"Four Blood Moons," produced by Rick Eldridge and executive producer John Hagee, played to packed houses in South Austin, Texas, Monday, a mere one hour's drive from John Hagee's hometown Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. Both North and South theaters sold out on the Monday-only showing, and I was hard-pressed to find any moviegoer not already convinced that, in the words of John Hagee, something was about to change.
Having studied the science, history and biblical basis for the phenomenon more than most and having read most of the work that has been put forth on the subject, I was wondering what I might learn Monday night. I was also curious what approach the movie would take. The answers to those questions are embedded below in a few of my winners and losers.
BIGGEST WINNER: Israel. In fact if you came in five minutes late and left while the end credits scrolled, not staying on for the final panel discussion at the end, you might think that this movie was called "Israel – God's Love Never Changes." For sure this movie meal – it's meat and potatoes – was about the story of the Jews re-establishing the state of Israel, with God's help, while the blood moons were simply the side salad, or better yet, the cherry tomatoes on top of that side salad. Actually, this approach pleased me personally because the opportunity to inform American audiences about some of the more interesting vignettes in the Israeli conflicts of 1948 and 1967 was taken, and well-executed upon by director Kieth Merrill.
BIGGEST LOSER: Mark Biltz. The discoverer of the blood moons phenomenon was, I believe, the second person to have his face shown on camera, and Mark got to be the first to quote Joel 2:31 about the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood, as a lead-in to having John Hagee tell the audience about the time he, John, first looked at the NASA website and saw the blood moons of 1492, 1948 and 1967 falling upon feast days. By the way, that was a bit of a misstatement, because the NASA data would have told him 1493 and 1949. Anyway, that editing and decision to eliminate Mark's discovery of the blood moons stung a bit, because those of us who know the history of the blood moons know that not only did Mark develop most of the original thinking on the topic for four continuous years before John became aware of them, but it was Mark himself who told John about the phenomenon in 2012. Ouch.
See Mark Biltz's books, movies and teachings in the WND Superstore
TRENDING: To DEI for
WINNER: The ships from Columbus' second voyage in 1493 (the first year of the blood moon tetrad) were amazing with their Spanish sails, perhaps filmed off the coast of North Carolina for convenience, but who cares that the drier Spanish coastline was missing? The view of those ships sailing together in unison was a gorgeous reminder of the adventure and opportunities that the New World, our world for those of us that live in the Americas, beckoned to Jews in Europe more than 500 years ago.
LOSER: Sultan Bayezid II. While Christopher Columbus' ship was shown carrying one Jewish family to a new life in the new world, the most significant hero of the year 1492, the person who providing a way forward for not just one family, but many tens of thousands of exiled Jews from Spain was Sultan Bayezid II, the visionary non-Jewish leader of the Ottoman Empire. When he heard about the coming expulsion of Jews from Spain, he sent his entire Navy of ships to Spain to pick them up and bring Jews to his own lands. He was also credited with having said about King Ferdinand, "You venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler, he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine!" Bayezid allowed Jews to obtain citizenship in his empire and a few Jews even to return to Israel. How's that for some foreshadowing of things to come?!
WINNER: Shlomo Risken. Without a doubt, in this theater, his engaging smile and witty lines about God and Israel had people on the edge of their seat, and they were clearly attracted to this warm Israeli Jew! This reinforces something we had been finding recently at Root Source, that Christians really are attracted to the wisdom and thoughts of orthodox rabbis, a very exciting trend indeed for the work Israeli Jew Gidon Ariel is also doing.
LOSER: Jonathan Cahn. Actually, what he writes in his book "The Mystery of the Shemitah" was a huge winner in the night, almost more than the blood moons themselves. However, Jonathan as an author was never mentioned. So writing him in as one of tonight's losers gives me the opportunity to put his name in print, as his work on the subject is quite good.
WINNER: Christian-Jewish Relations. Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg was delightful as always, but I thought his comment about one of the messages he sees in the blood moons as the increasing unity between Christians and Jews to be prescient even if he got cut off in the panel discussion before he could expound.
LOSER: Anyone or any nation who bets against Israel, curses Israel or turns their back on Israel. Dennis Prager and John Hagee did a powerful job of bring that point home, and this theater erupted in cheers.
In summary, the best line of the film, and the one that got the strongest reaction of the room, was when Dennis Prager said, "I think the most important verse in the Bible is Genesis 1:1. If you don't believe that one, there is really no point in reading the rest."
And John Hagee also deserves an honorable mention for allowing Christian scientist Hugh Ross in the panel discussion, who fully believes in God and miracles but sees the blood moons as coincidence. While the crowd was clearly not pleased with Hugh's take, it helped keep the overall discussion honest. Good move.