Hi! Everyone
I don't know if you should be honored 'er anxious about this being my very first Post here. :unsure:
About the moon turning to blood.
The issue can perhaps be better understood by first answering the following questions for yourself:
1. Are you a "new creature"?
If the answer is yes, then you also have "new" eyes and "new ears" and "new" hands and feet. The new creature is ENTIRELY new and functions entirely new and (needless to say) ENTIRELY different than the former "old". After all, it's not for nothing that our Bible says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, ALL THINGS are become new".
2. Oh, lest we forget: Does the "new creature" possess a renewed mind as well?
"Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect", (Rom 12:2).
If the answer is yes, let's jus' remember to be sure an' add this attribute to the abilities of the "new creature" too.
3. Where is the citizenship of this "new creature" with it's "new" attributes and abilities?
Hopefully, you might have answered: in the Kingdom of God (the light side of the Kingdom of Heaven)
4. Would you agree that this verse is PAST TENSE and very true?
"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus":
Would you also agree that we NOW are learning to move and have our being "in heavenly places"?
Since we are "new creatures" with new abilities and attributes which allow us to function as new citizens in the invisible world, why should we be found insisting to continue to see with our "old" eyes and hear with our "old" ears?
Shouldn't we be attempting to see with our "new" eyes and hearing with our "new" ears?
And, let's not forget about our possessing a "renewed mind".
And, yes!, also about our ability to speak with tongues of both men and angels.
Let's read that again: "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"
This description of the sun becoming black as sackcloth and the moon becoming as blood is the testimony of a "new creature" who is seeing with "new" eyes into the unseen Kingdom of God. It is the signature of a "new creature" expressing his faith and confessing "the evidence of things unseen".
This shouldn't surprise any of us because Paul had written, "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made".
When a man sets out to construct a building, he first creates a model and afterwards the building.
But God did just the opposite! He created the building (heaven) first and afterwards the model (earth).
So it is that the visible world is a shadow of the invisible world and it's unseen realities.
In addition, this is precisely the manner and origin of a parable. A parable is essentially the construction of an allegory; the result of which causes the visible things to reveal the invisible things.
Jesus was in constant habit of this spiritual exercise because He too saw things with spiritual eyes and was having to describe the unseen realities of what he had witnessed using images of visible things.
Unfortunately, the physically blind often betray their blindness by unexpectedly stumbling into something foreign.
And, spiritual blindness is no different.
It's not for nothing that the Scripture says, "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ".
We must train ourselves to see with "new" eyes. We have to discipline the "new creature" to habitually live according to it's "new" godly functioning.
When God was walking with us in the early days of our hearing the gospel of repentance, there was no imperative to see and comprehend our "newness of life". But now, we have the yearning to grow past the "elementary doctrines" (Heb 6:1-2) and becoming earnest to mature "unto perfection". As such, we no longer remain content to have God walk with us as what Adam experienced. Instead, we wish to walk with God as is said of Enoch and Noah and having the confidence of, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus".
So, how should we visualize "the moon became as blood" when using the eyes and ears and mind of the "new creature"?
Here's my own personal opinion to throw into the mix. I'm not the Pope and have never pretended infallibility. I'm merely trying to share what I myself have come to know of the particular Scripture in question.
This is the fulfillment of Isaiah 60:2: "For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord (the sun) will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you". The powers of darkness put themselves between God and man. As a result, the light of God is darkened for those who dwell upon the earth because sin causes a separation between God and man. The light of God is no longer able to make contact with the unfaithful church that dwells upon the earth. It is as if the sun is screened off by that camel's hair cloth, (which people used in the MiddleEast).
As the sun is the image of God as light, the moon reflects the glory of the sun. The moon is a light in the night, and 'the light shines in the darkness'. So the moon is the image of Jesus Christ. He was the True Light, coming to enlighten the entire world (every man), (John 1:4-9). The fact that the moon adopts the color of blood is characteristic of the coming great apostasy. Blood is the image of natural life. In the unfaithful church, the name, word and work of Jesus Christ are not related to the Kingdom of Heaven but localized in natural earthly life. The attributes and abilities of the "new man" have become largely unknown or denied entirely..
Joel already prophesied about this. When the dark powers completely occupy the unfaithful church, he said: "The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars with draw their shining", and: "The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes", (Joel 2:10-31). When the darkening has taken place and the Spirit of God been poured out on the faithful children of God, the terrible and great day of the Lord follows.Therefore, there is a separation and judgment already beginning. "Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his elders he will manifest his glory", (Isaiah 24:23).
The "old" eyes of the unregenerate creature wish to improperly restrain and prevent the revealing of the invisible realities behind this Scripture verse. It is our task not to permit it to occur. We must determine to learn how to transpose the images to reveal the "things unseen".
I hope that this might strengthen the discussion of the Thread here. :)
