Blood Moon

One evening when I was a kid my family was leaving some friends home and we saw that the rising moon was deep red. We hadn't heard any talk of an eclipse and it wasn't harvest season (when dust or smoke from burning fields could create red moons).

So being fundamentalist Protestant Rapture believing Christians we of course immediately wondered if the red moon had a supernatural meaning. This was terrifying to me even though we were pre-Tribulationists so we knew we'd have been Raptured before the moon turned to blood (which isn't supposed to happen til well into the Tribulation).

But my church (Nazarene) also didn't believe in the notion of "Once in Grace" which meant that even though you were a Born Again Christian you could still lose your salvation IMMEDIATELY by doing one sinful thing which meant that you'd be left behind if the Rapture happened or go straight to Hell if you died in your sleep. That sort of believing keeps people constantly on edge, especially before bed time or if an unexplained blood colored moon rises in the sky.

Standing on the front porch staring at the red moon the adults briefly compared notes as to what they knew were signs of the End Times and how the mystic bits of the Book of Revelation were supposed to unfold. A blood moon only fit in one spot and they figured we couldn't be at that spot so everyone decided that the surprise red moon was probably just a natural phenomenon. (Happily they did actually believe in science and natural phenomenon.)

Still, I wasn't entirely happy until on the way home I saw the moon gradually turn back to its normal color.