Next week on April 4 we will experience the third “Blood Moon”, or Lunar Eclipse, of the 2014-15 Tetrad as we look back to the third Blood Moon of the 1428-29 Tetrad to see how a teenage girl changed the history of the world and the Church by following a word from God.
Joan of Arc lived in troubled times. Her country, France, was being overrun by the English and the last remaining large city, Orleans, was under siege. The English claimed the French throne and the French crown prince, called the Dauphin, was kept from legitimizing his rule through coronation in the city of Reims by the English armies. Joan had a word from God to relieve the siege of Orleans and help the Dauphin be crowned in Reims. She set out to see the Dauphin in February of 1429, just as the third “Blood Moon” was about to occur.
The Dauphin believed Joan, and she was given command of an army to relieve Orleans. She defeated the English at Orleans and the Dauphin was crowned in July of 1429 at Reims in accordance with her word from God. Although Joan was martyred by the English in 1431, she had saved the nation. Ultimately the English were driven out of France and the borders of France were made secure.
Ironically, the English defeat proved to be a great benefit for them and the Church. Without Continental lands to defend, the English homeland was sheltered from Europe’s constant warfare. The English Channel proved to be an effective barrier against would be invaders such as the Spanish Armada, Napoleon, and Hitler. England was forced to turn outward, ultimately colonizing the Americas while building the largest Empire ever created. Joan of Arc saved the English from themselves.
As we have said before, the “Blood Moons” are about God’s grace and revival in the Church (See our Blog of 10/15/14 “Blood Moons During the Church Age”). In this case the Church was a beneficiary of the English Blessing. The English dynasty which lost its French holdings were replaced by the Tudors, who brought the Protestant Reformation to England. If the English had kept lands in France the Tudors could have been forced to renounce their Protestant faith because of French opposition, as the Protestant French King Henry of Navarre did in the Sixteenth Century. In addition, the English carried Christianity and their Anglican Church to the Americas and into the whole world through the British Empire.
Today there are 87 million Anglicans, 61 million of them living outside of Britain, and 419 million Protestants, with 289 million living outside of Europe and North America. All owe a debt to Joan of Arc for believing God and saving France from the English and the English from themselves.
As it says in Revelation, Chapter 12, Joan of Arc overcame by the Blood of the Lamb are the word of her testimony, the symbolic meaning of the Blood Moon, and did not shrink back through it cost her life.
Let us pray that we, like Joan of Arc, will seek God’s word for this 2014-15 Blood Moon Tetrad and be as faithful to follow it as was Joan of Arc.
Amen