Revelation is now-be ready! ch 14 Gobal Collapse and the Second Coming

Destruction of Land, Seas, Waters, and Skies

The Bible says that the earth is going to get very hot (Revelation 16:9). [4]

Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927), a Swedish scientist who received the Nobel prize for chemistry (1903), was the first to use principles of physical chemistry to determine the extent to which atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) was responsible for earth’s increasing surface temperature; as CO₂ levels rose so would earth’s temperature. [9]

Every day since 1958, geochemist Charles David Keeling took daily measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) from Mount Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Over the years, the slope of the graph was a steady upward proof that CO₂ was increasing globally year by year and finally passed 400 ppm in 2013. Today (2020), it has reached 417 ppm. Before the industrial revolution started (1750s), CO₂ was below 280 ppm. [10] Sawtooth line: High points were winter data when the northern hemisphere’s forests lost their leaves emitting CO₂ (carbon source), while the bottom points were summer data when leaves of forests were a carbon sink. Given the current trajectory, the latest scientific studies (July 2020) have declared an almost certain probability that atmospheric CO₂ will double (from 280 to 560 ppm) within 50 years catapulting global warming over the tipping point leading into a new state of the planet more hostile to life.

The 2nd Coming of Jesus will be surrounded by extreme events and global collapse on the horizon today caused by humankind. See charts and graphs.

Summary graphs and charts

The complex cycling of interacting global systems on a collision course with the collapse of civilization is best understood in graphs and charts. They are a quick summary of what scientists discover in nature and children read in the Bible. The earth is on fire. The oceans are dying. The waters are dirty. The skies are warming. The Bible and science say this is happening; it will get worse; it will devastate the planet.

First, as thousands of scientists around the world track global warming, it is clear that all of the geophysical and ecological disasters are not only tied together but are either already starting or are a real possibility within this century and could ignite catastrophic situations for every nation on earth. Revelation says they will.

To get a grip on the Himalayan mountain of incoming scientific data, a number of reputable researchers and organizations have tried to assimilate, organize, and communicate scientific findings in a simplified way for the general public.[1] Among them, National Geographic created the documentary DVD Six Degrees. Mark Lynas wrote Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. He researched the scientific data showing what the earth will look like as the global temperature rises one degree at a time up to six degrees. At five to six degrees warming–as James Hansen, the former director at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies who testified before Congress warning that global warming was in full swing, concluded, the collapse of all civilizations on earth would ensue if the excessive use of earth’s resources, especially fossil fuels, did not stop. Revelation says that they will not.[2]

Be sure to read “Mark Lynas’s book ‘Six Degrees’: [5] “Six Degrees is . . . a massive synthesis of a very large selection of scientific research papers . . . (and) how global warming would affect humans and their world, if allowed to proceed.” February 29, 2020

Summary of Charts and Graphs

The first chart is What Happens as Global Warming Goes Up One Degree at a Time to Six Degrees.

The second chart, Revelation’s Prophecies & Scientists’ Predictions for Global Warming, will compare Revelation’s prophecies and the data collected by scientists around the world providing predictions for climate change, global warming, and destruction of life-sustaining resources. The majority of qualified, credible scientists warn that–with “business as usual”–the current trajectory will end in global catastrophe and the collapse of civilization. This agrees with Jesus’ words in Revelation (“the cities of the nations fell,” “the kings . . . hid in caves,” . . . Rev 16:15, 19; Isa 24).

The third, a graph entitled Comparison of Revelation, Global Resources, and World Population will compare (1) Revelation’s trumpets, bowls, and seals in regard to the decline of land, seas, waters, and skies; (2) global resources; and (3) world population (which is estimated to rise to between 10 and 20 billion by 2100).

This graph, which is a combination of both biblical and scientific data, projects the state of the planet into the near future. It is fairly intuitive. The land, oceans, and waters (involved in a complex system including earth’s skies with rains or droughts) are being torn down and becoming aversive to life. Eventually, food and water (life-sustaining resources) will hit a critical crossroads* with earth’s population, which is on a steady rise heading for 12 to 20 billion people by 2100. At this critical threshold, life-sustaining resources will be insufficient to support a rising population. The world crosses a tipping point and shifts into a new state; the worst case scenario of climate change ramifications and Revelation’s nightmare of God’s judgment (Rev 14:7). Jesus metaphorically described this time as terrifying events in the sun, moon, and stars–and born again Christians will be there (Matt 24:29-31 and Mark 13:24-27).

Simply put, if earth’s lands and waters cannot produce enough life-sustaining resources for the global rise in population, then massive death will ensue during a global collapse. Revelation’s four horsemen will ride hard (Rev 6:1-8). Size of population is in direct proportion to food supply. That is a basic biological principle for any species, especially one numbering 7 billion, still growing, and wastefully devouring the planet. The Bible says humankind is destroying the earth (Rev 11:18). Land, oceans, waters, and skies are becoming aversive to life (more fires, less fish, more pollution, higher greenhouse gases, etc.). Science observes that humankind is on the path of environmental destruction, racing toward a sixth extinction, on a collision course with global catastrophe.

The Antichrist and Armageddon

When the stress is high enough and nations are broken enough, they will unite under one man to solve the problems. In darkest deception, the world will embrace him hoping for a return to the days of peace and prosperity. Instead, they will discover to late, that to accomplish his goals, he is “the man of lawlessness . . . the son of destruction.” (2 Thess 2:3). When Christ returns with all His glorious angels and resurrected saints, the world will reject Him. The son of destruction with the support of the seven strongest nations on earth and the ten most powerful magnates (and their international corporations) will drive the peoples into World War III; aka Har-Magedon (Armageddon). This is the war between the Antichrist and Jesus Christ to determine who will rule the world. God will step in with His bowls of wrath and then both Revelation’s and Isaiah’s words will be fulfilled: “Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants,” (Isa 24).

Global Warming Leading to Global Disintegration

The following charts take us into that period of global devastation. Both the Bible and science say this is our current trajectory.

The collapse of global civilization involves a complex system of global warming (maybe up to 6 degrees at which large parts of the earth are uninhabitable due to high heat and mass extinction of animals and plants occurs); of global destruction of land, oceans, waters, and aversive alteration of the atmosphere; and of loss of life-sustaining resources that could lead to Anthropocene mass extinction. Revelation does not indicate human extinction, however, “man will be scarcer than pure gold,” (Isa 13:12). This complex system of global disintegration is captured in three charts.

What Happens as Global Warming Goes Up One Degree at a Time to Six Degrees[3]

The general chart is information taken from Mark Lynas’ book Six Degrees. Words in italics come from a wide variety of top scientific sources with multiple sources on each topic.

1˚ increase in global temperature

Sand dunes spread across Nebraska as a new mega-drought spreads across the Great Plains. (Scientists have said that the mega-drought has already started in the Southwest.)
Kilimanjaro loses the last of its glacier. (85% disappeared between 1912 and 2011. The rest will be gone by 2040.)
Tropical coral reefs are bleaching and dying due to hotter oceans. (50% died off in the last 30 years. Up to 90% will be gone by 2050. 25% or all marine creatures depend on reefs for propagation and survival.)

2˚ increase in global temperature

2°C increase could occur as early as 2030 according to the Met Office (U.K.’s national meteorological service).
Whole marine food chain is endangered as oceans warm and gradually acidify from extra atmospheric CO₂. By 2048, most marine species of fish will be on a path to extinction. Most bleached coral reefs will die for good. The Arctic will be ice free in the summers. Sea level rise could hit a foot and present coastal cities with increased flood risks like Superstorm Sandy.
Many summers produce heat waves as hot as the extreme summer in 2003 when 70,000 died from the heat in Europe. England’s Guardian Newspaper wrote the 2003 heatwave devastated crops of wheat and other grains across Europe. Russia’s wheat crop fell by 75%. As of 2020, Northern China is already experiencing severe water shortages. Droughts in California, Peru, and India will follow. With rising heat, rice and wheat crops will suffer substantial losses.
Greenland’s ice sheet is doomed to melt causing the seas to rise. When the sheet is gone, it will raise the sea level by 23 feet. The current melt rate was not expected until 2070. Melting at increasing rates, Greenland has lost 286 gigatons of ice per year.

Greenland coastal island losing glaciers. [6]

3˚ increase in global temperature

3°C increase could occur by 2050.
“Instead of absorbing CO₂, vegetation and soils start releasing it in massive quantities, as soil bacteria work faster to break down organic matter in a hotter environment, and plant growth goes into reverse.” [7]
Open ocean appears at the North Pole as the whole Arctic Sea ice cap disappears completely. The seas continue to rise flooding coastal cities around the world. 95% of old Arctic ice is gone. Between 1979 and 2019, the Arctic has lost for good ice the size of Alaska. The Arctic will be ice free from 2 to 4 months a year between 2040 and 2060.
Category 6 hurricanes strike tropical coastlines around the world (extremes of weather). Category 5 (measured by 157 mph or higher) is the highest we have. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has nearly doubled during the last 35 years. More and more hurricanes are spreading to strange places they have never been before, like cyclone Kenneth in northern Mozambique.
Most of the Amazon rainforest dries up and burns down replaced by desert and savannah. 20% of the Amazon rainforest is gone today (2020). 20,000 sq. mi. a year are vanishing. At 25%, the Amazon will begin the transition from forest into savannah. Other major forests undergoing heatwaves will suffer as well.

The megafires of 2014 in Canada’s Northwest Territories blazed an area the size of Maryland (7 million acres) releasing half as much carbon back into the atmosphere as all the plants and trees that Canada typically absorbs in one year. Credit: NASA/Peter Griffith [8]

Proliferation of diseases and epidemics will infect large populations. Climate change will increase the spread of vector-borne diseases.
With famine spreading across the subtropics, hundreds of millions of people will die or move. Masses moving to other populated areas will mean conflict, disintegration of cultures, loss of land, and social collapse as climate nomads search continually for survival.

4˚ increase in global temperature

IPCC said a 4˚C increase could occur by 2060.
Arctic permafrost crosses tipping point releasing huge quantities of the powerful greenhouse gas methane (CH₄), which is 23 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO₂), causing runaway global warming. There is about 1,400 gigatons (billion tons) of carbon (especially methane) locked in the permafrost. (850 gigatons of carbon is in earth’s atmosphere.) According to the Yale School of Environment, 40% of permafrost will be gone by 2100 (i.e. about 40% of methane will be released from ice into the atmosphere).
Arctic permafrost melts releasing millions of tons of CH₄.
West Antarctic ice sheet in danger of collapse . . . flooding coastal cities with sea level rise. At the end of June 2020, scientists declared that Antarctica was warming 3xs faster than the rest of the world. When it melts totally, the seas will rise by 190 feet. As early as 2050, with only a 2 to 7 foot rise, cities under water will include NYC, San Diego, Shanghai, Bangkok, London, and more.
New deserts spread in southern Europe as the last snow and ice vanishes from the Alps. Up to 90% of the Alps’, the Himalayan, and the Andes’ glaciers will be gone by 2100.
If China’s growth rates continue linearly, then by 2030 the Chinese will consume 30% more oil than the world currently produces and eat 2/3 of current global production. There are limits to growth and production that will bring about Revelation’s prophecies of massive death (Rev 6:8).

5˚ increase in global temperature

At the current rate of increase of global warming, a 5°C increase could happen before 2100. (This is probably the highest temperature a remnant of humanity can sustain.)
Lynas refers to the five degree world as “largely unrecognizable.”
Land areas are hotter than ocean areas. Land may be 10°C by that time. Northern Russia and Canada will become prime real estate.
Temperatures in the Arctic Ocean rise as warm as the Mediterranean and all mountain glaciers disappear. Severe water stress occurs for at least a third of the inhabited planet.
Rising ocean temperatures make the Arctic suitable for alligators. Such warm temperatures also cause ocean anoxia; cutting off oxygen to deep waters will cause mass extinction of sea creatures at those levels.
Hundreds of millions of climate refugees are still on the march searching for food and water. Food production will greatly decline in hot areas. In many hot areas, survival without cooling shelter will only be possible for a few hours.
Searing heat waves make subtropical regions uninhabitable and all rainforests die.

6˚ increase in global temperature

At the current rate, a 6°C rise in temperature is possible by 2100 or in the earth next century. Personally, from scientific studies, it would look like extinction of the human race–which is not in any passage in the Bible.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide would be above 1,000 ppm.
Huge uninhabitable areas span the entire global surface.
Intense global storm activity.
All life in the oceans dies.
Human civilization collapses due to the pressures of conflict and diminishing resources.
Mass extinction of many plants and animals plus much loss of human life ensues.

Lynas provides a powerful summary in “Six Degrees” (p. 279) of the major facts: One Degree between .1° to 1.0° C with 350 ppm of CO₂. (We have 417 ppm’s by 2020. The temperature is catching up.) Two Degrees between 1.1° to 2.0° C with 400 ppm. ( Global heat is catching up.) Three Degrees between 2.1° to 3.° C by 2030 at 450 ppm. Four Degrees between 3.1° to 4.0° C by 2050 at 550 ppm. (Methane feedback is in full swing.) Five Degrees between 4.1° to 5.0° C at 650 ppm. Six Degrees between 5.1° to 5.8° C at 800 ppm.

Most scientists agree–as summarize by Lynas–that above 2°C, a chain reaction of interactive feedbacks could be set off. At 2°C the Amazon is mostly gone adding another 250 ppm of CO₂ into the atmosphere and an additional 1.5°C of warming. That would push the world to 4° C, which would release all CH₄ from melted permafrost, adding another degree that cascades into 6°C. So if we hit much more than 2°C, the chances of avoiding runaway global warming decrease considerably.

Revelation’s Prophecies & Scientists’ Predictions for Global Warming

Revelation in the Bible Says :

HOT: The sun became so hot that it scorched men with fierce heat (Rev 16:9)

BURN: A third of the earth, a third of the trees, and all the grass was burned up (Rev 8:7)

OCEANS: A third of ocean life dies then 100% of all life in the seas dies (Rev 8:8-9; 16:3).

WATERS: A third of the terrestrial waters become like wormwood (a bitter taste) causing many to die. The Euphrates River dries up. (Rev 8:10-11; 16:4-5, 12-16)

SKIES: The sun, moon, and stars are darkened (Rev 8:12). [This can be either literal or figurative representing great catastrophes. I believe it is both.]

FAMINES: Great famines take untold millions (Rev 6:6,8; Deut 28:23-24, 48, 62).

WARS: Wars spread causing great loss of life (Rev 6:4,8; Deut 28:25-26, 33, 49-52).

EXTREMES: One-hundred-pound hailstones signify extreme weather conditions; masses die (Rev 16:21; Deut 28:24, 59).

PLAGUES: Disease, pestilence, malignant sores will scourge large populations causing great suffering and/or death (Rev 6:8; 16:2; Deut 28:22, 27, 35, 59-61).

FALL OF CIVILIZATION: The fall of all governments and collapse of all civilizations takes place. “The cities of the nations fell.” God will “destroy those who destroy the earth.” (Rev 6:15-17; 16:19; 11:18; Deut 28:16, 20, 63-66).

Scientists Across the Nations Say :

HOT: The earth becomes so hot that huge areas across the globe become uninhabitable

BURN: The Amazon rainforests and all other forests in the tropical zones dry and burn leaving deserts. Central US becomes desert.

OCEANS: As the oceans heat up and acidify, pollution and overfishing decimate, animal and plant life decreases until it is completely dead. AMOC will slow or stop. There are already 500 dead zones.

WATERS: All glaciers (which supply large rivers) disappear. Large deserts appear when streams and rivers dry up. Increased CO₂ and SO₂ from melting subarctic tundra and dying oceans leak into the atmosphere acidifying oceans, rivers, and lakes. (Acid has a bitter taste!) CH₄ escapes from melting permafrost.

SKIES: As tropical and temperate forests dry massive fires take millions of acres. The Amazon will eventually burn to the ground as will many other forests. Wars will add to the destruction. Fires blacken the sky. Extreme weather and pollution also darken skies.

FAMINES: With the droughts, loss of crops and herds, famines spread across the globe.

WARS: Nations war over dwindling resources, especially food and water.

EXTREMES: Extreme weather will be a regular occurrence around the globe causing great loss of life.

PLAGUES: Proliferation of diseases, epidemics, and pandemics will take millions of lives.

FALL OF CIVILIZATION: Migrations of masses, nations at war, disruption of governments, disintegration of civilization, famines, plagues, water stress across the planet leads to “Anthropocene Mass Extinction”: Man destroys the earth.

Comparison of Revelation, Global Resources, and World Population

Top Line: Destruction of Land, Sea, Water, Sky

Middle Line: Global Resources (food & water)

Bottom Line: World Population

Top Line: Destruction of Land, Sea, Water, Sky The 4 trumpets (angelic armies and humankind) are tearing down the land, oceans, terrestrial waters, and atmosphere today. The upswing for a short period is the work of the beast/Antichrist who unites the nations, radically decreases the population by billions through the great tribulation, improves the land, and shares food and water. The world is astounded, until God pours out the bowls of wrath on the lands, oceans, waters, and atmosphere.

Middle Line: Global Resources (food & water) Earth’s food and water support the masses due to technology. However, when population crosses over life resources at the star (*), that is the critical threshold where population needs surpasses the food and water supplies. Both population and life resources painfully decline (after reserves are gone) destabilizing governments and throwing the world into crisis. The Antichrist returns and executes millions; thus improving the quantity of life and resources available for those left. This is the second hill on the graph. When God pours out the bowls, everything goes down.

Bottom Line: World Population The world population peeks between 10 to 12 billion (optimistically), then declines due to degradation of land, oceans, waters, and atmosphere controlling the production of food and water. The second big drop off the cliff is the great tribulation. When it ends, the population levels off. Jesus returns “after that tribulation,” (Mark 13:24-27; Matt 24:29-31). The world is enraged, and God pours out the bowls–including His response to Har-Magedon–the third great drop off plummeting the population till man is scarcer that Solomon’s gold. Civilization collapses. Jesus rises as the King of kings. He and the resurrected from all the ages ruling over mortals will return the earth to Eden.

[1] James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren; The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009). Bill McKibben, Eaarth; Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011). Thomas L. Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008). Friedman was a Pulitzer prize winner. Mark Lynas, Six Degrees; Our Future on a Hotter Planet (Washington D.C.: National Geographic arranged by Harper Collins, 2008). Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth; The Crisis of Global Warming (New York, NY: Viking, 2006). David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (New York, NY: Duggan Books, 2019).

[2] Ibid.

[3] The DVD was created by National Geographic based on the book written by Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, Published by National Geographic Society, by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. © 2008 Mark Lynas. The above summary (excluding words in italics) is given at the end of the DVD entitled “Six Degrees” with a few details added from the book.

[4] “Child Reading Bible” Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay.

[5] Mark Lynas, Wikimedia Commons: Mark Lynas. If you click his photo it will take you to “Mark Lynas’s ‘Sic Degrees'” A Summary Review” found at https://owlcation.com/stem/Mark-Lynass-Six-Degrees-A-Summary-Review/ on February 29, 2020.

[6] “Greenland coastal island” losing glacier. Image courtesy Turello and Wikimedia Commons. Also found in article on Mark Lynas and “Six Degrees” [5].

[7] Carbon feedback cycles. Cox et al. (2000) published a scientific study entitled “Acceleration of Global Warming Due to Carbon Cycle Feedbacks in a Coupled Climate Model.” The unstable 3 degree C world would reach the “tipping point” pushing the world into 4 degrees C. This was primarily because much of the Amazon rain forest would collapse and die back under heat and dry conditions.

[8] “Northwest Territory Fires of 2014” by NASA/ Peter Griffith. C.f. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/fires-floods-and-satellite-views-modeling-the-boreal-forest’s-future. Google NASA free images fires.

[9] Photo of Svante Arrhenius, the Swedish scientist that discovered global warming from increasing CO₂ concentrations. Found on Free-Images.com in the Public Domain.

[10] https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/ Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Image of “Charles David Keeling and his namesake Keeling Curve.”