The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Urges ‘Calm’ As Blood Moon Foretells Apocalypse

Reports of retail sales are up as some Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and many other religious people worry over the portending doom of the Blood Moon over the weekend. The rare eclipse occurs when the moon takes on a red hue due to the atmosphere of the Earth bending the light of the moon.

‘Blood Moon’ seen as sign of end times by some Mormons: http://t.co/UaYa0GyrvL pic.twitter.com/nsmQpEKzF7

— AOL.com (@AOL) September 26, 2015

There is some basis for these religious claims . This latest eclipse due on the night of September 27-28 is seen as the fourth and final eclipse in a tetrad — four consecutive total lunar eclipses, each separated by six lunar months. The biblical prophecy of the apocalypse would be fulfilled by the following four blood moons: (1) April 15, 2014, (2) October 8, 2014, (3) April 4, 2015, and (4) September 27, 2015 (AKA “The Impending Apocalypse).

LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 8: A religious cross is seen as the moon is illuminated by sunlight reflected off the Earth during a total lunar eclipse, one of four so-called “blood moons”, on October 8, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. The first in the current tetrad of blood moons fell on Passover and the current eclipse occurs on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the fifth day after Yom Kippur, leading some religious people to believe that it is a prophetic sign of the end times of civilization. This blood moon appears 5.3% larger than the last one on April 15 because it occurs right after the perigee, the closest point in its orbit to the Earth.

Is this what we could expect to see shortly after the blood moon? Some people believe come the 28 September, we might be facing the Apocalypse, whatever form that takes.

News outlets around the world are reporting on the widespread religious association of eclipses and other natural phenomena with foreboding. Joel 2:31 foretells the end.

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes.”

The universal appeal is perhaps due to albeit coincidental events associated with so-called “biblical tetrads,” for example, in 1493 the Spanish Inquisition expelled the Jews.

The weather is perfect for the moon’s most stunning night in decades http://t.co/YwfOR1Ypct

— The Independent (@Independent) September 26, 2015

The Pending “Blood Moon” Has Some People Preparing For The Apocalypse http://t.co/KFDWNlcJLL via @JimDalrympleII pic.twitter.com/KvgYKgsjUY

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) September 26, 2015

On the other hand, the patterns of tetrads are random, and there will be a total of eight in the 21st century. There have also been many in the past, none of which ended the world.

For some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the fear is real, and as the religion encourages stockpiling for the end of days anyway, some Mormons might just see this as the reason to do so even further. The usual, however, is the most expected outcome. Noah Petro, a NASA scientist, puts it bluntly.

“The only thing that will happen on Earth during an eclipse is that people will wake up the next morning with neck pain because they spent the night looking up.”

[Images by David McNew, Three Lions / Getty Images]