Copyright
© 2024 Michael A. Brown
Reading:
Revelation 8:6-12
When we study the seven trumpets in
the book of Revelation, we can see that they split up naturally into two
groups: the first four, and then the last three (which are chronologically
subsequent to the first four and are called ‘the three woes’). So I have dealt with these separately in this
and the following three chapters. Table
18.1 below gives a description of the first four trumpets:
|
Description
of the first four trumpets |
|
|
First trumpet (8:7) |
Hail and fire mixed with blood is hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth and a third of the trees are burned up, and all the green grass is burned up. |
|
Second trumpet (8:8-9) |
Something like a huge, blazing mountain is thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turns to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea die, and a third of the ships are destroyed. |
|
Third trumpet (8:10-11) |
A great star, blazing like a torch, falls from the sky onto a third of the rivers and the springs of water. It is called Wormwood. A third of the
waters turn bitter, and many people die from these bitter waters. |
|
Fourth trumpet (8:12) |
A third of the sun, moon and stars are struck, turning them dark. A third of the day and of the night are without light. |
Table 18.1
Description of the first four trumpets
As I said in the previous chapter,
the seven trumpets have been interpreted in different symbolic ways by various
commentators. However, as I also said,
what this book seeks to offer is a way in which they can be interpreted in a
literal and intellectually satisfying way, and which applies their meaning to
life on earth in the post-rapture period in the future, because it is then that
they will achieve their ultimate and literal fulfilment. So this chapter offers an interpretation of
these first four trumpets which is both biblically sound and scientifically
reasonable, and which is also supported by verified events in history.
Many
commentators agree that the third trumpet (about the star called ‘Wormwood’)
will be fulfilled in a literal event in which an asteroid descends and crashes
into the earth, causing serious devastation.
Looked at simply and objectively, this is certainly what vv.10-11 seem
to suggest. Other commentators seek to
interpret this event figuratively, pointing out that the word ‘star’ is often
used figuratively in the book of Revelation to mean ‘angel.’ However, the fact that it is certainly used
in this way in some verses, does not necessarily imply that it should be
interpreted this way every time it is used.
The word ‘star’ does refer to a person in Rev. 9:1, but its use in 8:10
suggests that it should be interpreted literally as a near space object in that
particular verse.
And
what about the other three of these four trumpets, vis. the first, the second
and the fourth? The description of the
second trumpet (about an object like a huge, blazing mountain falling into the
sea) is similar in some ways to that of the third. They both describe objects falling to the
earth which cause great devastation locally in the area around their point of
impact. The fourth trumpet might seem at
first sight to be unrelated to the other three.
And how should we understand it anyway?
As though the sun, moon and stars somehow lose their ability to shine
for eight hours every day and night? Or,
that the intensity of their brightness as seen from the earth is somehow
reduced (or even obscured) by about a third all over the globe? And what about the first trumpet? Some commentators interpret it symbolically
as referring to warfare, but, again, it too seems to be referring to objects
falling from the sky.
It
is this common theme of falling objects that gives rise to what is probably the
most convincing interpretation of these first four trumpets that I have yet
come across. In this interpretation, the
four trumpets are not seen as four separate, unrelated events, but as four
distinct parts of one major event, more specifically in what I will refer to as
a ‘meteorite/asteroid event’ for the purposes of this chapter.
The
object described in the second trumpet is sometimes interpreted as an atomic
explosion. It is like a huge mountain,
and it is all ablaze, so it is identified as the large fiery mushroom cloud of
a nuclear blast. However, the problem
with this is the fact that the object is falling. Although a bomb does indeed fall downwards,
yet a mushroom cloud always travels slowly upwards. So this object like a huge mountain which is
all ablaze cannot be referring to an atomic explosion. Understood literally, it is simply a large
meteorite that is falling at very high speed down through the earth’s
atmosphere, glowing and burning incandescently because of the friction it makes
with the air as it falls. Ancient
writers such as John would probably describe such an incoming meteorite in
exactly this way, because that is how they would see it.
This
meteorite makes its impact in the sea, perhaps near an inhabited coastal area
where there is a port with many ships.
Alternatively, and more probably, it might well impact somewhere in the
middle of an ocean far from land. Such
an impact would release huge amounts of energy and cause a massive tsunami to
ripple out from the point of impact, the deadly effects of which would be felt
in coastal areas far and wide wherever it reached. Many of the ships and boats it would hit on
the ocean and in different ports and beaches would be destroyed, and marine
life for a large radius around the area of impact would certainly be wiped
out. This imagery brings to mind the
devastating effects of the tsunami which resulted from the great 9.1+
earthquake in Banda Aceh, Indonesia on Boxing Day 2004. Its effects were felt in coastal areas all
over the Indian Ocean, causing carnage wherever it hit and killing c228,000
people.
Furthermore,
the force of its momentum would cause this large meteorite to smash into the
seabed, and it would therefore break up the sediments lying below. If these happen to be rich in iron-related
deposits, then, when these sediments rise to the surface of the sea, they would
be oxidised by the air and turn a deep red colour. This would make the sea appear blood-red for
a while, until the sediments eventually settle down once more onto the seabed.
It
follows from this scenario that the evidently smaller, falling objects of the
first trumpet (described by John as being like hail and fire) are therefore
simply the dust, debris and smaller rocks which are caught up in the trajectory
of this meteorite of the second trumpet, and which go before it. Much of these would be burned up in the
atmosphere as they descend, appearing briefly and brightly in the sky as
‘shooting stars,’ but any larger rocks would survive their descent and impact
the ground as meteorite fireballs. These
would fall in a widespread and random way, and the description in v.7 suggests
that many of them will impact countryside and forested areas, igniting
wildfires which will then spread out and consume everything in their path until
they eventually burn themselves out.
Some of these meteorite fireballs would inevitably fall on towns and
cities killing many people, hence the reference to blood.
The star of the third trumpet is
described as ‘a great star’ (v.10). The
Greek word aster which is used here generally referred not just to what
we would call stars, but to any heavenly body.
We derive the word ‘asteroid’ from it.
Today, of course, we distinguish between the different types of heavenly
bodies, such as a meteor(ite), an asteroid, a comet, a planet, or a star. Of these, the best ones with which to
translate this Greek word are probably ‘asteroid’ or ‘meteorite,’ because v.10
is describing a heavenly body which is falling down through the atmosphere to
earth.
An
asteroid is simply a very large rock which hurtles through space at high speed,
and there are untold numbers of them in the asteroid belt between Mars and
Earth. Many asteroids come near to our
planet as they whizz by, frequently coming closer to us than the moon. Meteor showers (presumably significant ones)
are a biblical phenomenon which will certainly characterise the end-times (cf.
Isa. 34:4, Matt. 24:29, Rev. 6:13).
So
this ‘great star’ of v.10 is evidently an asteroid which survives its fall
through the earth’s atmosphere. It is
blazing like a torch as it falls. The
Greek adjective megas is used to describe it, so it is a mega-sized
space rock, i.e. a large asteroid. This
suggests that the first object (i.e. that of the second trumpet) was perhaps
once part of this large asteroid, but at some stage broke off from it. This could have happened because the asteroid
collided with another space rock during its journey through space, and this
collision then altered the trajectory of the two parts into a path towards
Earth. The mutual gravitational
attraction between the two parts would keep them relatively close together and
travelling in the same trajectory.
Alternatively, it could have happened because of a human attempt to
destroy the asteroid as it approached Earth, an attempt which failed and simply
resulted in a large piece being broken off, with both parts then continuing
their trajectories towards Earth. Either
way, technically, this would make the first object a meteorite, while the
second remains an asteroid.[1]
Whereas the point of impact of the
previous meteorite was somewhere in the sea, it seems that this second object
will hit the earth inland, in a countryside area which is perhaps relatively
uninhabited. Apart from the other
widespread damage it causes, it will have a significant effect upon natural
watercourses, rivers and streams, making the water unfit for human use or
consumption.[2] Furthermore, the magnitude of its impact will
kick a huge amount of dust and dirt high up into the earth’s atmosphere.
So,
in this scenario, the fourth trumpet therefore describes the cosmic dimming
that will happen on planet earth, as a result of the massive amount of dust and
dirt that is kicked violently up into the atmosphere by the impact of this
‘great star’ of the third trumpet. These
dust and dirt particles would then be caught up by winds high up in the
atmosphere and quickly blown all over the globe, bringing about a partial
obscuring of the sun, moon and stars.
This will cause a dimming of the intensity of their brightness as we see
it by up to a third, during both day and night over the whole planet for
perhaps a week or so, until all the dust and dirt eventually falls back down
again as black rain, and the brightness of the heavenly bodies returns to
normal.
This
meteorite/asteroid scenario that I have presented here is certainly a
scientifically reasonable interpretation of the biblical data in Revelation
8:7-12, and lovers of sci-fi movies will no doubt notice that it has some
similarities with the theme of the 1998 Hollywood film Deep Impact. It was also strongly suggested as a viable
interpretation by Tom Horn in his book The Wormwood Prophecy, in which
he provided much more scientific detail to support this scenario than I can
relate in this book. Horn emphasised
that such an event would play out in real-time in a way very similar to the
biblical data given:
‘If
you were to ask a scientist to explain what these verses seem to be depicting,
he would tell you these details very much match the sequence of either a binary
asteroid (two asteroids orbiting a common barycenter – the center of mass
around which two or more bodies orbit) accompanied with smaller fragments, or
the breakup of a larger asteroid into two main portions accompanied with tons
of smaller debris as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere followed by impacts.’[3]
‘Our
hypothetical scientist, on reading these successive verses ending with verse
12, would explain how, as a result of the terrifying one-two punch of asteroid
components plunging into the ocean and upon land, a sequence of tsunamis
measuring hundreds of feet in the air would slam coastal terrains around the
world, infusing the atmosphere with scorched aerosol particles, leading to
extreme heat in the earth’s atmosphere and a subsequent cascade of
high-velocity hurricanes worldwide.
Combined with voluminous debris hurled into the sky from the initial
impact and volcanic eruption reactions, for about a week darkness would cover
the sky, blacking out much of the light from heavenly bodies. In fact… that is exactly what Los Alamos
National Laboratory archaeologist [name withheld] says would unfold and in the
same order as described in Revelation chapter 8.’[4]
So the descriptions given in these
first four trumpets in Revelation 8:7-12 are perhaps not of four separate
events, but rather of four distinct parts of one double meteorite/asteroid
event. If so, then the timeframe
involved in this total event would probably not be more than a few days at the
most (not including the week or so it would take for the obscuring of the
brightness of the heavenly bodies to clear up).
Table
18.2 below gives a summary of this ‘meteorite/asteroid event’ interpretation:
|
Suggested
interpretation of the first four trumpets |
||
|
First trumpet (8:7) |
Hail and fire mixed with blood is hurled down upon the earth. A third of the
earth and a third of the trees are burned up, and all the green grass is
burned up. |
Dust, debris,
and small rocks which precede the meteorite of the second trumpet, fall
through the atmosphere. Much of these
are burned up, but some fall on countryside and forested areas, causing
wildfires which burn up the trees and vegetation. Some fall randomly on cities and towns,
killing many people. |
|
Second trumpet (8:8-9) |
Something like a huge, blazing mountain is thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turns to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea die, and a third of the ships are destroyed. |
A meteorite
falls directly into the sea, creating a huge tsunami which devastates
everything in its path wherever it reaches.
The meteorite also stirs up iron-related sediments from underneath the
seabed which, when they are oxidised at the surface, makes the surface of the
sea turn blood-red for a while. |
|
Third trumpet (8:10-11) |
A great star, blazing like a torch, falls from the sky onto a third of the rivers and the springs of water. It is called Wormwood. A third of the
waters turn bitter, and many people die from these bitter waters. |
An asteroid falls
to earth, and, as part of its devastating effects, poisons the water sources
and rivers over a wide area, making them unfit for human use. |
|
Fourth trumpet (8:12) |
A third of the sun, moon and stars are struck, turning them dark. A third of the
day and of the night are without light. |
The impact of
this asteroid will throw a massive amount of dust and dirt high up into the
earth’s atmosphere. This will cause a significant
dimming of the brightness of the heavenly bodies, day and night for about a
week or so. |
Table
18.2 Suggested interpretation of the first four trumpets
If you believe that the idea of a
large meteorite and asteroid crashing into Earth and causing such catastrophic
damage is perhaps too far-fetched, then you really do need to think again. This is not just the stuff of fictional
Hollywood disaster movies!
A
simple check through an asteroid tracking app. shows us clearly that there are
thousands of these huge rocks in space, of varying sizes and masses, with many
of them flying close to Earth, and traveling at different but very fast speeds. Although the media normally makes no mention
of them, yet every month there are several asteroids which fly by between the
Earth and the moon, and these are therefore very close misses. In astronomical terms, they missed us by just
a very fine hair’s breadth! If just one
such asteroid impacted the earth, of larger size and flying at around 35,000
kmph or more, it would cause astounding devastation over a wide area. And the simple truth is that scientists have
mapped out the trajectories of only a fraction of these near-earth objects in
space. We are told every now and then
that an asteroid has recently passed by very close to Earth, and scientists
didn’t even discover it was there until it was very near! So it is not really a question of if (or
whether) a larger asteroid could crash into Earth, but of when this will take
place. A simple look at the surface of
the Moon will show just how pock-marked its surface has become over millennia
due to many asteroid and meteorite impacts.
One
such asteroid fell to earth over the Tunguska area of Siberia in 1908. It destroyed a wide, remote, forested, and
very sparsely populated area, flattening around eighty million trees over an
area of 2,150 km2. This devastation is
thought have been caused by the explosion of a meteorite which was about 55
metres in diameter. The power of the
blast is thought to have been around 15 megatons, or roughly 1,000 times more
powerful than the atomic bomb used over Hiroshima in 1945. Scientists do not know whether the object
exploded and disintegrated completely about 6 km. above the earth’s surface, or
whether part of it still fell to earth.
No impact crater has ever been found.
This event in Tunguska is the largest impact event in recorded history,
though much larger impact events are thought to have occurred during previous
millennia. If this event had happened
over an inhabited area such as a city, then it would have utterly destroyed it.
In
another more recent event, an asteroid/meteorite initially weighing about
13,000 tonnes and measuring about 20 metres in diameter fell to earth near
Chelyabinsk, east of the Ural Mountains in Russia in 2013. Scientists did not know at all that this
object was on a collision course with our planet. Many of us can probably remember seeing
images of it exploding and lighting up the pre-dawn sky, as local people caught
the moment on their mobile phones. The
power of the blast is estimated to have been around 0.5 megatons, and the
explosion broke it up into many fragments which came to earth over a wide
area. The shock wave and the fragments
of the explosion damaged over 7,000 buildings, breaking most of their windows,
and about 1,500 people were injured by flying shards of broken glass.
So
the ‘meteorite/asteroid event’ interpretation of the first four trumpets which
I have outlined above is certainly not without historical support, and it is
both biblically sound and scientifically reasonable. However, we should note that it will be
much bigger in scale than either of the two historical examples given
above.[5]
From
disruption to devastation
This interpretation of these first
four trumpets therefore implies that the rapture (when believers will be taken
by the Lord during the time of the sixth seal) will be followed very soon
afterwards by the sudden and unexpected catastrophic disaster of such a
meteorite/asteroid event. This will be
the first major event of judgement after the beginning of the sunteleia,
the end-period of this present age. So,
the inevitable disruption and chaos brought about by the rapture in which
believers will be taken away from earth by Christ, will be followed very soon
afterwards by the devastation caused by this meteorite/asteroid event. It will mark the onset of the end-times ‘day
of the Lord’:
‘…the day of the Lord will come
like a thief in the night. While people
are saying, “Peace and safety”, destruction will come upon them suddenly, as
labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.’
(1 Thess. 5:2-3)
For believers who are taken, the
rapture will be a glorious and amazing experience, although it might perhaps be
momentarily shocking because of its suddenness.
However, for unbelievers who are left behind, it will be a terrifying
and traumatic experience. Many people
will panic and want to run and hide (Rev. 6:15). Afterwards, they will search everywhere for
loved ones and family members who were believers, but they will not be able to
find them. So the rapture will cause
trauma and chaos for a while because it will disrupt daily life big time on a
global scale, in that many people worldwide, both adults and children, will
suddenly simply no longer be there to fulfil their normal daily roles and
functions in life, whether this is in family and home, or in their place of
work, wherever this may be. The smooth
running of family life, schools, hospitals, banks, local and national
government offices, airlines, supermarkets etc. etc. will all be rudely and
seriously disrupted for a while. And of
course, the more believers there are (or were) in any given country, the more
the life of that country will be disrupted.
Some countries will be affected more than others. Countries which have a greater proportion of
Christians will be affected to that same greater degree more than other
countries which have fewer believers.
This might even lead to martial law being declared in some countries, in
an effort to bring about order once again.
Hot
on the heels of this temporary chaos and disruption will come the catastrophic
consequences of this meteorite/asteroid event.
Although it is clear from the repeated use of the fraction one-third in
Revelation 8:7-12 that this will not be an extinction-level event for the
entire planet, yet it will still be disastrous and will cause astounding
devastation, particularly in the areas in which the two space objects fall and
within a large geographical radius around them.
It will certainly be a life-changing event for many people.
We
can glean at least the following twelve points from the information we are
given in vv.7-12 of the two impacts, and by using our knowledge of how natural
disasters affect human life:
· many
satellites orbiting the earth will be destroyed as the meteorite and asteroid
pass, taking down various forms of communications in many places on earth in
consequence.
·
many
people will die.
· power-grids
will fail, taking utilities, the internet, and mobile connections down for a
long period of time.
·
building
structures will be destroyed, and livelihoods will be ruined.
· water
and food supplies will be badly affected.
· the
impact in the sea will create a huge tsunami which will devastate areas of the
globe that it reaches, killing many people and marine life, and destroying
ships and boats it hits.
· streams
and rivers will be poisoned by the effects of the impact on land.
· trees,
plants and vegetation will be destroyed by the shock wave and the fireball
caused by this impact, and it will also have a disastrous effect on wildlife.
· local
seismic events (earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) may well be triggered,
because of the trauma and damage which the impacts will cause to the earth’s
crust.
· there
will be partial cosmic dimming probably lasting for a week or so, because of
the enormous amount of dust and dirt that will be kicked up high into the
earth’s atmosphere and which will then continually circle the globe until it
all falls down again as black rain.
·
this
massive amount of dust and dirt will disrupt weather patterns worldwide, and it
will also have a knock-on effect on the ability of all remaining satellites to
function properly, and
·
the
governments of the countries affected might well be rendered almost helpless to
respond.
These two end-time events, the
disruption caused by the rapture and very soon afterwards the catastrophe of
this meteorite/asteroid event, will present the new world order with many
global-scale problems, and this will open the way for the rise and emergence of
Antichrist, which is described in the fifth trumpet (see the next
chapter). Antichrist will not
suddenly jump onto the world scene immediately after the rapture, as some
people seem to think. It
is the widespread disruption caused by the rapture, followed by the devastation
caused by this meteorite/asteroid event, which will open the way for him to
arise. Antichrist’s
one-world system will emerge out of both this global devastation and chaos, and
the spiritual vacuum caused by the removal of the restrainer in the rapture. Satan will seize this opportunity, and the
unbelieving world will willingly embrace the pragmatic solutions to its global
problems which Antichrist will offer.
Copyright Notice
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[1] NASA gives the
following distinction between an asteroid and a meteor: ‘An asteroid is a small
rocky object that orbits the Sun.
Asteroids are smaller than a planet, but they are larger than the
pebble-sized objects we call meteoroids.
A meteor is what happens when a meteoroid – a small piece of an asteroid
or comet – burns up upon entering earth’s atmosphere, creating a streak of
light in the sky.’ Taken from https://spaceplace.nasa.gov, accessed
29.07.2021. A meteor can, of course, be
much bigger than simply ‘pebble-sized,’ and if it survives its descent through
the atmosphere and impacts the earth’s surface, then it is called a meteorite.
[2] One suggestion
regarding this is that, as the asteroid descends, the heat produced by the
friction induces a chemical reaction in the air between oxygen, nitrogen and
water vapour, producing nitric acid.
This then falls as acid rain, poisoning the water in rivers and streams
over a wide area (as well as damaging vegetation).
[3] Horn, T. The
Wormwood Prophecy, Lake Mary: Charisma House, 2019, p.29.
[4] ibid.,
p.31.
[5] See also the
article at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g4g455p8lo, accessed
22.10.2024. This article details the
impact of the mega meteorite S2 in the Eastern Barberton Greenstone Belt in
South Africa. This meteorite is
estimated by scientists to have been about 40-60km wide, and it gouged out a
crater of diameter 500km in the earth.
The impact would have ejected rocks high up into the atmosphere, forming
a debris cloud that then circled the globe.
The impact would have generated vast amounts of heat, increasing the
temperature of the atmosphere locally by about 100° C. The skies would have turned black, choked
with dust and particles, and this would have cloaked the earth in darkness for
a period of time.
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