I am not totally familiar with the details of the “blood moon prophecy”; however, dismissing it because something did not happen on the exact day of an eclipse is not a good reason.
If the prophecy were correct then you would expect something to happen around the time of the astrological event, perhaps within a year or two, not within a day or two.
Again, I do not understand the basis for this “prophecy”, and I am not saying I believe in it.
However, I am concerned about the state of the world and not because of any prophecy or apocalyptic scripture.
There is a paragraph in a book called “The Psychology of War” by Leshan that describes the state of the world the year before the onset of WW I. LeShan says that year world travel and trade had reached an all time high, just before the onset of the greatest war in human history up to that time.
So is there a basis to be concerned? The reason I am concerned is:
- Power Law data. Power law data describes a relationship between war casualties and frequency that implies that interstate war acts like earthquakes, where some tension builds up in the international system over time and is released in war, at unpredictable times.
(Cederman "Modeling the Size of Wars: From Billiard Balls to Sand Piles)
What this means is that the farther you get from the last global war, the higher this “tension” should be.
The last two periods of global wars were the:
Napoleonic Wars: Onset 1803, ~ 5 million casualties
WWI / WW II: Onset 1914, ~100 million casualties.
The last period of global war, WW I / WW II had an intensity of approximately 20X the Napoleonic Wars. If the next global war is much more severe than the last one (past pattern), then we are looking at some sort of nuclear war – unless the system is defused.
My interest is in social systems where some variable builds up over time, and unfortunately, these systems are very resistant to change. The power law data has been examined for European Wars since 1495, and the distribution remains intact over scores of different governments. Other human social systems where “tension” builds up are also highly resistant to change.
However, these systems can be defused, and have been defused from the adoption of only a small number of best practices. When this happens, it is important how many people actually do the best practice. Thus, the mechanism for spreading the “best practice” is very important.
So to diffuse this sort of system you must solve two problems:
- What are the small number of best practices that you want to spread?
- How are you going to spread the practice?
This is why I support evangelization, because as a believer I believe that we cannot solve this problem without God’s help, and the “falling away” from religion is a major contributor to our demise.
This is also why I am interested in social groups, because we know that social pressure, or the desire to “belong”, has a massive effect on behavior and is likely key to spreading best practice.
It is interesting that Pope Francis moved up the Jubilee year by 10 years from the scheduled 2025 to 2015 beginning this December 8, when the cement wall that blocks the Holy door to St. Peter’s Basilica will be opened. I wonder if he is worried that we may not make it to 2025. Interestingly, everything the Pope is doing seems to support reaching as many people as possible with the Gospel. He is spreading best practice; however, he cannot succeed without help.
Thus, engagement in social groups / media is essential to preventing or mitigating the SHTF in my opinion. However, overcoming the secular pressure to conform and be cool is not easy.
For this to occur, there likely will need to be a “Jonathan” (1 Samuel 14) who leads the way.
When Israel was afraid of the Philistine army, Jonathan and his armor bearer decided to attack the Philistine army by themselves. Initially he killed 20 Philistines, and this made the Philistines afraid, but more importantly, it inspired Israel to fight along side of Jonathan. Obviously, had Israel not joined Jonathan, he would have been cut down. However, he did not care.
Thus, to make evangelization “cool” and spread in social media, we likely need a Jonathan, who will go for it on his own, against impossible odds.
I don’t know a Jonathan and I surely don’t feel like one, so I would not expect anyone else to have this calling.
However, I know where a lot of people like that are. It may be someone who has been in scores of dangerous situations like the Jonathan of the Old Testament. Or it could be someone who has encountered Christ in a special way. We were recently in Rome, and when you hear about and see the art / monuments / churches built to remember the Saints who stood up to the Roman Empire, you see that Jonathans can also emerge from contact with the divine.
One thing we did not expect to find on this trip is a new way to learn about the Christian faith. If you go on tours with a good tour company, many of the guides have done graduate work in art history or theology. They make a living as guides, and they explain why the great masters painted and sculpted what they did. It was fascinating, and an incredible way to learn about Christianity. We used Angel tours in Rome.
Yes! you’ve been left … below …! 
