As you may have heard, along with a number of current events coming up in September, evangelical pastors in the US are warning that there will also be a “Blood moon” and a “Shemitah”.

Social media and news sites have jumped onto the evangelical bandwagon and responded with a great deal of alarmist material warning emphatically that a cataclysmic financial crisis will hit in September.

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Conspiracy videos such as this are being shared on social media:

Jeff Berwick, founder of the Dollar Vigilante produced this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=14&v=rkELgi6EkNo

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, the writer of “The Mystery of the Shemitah” is interviewed here on the Jim Bakker show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOjkNyD0jCQ

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This post does not assume or suggest that there will or wont be a global crisis of some sort this September, but rather that there is very little scriptural basis for these evangelical theories and in some cases they actually contradict our understanding of scripture.

For example. It has been traditionally accepted by Christadelphians that:

1. Revelation is symbolic not literal. However, the blood moon theory is based on a literal understanding of Revelation.
2. The moon that turned blood red in Revelation 6:12 is referring to political upheaval as shown by Bro. Thomas, not a literal blood red moon.

We must not look to the natural, but to the political universe for the interpretation of its ‘signs’

~ Eureka,  John Thomas.

Below are three articles worth reading

The Testimony magazine recently published an article on the topic of the blood moons showing that the blood moon theory conveniently cherry picks data:

When you review the data it becomes apparent that there isn’t a pattern to base predictions on.

~ Testimony Magazine Article

Mike Moore is the General Secretary of Christian Witness to Israel and he points out that none of the upcoming “blood moons” will even appear over Israel ;

The only eclipse of the tetrad visible in Israel will be the last in the series. It will take place at the Feast of Tabernacles on 28 September 2015 but when it is visible it will have almost set on the horizon and will be over in a matter of minutes. If you’re in Israel and you blink, you’ll miss it!

~ Mikes Musings

BiblicalIntegrity.org published a pertinent review of the best seller “Is the Shemitah Real?” by Jonathan Cahn:

That God expects or will impose a Shemitah upon any nation other than Israel has no scriptural basis. Neither do the Scriptures provide any indication that the Shemitah is some sort of universal principle that operates throughout or even at various times in history.

~ BiblicalIntegrity.org

Summary

The most fundamental principle of the Christadelphian movement is to have a strong biblical basis for a scriptural belief before accepting it. The Blood moon and Shemitah (US) theories are based on data and observations largely constructed outside of scripture.

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them”

~ Isa 8:20

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”

~ 2 Peter 1:20

Furthermore, if we believe or propagate the blood moon theory we imply that Revelation should be read literally. It is for this reason and others that these theories should not be entertained as part of our preaching efforts.

 “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”

~ Gal 1:8