The bulk of this article was originally published May 2014. Updated 28 August 2026.
 |
| Taken by the Author: 28.08.2026 |
In the early hours of 28 August 2026, another so-called “blood moon” appeared over Britain. It was actually a very deep partial lunar eclipse, with most of the Moon passing into the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow and taking on that extraordinary copper-red colour.
And whenever the Moon turns red, Bible prophecy is rarely far behind.
There is, after all, a famous passage in the Bible which speaks of precisely this:
“The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood.”
It sounds dramatic. It is dramatic.
But what does it actually mean?
Peter says: “This is what was spoken”
To answer that, we need to go to Acts chapter 2.
At Pentecost, people had gathered in Jerusalem from many different nations. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples and they began speaking in other tongues. The crowd was astonished. Some, showing that cheap explanations of religious experience are hardly a modern invention, concluded that the disciples were drunk.
Peter stood up and answered them.
They were not drunk, he said. It was only nine o’clock in the morning.
Then he explained what was happening by quoting the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…”
Joel speaks of sons and daughters prophesying, young people seeing visions, old people dreaming dreams, and God pouring out his Spirit upon men and women alike.
Then come the more alarming bits.
Blood. Fire. Smoke.
The sun turned to darkness.
The moon turned to blood.
And the coming of the great day of the Lord.
What interests me is Peter’s introduction to all this.
He does not say, “Joel was talking about something which will happen thousands of years from now.”
He says:
“This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.”
Peter applies Joel’s prophecy to what is happening there, in Jerusalem, at Pentecost.
That ought to affect the way we read the passage.
Was there a lunar eclipse at Pentecost?
Perhaps our first instinct is to ask whether the Moon literally turned red at the time.
But that may be asking the wrong question.
The Old Testament prophets regularly use enormous cosmic language to describe enormous events in human history. Sun, moon and stars are shaken. The heavens tremble. The world goes dark.
Isaiah uses this sort of language when speaking about the judgement of Babylon. Ezekiel uses it when speaking about the downfall of Egypt. Similar language appears elsewhere throughout the prophets.
The point is not that nothing real is happening.
Quite the opposite.
Something so important is happening that ordinary language scarcely seems large enough for it.
Kingdoms fall. Powers are overthrown. An old order comes to an end. God acts in judgement and salvation.
The universe itself seems to shake.
So when Joel speaks of the sun being darkened and the Moon turned to blood, and Peter deliberately quotes those words at Pentecost, we should pay attention to what Peter says God is actually doing.
God is pouring out his Spirit.
Pentecost changed everything
Pentecost was not a slightly unusual prayer meeting.
It marked a vast change in the history of God’s dealings with humanity.
The Holy Spirit was no longer being given simply to particular prophets, priests, kings or specially chosen individuals for particular tasks.
God says:
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.”
Sons and daughters.
Young and old.
Men and women.
And the people gathered in Jerusalem immediately heard the message spilling across national and linguistic boundaries.
Something new had begun.
The risen Jesus had been exalted. The promised Holy Spirit had been poured out. The gospel was about to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth.
The “last days”, Peter says, had begun.
That is considerably more significant than an interesting astronomical event.
So are blood moons signs from God?
The heavens certainly declare the glory of God. A lunar eclipse is a magnificent thing, and if you managed to get out of bed at five o’clock this morning and actually see it through the British weather, congratulations. You have already overcome two formidable obstacles.
But we should be cautious about constructing prophetic timetables around eclipses.
Lunar eclipses are predictable astronomical events. We know why the Moon turns red. Sunlight passes through the Earth’s atmosphere before reaching the Moon, and the atmosphere scatters more of the shorter blue wavelengths while allowing more red light through.
Knowing how something happens does not make it any less part of God’s creation.
But Acts 2 directs our attention somewhere greater.
Peter does not invite his hearers to watch the sky and calculate eclipse dates.
He points to Jesus.
He points to the Holy Spirit.
And he calls people to repent, believe and receive what God has promised.
The real blood-moon event
So perhaps, when we see a blood moon, Christians can allow it to remind us of Joel’s extraordinary prophecy.
But then we should read on.
The centre of Joel’s promise is not the colour of the Moon.
It is this:
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.”
And Peter says it has begun.
Pentecost announces that the old boundaries are being broken open. The good news of Jesus Christ is for the nations. The Spirit of God is poured out upon ordinary believers. Men and women are called, empowered and sent.
And Joel’s prophecy ends with an invitation which remains wonderfully simple:
“Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
That is where Peter takes the crowd.
And it is where the blood moon should ultimately take us too.
Not to speculation.
Not to elaborate charts identifying precisely which Tuesday the Antichrist is likely to appear.
But to Jesus Christ, risen and exalted, pouring out the Holy Spirit upon his people.
The Moon may turn red.
But Pentecost really did change the world.