What does a Tetrad in 1493/1494 (520 years ago) mean for today?
The tetrads (four consecutive lunar eclipses all total eclipses) in 2014 and 2015 stand out as overwhelming astronomical evidence that these years will embrace the climax of the ages, including the Rapture of the Church. This is the only tetrad in the near future that aligns itself with Jewish holidays. Five Doves has been great for drawing this to our attention, and many have contributed to the discussion of these tetrads, especially the tetrads in 1949/1950, 1967 and 1968 and 2014/2015 - all of which coincide with Jewish feast days/holidays. One of many overviews of these tetrads can be found on the Bible Defended website (see link below):
http://www.bibledefended.com/prophetical/tetrad.htm
But what about the tetrad (four consecutive lunar eclipses) in 1493 and 1494?
2 April 1493 (Passover), 25 September 1493 (Sukkoth)
22 March 1494 (Passover), 15 September 1494 (Sukkoth)
Is it possible to directly link this tetrad with imminent events today? This would add even further to the importance of the tetrads. What happened at that time? My local newspaper (the Canberra Times) has a Today in History feature, and on 17 April 2012 noted that on 17 April 1492 (just before the tetrad) Christopher Columbus received a commission from Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
Another pivotal event happened around the same time. Several months after the fall of Granada an Edict of Expulsion was issued on 31 March 1492 against the Jews of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. It ordered all Jews of whatever age to leave the kingdom by the last day of July (one day before Tisha B'Av). They were permitted to take their property provided it was not in gold, silver, or money. There appears to be differences in the estimate of how many emigrants there were from Spain at the time (from 165000 up to as many as 800000).
Linking Christopher Columbus’ Arrival and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain
(Christopher Columbus Day - 8 October in 2012 - remembers Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the Americas on 12 October 1492)
Now I am not an expert on American history, so I will simply note that the voyage of Christopher Columbus opened the way for Spanish colonisation of the United States. In the ensuing centuries the United States has become the haven for a very large Jewish population, with freedom to express Judaism. So two seemingly opposite (or perhaps reinforcing) events over 500 years ago have contributed to the geographical spread of Jews today -according to Wikipedia, of the 13 to 14 million Jews today, 11 million or over 80 per cent live in Israel (around 5.7 million) or the United States (5.3 million). It is difficult to see the regathering of the Jews to Israel to be complete without many of the Jews in the United States undertaking Aliyah to Israel.
The Mysterious Ships of Tarshish
I acknowledge that the link to the Ships of Tarshish I am about two discuss is somewhat conjectural. Nevertheless, I have mused about these matters over many years. The key Scriptural reference is Isaiah 60:4, 8 and 9 (below), and also the Messianic Psalm 72
4Lift up your eyes round about you and see! They all gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried and nursed in the arms. 8Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows? 9Surely the isles and distant coastlands shall wait for and expect Me; and the ships of Tarshish [shall come] first, to bring your sons from afar.
The kings of Tarshish and of the coasts shall bring offerings; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts (Psalm 72:10)
Tarshish is mentioned several times in the Bible, but the location is not clear cut. Tartessos (Greek) a harbour city in south west Spain is perhaps most likely. In Ezekiel 27:12 (Amplified) we read: Tarshish [in Spain] carried on traffic with you because of the abundance of your riches of all kinds; with silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded for your wares. We do know, from 1 Kings 10:22 that Tarshish was a distant land – visited oly every three years (For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks). And Jonah, wanting to flee (as far as possible) from the presence of the Lord, found a ship going to Tarshish
In summary - what could the 1493 and 1494 tetrad mean?
A quite different slant on the ships of Tarshish is possible. A prophet thousands of years ago may have seen a vision of ships travelling across the oceans taking colonists from Tarshish (countries such as Spain or perhaps England in the case of Australia) to the new countries (especially the United States) lands that were then unknown - this may have been the only way to express this. The end time purposes of these voyages, on the ships of Tarshish, may now be accelerating towards their climax. God’s judgments on the nations, including the United States (and especially New York) would precipitate the emigration from the United States to Israel, and an Israeli victory (Isaiah 17/Psalm 83) could create the opportunity for the rebuilding and needed construction activity in Israel to make this possible. Then, as it says in Isaiah 60, the emigrants would fly like a cloud to their windows in Israel. This itself may be a partial fulfilment of the more complete fulfilment after Daniel’s seven years. My previous letter on Man from the East may also be of interest (link below). God is the only One Who can tie the distant past to the now imminent future! Viva la tetrad! Maranatha Denis