Stargazers in various corners of the world will be in for quite a treat later this summer as a total lunar eclipse is going to take place on July 27.
The astronomical event is expected to last for approximately one hour and 43 minutes, making it the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century.
"The Bible teaches that end event is coming just ahead of us now and that will be the greatest prophetic fulfilment in the last 2,000 years," Endtime Ministries' Irvin Baxter, the author of several failed doomsday predictions, said as quoted by The Daily Mirror.
Baxter’s grim predictions, however, are hardly unique, as several years before, Christian ministers John Hagee and Mark Biltz preached about the so-called “blood moon prophecy” – a series of four consecutive lunar eclipses that began in April 2014 and ended in September 2015.
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These beliefs apparently stem from a passage from the Book of Joel: "The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord," with a "blood moon" omen also appearing in the Book of Revelations.
Astronomers, however, point out that the reddish tint of the moon during a lunar eclipse appears due to the Rayleigh scattering of sunlight, which also causes the reddening of the sun during sunrises and sunsets.