom of self-rights, freedom of religion).
    And this FREEDOM dictates that it is RIGHT, as a false light, and a right, to be free to worship ANY ‘god’.
    …this is the abomination that desolates , that OBSCURES the True Light of the One Creator, which is defined by the Lord Jesus Christ.

    This is the tribulation, the testing that One Creator has sent upon man to test those that claim to serve His Son Jesus Christ…but many of the stars will fall and be darkened by their compromise for their first love for FREEDOM.

    Very soon, the Lord Jesus Christ will return, as a thief in man’s eyes, to rule the earth in obedience and power as the ONE KING according to the Will of ‘I AM’ and NOT according to man’s first love for his freedom, for his desire to serve and magnify oneself (XES) as a ‘god’.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • John, although all are welcome here, unsubstantiated religious proselytizing such as you did in your comment is not part of this blog’s raison d’etre. You’re more than welcome to hang around and debate the science, point out any errors I may have made, etc., but preaching wild unscientific claims that can never be backed up—that will lead, eventually, (sadly), to your comments landing in the “spam” folder. Facts and science here sir, please. You’re free to disagree with the points made in the blog, but please bring your own facts to contradict them.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  4. Now I’m curious. Why do you not have a page ‘debunking’ evolutionary science? After all it is the only theory that relies on:
    A. The evolution of matter from absolutely nothing (a scientific impossibility).
    B. The evolution of biotic matter from abiotic matter (a scientific impossibility).
    C. The evolution of multicellular organisms from single-celled organisms (a scientific impossibility).
    D. The adding of new information through mutations (a scientific impossibility).
    E. The evolution of a conscience (something evolution cannot explain).

    Like

    Reply ↓

      • For:
        A. Matter is composed of atoms, no atoms, no matter.
        B. Life is not created from abiotic matter even in a lab.
        C. Progressive evolution into more complex organisms is impossible because mutations do not add (they detract) information. Without new information such ‘progression’ is impossible. In addition, supposing they did add information, the organisms would be unable to reproduce in the ‘transition’ period between asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction.
        D. Mutations detract information because they damage the genetic code. Even if the mutation happens to be helpful (rare instances), the organism does not add information.
        F. Conscience points to a Creator because evolutionary beings would have no sense or right or wrong. Outrage, guilt, etc are all things that cannot be felt without a higher standard.

        Like

        Reply ↓

        • Thanks for reading and commenting. I’m not sure where you’re getting your information on genetics (e.g. mutations) but it isn’t scientifically accurate. And I’m still unsure what this has to do with Hagee being wrong about the blood moons?

          Like

          Reply ↓

          • My genetic information is correct. There is no evidence or a single study in which mutations added information. Some mutations cause things to change perhaps, but they do not add information. A common example of this would be the yellow apple. This particular apple experienced a mutation that damaged the genetic code with the instructions for coloring its skin. Without this information the apple produced a pale yellowish apple without the ordinary red pigment, a loss of information.

            (also see my other reply about the blood moons)

            Like

          • Again, you seem determined to avoid discussing the article, which is about Hagee’s astronomy errors. I’m not sure where you’re headed with the evolution misconceptions, but some of them are so broad I can’t possibly correct them in this short space. No biology course I’m aware of teaches mutations as a loss or gain of information. This sounds suspiciously like a talking point from a pseudoscience web site, and a diversion to avoid talking about the many errors Hagee has made. 😦

            Like

          • The blood moons are not related to creation at all. Whether Hagee is right or not makes no difference in the quest to explain where we came from.

            I will attempt again to explain the loss of genetic information as a result of a mutation.
            Another example of this process would be the canine race. At perhaps the top reigns the wolf, a creature gifted with speed, agility, power, and fierceness. On the whole the wolf embodies excellent genetics allowing it to survive. The opposite is the poodle. The poodle is a bred-down domesticated animal devoid of the previous elements of a hunter present in the wolf. The poodle has lost certain genetics (speed, agility, fierceness etc) over decades (if not centuries) of selective breeding (i.e breeding of dogs embodying certain traits (or lack of them)). Thus the poodle experienced a loss of information over the generations until it reached the state we know it today as. Note that some of these changes were desirable and perhaps even helpful as they allowed the poodle to live in a new environment with humans and children. Regardless the poodle lost information.

            Like

          • You’re commenting on an article about John Hagee being incorrect about the blood moons. I’ve asked how your misunderstandings of biology are relevant to the article you’re commenting on, but I can’t seem to bring you to the point (and am not optimistic I’ll be able to do so), so I’ll just simply thank you for taking the time to read and comment, and give you the last word…

            Like

Leave a comment