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A spectacular blood moon is set to light up the sky next month - and it will be the end of the world as we know it, according to doomsday preachers.

End-of-days religious leaders who have incorrectly predicted the apocalypse time and time again are back at it ahead of a lunar eclipse on July 27.

The 21st century's longest lunar eclipse will last almost two hours and feature a blood moon where the moon has a red tinge.

While stargazers enjoy the dazzling phenomenon, doomsdayers will be preparing for armageddon.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

The hypothesis was originally made famous by Christian ministers John Hagee and Mark Biltz who said the ongoing "tetrad" - four consecutive lunar eclipses which began in April 2014 with six full moons in between - is the indicator of the end of earth as described in the Bible in Acts 2:20 and Revelation 6:12.

However the tetrad ended in September 2014 and we're all still here.

The end-of-days preachers insist some sort of tragic event is set to hit earth and possibly wipe it out.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

The theory has been picked up by similar thinkers and the prophecy resurfaces weeks before every blood moon.

The "blood moon" theory is interpreted from the Book of Joel, which says: "The sun will turn into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes."

A similar passage in the Book of Revelations reads: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood."

(Image: Getty)

But it has been routinely dismissed by astronomers and other experts as a myth.

Scientists say the red tinge is due to Rayleigh scattering of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere.

It also causes the reddening of the sun at sunset.

Even though the myth has been debunked, YouTube is littered with videos from doomsdayers predicting the end of the world in just a few weeks' time.

Endtime Ministries' Irvin Baxter, who has made a number of failed predictions since the mid-1980s, is among those who point to passages in the Book of Joel.

He has said: "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."

The total lunar eclipse - when the moon passes behind Earth and into its shadow - will last one hour and 43 minutes over July 27-28.

It will be visible across much of Europe and Asia, and in Australia, southern parts of North America, and South America.