What's the moon for?

[Stravinsk]

Ah Lunacy. The province of Lunatics. The madness of a lunar spell...

So our language and culture tell us. If you watch a horror movie, where murders and strange happenings abound, it is very likely that at some point in the film a full moon will be shown. Guilt by association. So pervasive is it in western culture I remember distinctly a Christian lady commenting on how everyone seemed to be in a bad mood and wondered aloud if there was a full moon out.

However, the bible has other things to say about the moon.

In Genesis, it is described as a "sign", along with the sun, for "times and seasons"

In Psalms, it is described as a "faithful witness in the sky". (Psalm 89:37)

In Psalm 81 it is a day of festival

In the new testament, the moon is either turned to blood or ceases to give it's light, as a harbinger of disastrous times.


What's the moon to you? Is it just one of those celestial bodies that man has supposedly conquered? Is it a mark of a phony religion or belief system? Does it bring out werewolves and is it a necessary feature of halloween?





DID YOU KNOW: A light has shined in darkness, and the darkness has not understood it? What light shines in darkness?

DID YOU KNOW: The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light?

 

[Josiah]

The moon exists to encourage romance.

 

[tango]

The moon is really useful as it gives off some light at night time. The sun isn't much use - it only shines in the day when it's light anyway.

 

[Fritz Kobus]

Genesis 1:16 "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."

I think most would consider the "lesser light" is the moon.

 

[Stravinsk]

Genesis 1:16 "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."

I think most would consider the "lesser light" is the moon.

It is a lesser light in terms of brightness, but it is still defined as a "great light", and unlike the sun (from our perspective) out of the two it's the only one that "shines in darkness".

 

[Andrew]

It is a lesser light in terms of brightness, but it is still defined as a "great light", and unlike the sun (from our perspective) out of the two it's the only one that "shines in darkness".

Solar powered LED lights use sunshine to produce light, it's still a "light" that shines at night.

If the moon was pure light then why does it have a dark side?

I assume you are suggesting that the moon is in the "expanse", and certainly it is to our perspective as it can be seen from Earth.
The expanse might be our range of view, on a round earth, the view from the top would be separated from the view from the bottom right?
Waters above and waters below, separated by the firmament (expanse)

 

[Fritz Kobus]

Solar powered LED lights use sunshine to produce light, it's still a "light" that shines at night.

If the moon was pure light then why does it have a dark side?

I assume you are suggesting that the moon is in the "expanse", and certainly it is to our perspective as it can be seen from Earth.
The expanse might be our range of view, on a round earth, the view from the top would be separated from the view from the bottom right?
Waters above and waters below, separated by the firmament (expanse)

"...it looks like the expanse (firmament, heavens, space) is an actual material that we cannot perceive as we move through it and it moves through us."
God's mighty expanse - creation.com

 

[Stravinsk]

Solar powered LED lights use sunshine to produce light, it's still a "light" that shines at night.

If the moon was pure light then why does it have a dark side?

I assume you are suggesting that the moon is in the "expanse", and certainly it is to our perspective as it can be seen from Earth.
The expanse might be our range of view, on a round earth, the view from the top would be separated from the view from the bottom right?
Waters above and waters below, separated by the firmament (expanse)

Solar powered lights, traffic lights, headlights, flashlights all shine in the darkness, sure. But God didn't create any of them (at least not directly), call them "great lights", or give them any purpose.

No one has seen the supposed "dark side" (the opposite side) of the moon with their own eyes. Unless you believe astronauts.

This is really a teaser post, to get people to think. What is the purpose of the moon? We know the purpose of the sun, it provides light and heat, it gives us vitamin D, it causes plants to grow etc.

But what is the purpose of the moon? If one goes to timeanddate.com you can look up moon cycles for years into the future. You can find out when it rises, when it sets and what portion of it will be lit for any given day(or night). You can find out when the sun rises and sets too, but the one most obvious difference is that the moon, unlike the sun, is lit either 100%, or in marked degrees of 100%. 1/4 moon, 1/2 moon, 3/4 moon give it a quality the sun does not. This quality relates to the keeping of time. Anyone can look up at the moon, observe it's phase, and have a rough idea where they are in the lunar cycle. The sun is always 100% lit, so can only be used to determine season, based on where it rises and sets.

 

[Stravinsk]

Isaiah 66:22-23

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain
And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.


In the new heavens and and new earth, if you make it, according to Isaiah, you will be worshiping on the new moons and the sabbath.

 

[Stravinsk]

The moon is really useful as it gives off some light at night time. The sun isn't much use - it only shines in the day when it's light anyway.

According to Genesis, there are 3 days of light before either the sun or moon are created. I perceive your comment to be sarcastic, as if daylight=sunlight and without the sun there would be none, but that is in fact exactly the opposite of what Genesis teaches.

Going on the assumption that this is the truth (light without sun), it got me to thinking. In the early mornings, there is light, before sunrise. It'll probably be argued that the sun's light is somehow bouncing off the atmosphere to provide it - every morning. O k. Let's assume that. So why on the stormiest of days, when all one can see above them is dark clouds, is there still light all around? I can see someone arguing that the sun's light somehow pushes through the clouds, and while it may be possible for full cloudy days where the clouds appear to be light or permeable, I can't see it when they are thick and dark, unbroken in the skies, and yet there is still light all around on these days. Is the light from an overhead sun somehow seeping in from the sides where dark clouds fill an unbroken sky for vast distances?

 

[Stravinsk]

Psalm 104:19

He appointed the moon for seasons;
The sun knows its going down.

The word translated "seasons" is "moed" or Strong's H4150. This word means "appointed times". If "seasons" is the correct translation (it's not), but if it was, then the moon's rise/set/phase patterns should coincide with them. But it doesn't, there being many more moons and phases than seasons. The sun's rise and set position, however, does indicate season. Therefore the translated word "seasons" here is incorrect based both on overall biblical usage and simple observation. The vast majority of biblical evidence suggests that "moed" designates special appointed times, and this verse indicates the moon is there to herald them.

 

[Stravinsk]

As alluded to in the opening post, the moon, especially the full moon, is constantly associated with a broad negativity in popular literature and film.

It is a time of ugly transformation - like from man to bloodthirsty wolf
It is a time of so called "occult" practices for "witches" and "warlocks"
It presides over monsters and murders

Throughout nearly all movies (with a few exceptions, like "the hobbit" where the moon's light shines upon the keyhole of the secret door), it is overwhelmingly referenced in association with something horrible, dark or evil. A murder just happened or is about to happen, for a few moments a full moon will be shown. The central story character has become lost in a forest and there is an evil presence that lurks. Briefly, the clouds move aside to show a full moon.

The words "lunacy" and "lunatik", describing individuals out of their right minds, are associated with the moon.

In short, the moon gets a heck of a lot of bad press, in our language, in literature and in film. If you pay attention, you will see the associations very frequently. Do you think this is just a coincidence?

 

[Fritz Kobus]

Then there is the deviant practice of mooning someone who is disliked. So one more negative use of the word moon.

Then I recall there was a cult, adherents of which were derogatorily referred to as Moonies after their leader Sun Myung Moon.

But there are good uses of the word moon, as in moon hubcaps and moon wheel covers.

Then there is the junk food dessert snack called Moon Pie.

 

[Nomad]

I cannot talk about the moon in terms of Christain's perspective because I have no idea about the subject. But if you look into astrology, western astrology, or any other astrology (Chinese, India, etc.), you will see that the moon is associated with the mind. Therefore, it is believed moon affects the mood.

 

[atpollard]

This is really a teaser post, to get people to think. What is the purpose of the moon?

The purpose of the moon is really cool in Celestial Mechanics terms.

Gravitational perturbations cause planets to shift in their axis over time … without the moon, the other planets would cause the North Pole to “wobble” so that it might point more towards the sun (in summer) and further away from the sun (in winter). This would result in radical climate changes and mass extinctions (try an arctic with tropical summers or a rain forest with an arctic winter). The extremely large size of the moon relative to the mass of the Earth, plus its orbit around the equator and in the earth-sun orbital plane result in a natural, gravitational gyroscopic stabilization of the Earth’s axis of rotation that resists perturbation from other planets.

In addition, the gravitational pull of the moon drives the tides on the Earth, which draw pollution into the depths of the ocean and cleanse the coastlines.

Men are not the only thing that God has “fearfully and wonderfully” made.
(and we have not even discussed how the moon was formed).

 

[tango]

The purpose of the moon is really cool in Celestial Mechanics terms.

Gravitational perturbations cause planets to shift in their axis over time … without the moon, the other planets would cause the North Pole to “wobble” so that it might point more towards the sun (in summer) and further away from the sun (in winter). This would result in radical climate changes and mass extinctions (try an arctic with tropical summers or a rain forest with an arctic winter). The extremely large size of the moon relative to the mass of the Earth, plus its orbit around the equator and in the earth-sun orbital plane result in a natural, gravitational gyroscopic stabilization of the Earth’s axis of rotation that resists perturbation from other planets.

In addition, the gravitational pull of the moon drives the tides on the Earth, which draw pollution into the depths of the ocean and cleanse the coastlines.

Men are not the only thing that God has “fearfully and wonderfully” made.
(and we have not even discussed how the moon was formed).

Maybe that's what happened on Lost when the polar bear showed up on the tropical island?

 

[Lees]

Psalm 104:19

He appointed the moon for seasons;
The sun knows its going down.

The word translated "seasons" is "moed" or Strong's H4150. This word means "appointed times". If "seasons" is the correct translation (it's not), but if it was, then the moon's rise/set/phase patterns should coincide with them. But it doesn't, there being many more moons and phases than seasons. The sun's rise and set position, however, does indicate season. Therefore the translated word "seasons" here is incorrect based both on overall biblical usage and simple observation. The vast majority of biblical evidence suggests that "moed" designates special appointed times, and this verse indicates the moon is there to herald them.

'Seasons' is not incorrect. (Ps. 104:19) as well as (Gen. 1:14) is correct. The moon is equally for times and seasons as the sun and stars are.

It all goes back to Gods first and original Gospel to man written in the stars which we now call the Zodiac.

Plus, one can see the overall typology of the earth, sun, and moon. The sun being the Son, (Jesus), being the light. The moon being the Chruch (the bride), only reflecting that light. The moon has no light of it's own. But it's surface is created to reflect the light.

And during a lunar eclipse, the earth gets between the sun and the moon. Which speaks to the Church not reflecting the light, when the world gets between them and Christ.

How perfect Gods Creation and Word are.

Lees

 

[Faith]

Ah Lunacy. The province of Lunatics. The madness of a lunar spell...

So our language and culture tell us. If you watch a horror movie, where murders and strange happenings abound, it is very likely that at some point in the film a full moon will be shown. Guilt by association. So pervasive is it in western culture I remember distinctly a Christian lady commenting on how everyone seemed to be in a bad mood and wondered aloud if there was a full moon out.

However, the bible has other things to say about the moon.

In Genesis, it is described as a "sign", along with the sun, for "times and seasons"

In Psalms, it is described as a "faithful witness in the sky". (Psalm 89:37)

In Psalm 81 it is a day of festival

In the new testament, the moon is either turned to blood or ceases to give it's light, as a harbinger of disastrous times.


What's the moon to you? Is it just one of those celestial bodies that man has supposedly conquered? Is it a mark of a phony religion or belief system? Does it bring out werewolves and is it a necessary feature of halloween?





DID YOU KNOW: A light has shined in darkness, and the darkness has not understood it? What light shines in darkness?

DID YOU KNOW: The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light?

I think it’s just a beautiful object in the night sky.

 

[Joshua1Eight]

I never realized lunatic was derived from lunar. Interesting.