Tag: Global Devastation

The first four trumpets and bowls of Revelation describe severe life-threatening decline in the land, oceans, waters, and skies of earth leading to high mortality rates across species, including humans (Rev 16:3, 8-9; 8:11; 6:8; 9:18; Isa 24). Science warns of population rise crossing a critical threshold where life-sustaining resources become insufficient. The Bible and science concur that such conditions will produce global devastation.

Fourth Trumpet and Bowl in Revelation

Chapter 12 – Skies in Revelation and Science

NASA’s James Hansen wrote, “The Coming Climate Catastrophe.” Jesus in Revelation forewarned the worst of global warming. Global collapse is coming.

Today, scientists around the world are sounding terrified predictions of coming catastrophe that echo Revelation’s warnings that global warming– “fierce heat“–is on the horizon. NASA’s climate scientist James Hansen informed a U.S. Congressional hearing on June 23, 1988 that greenhouse gas emissions rising in our skies were altering earth’s climate.[1] God says the earth is going to get hot. Revelation is global. “Men scorched with fierce heat” will smother our planet in rising temperatures.[2] Global warming’s worst-case scenario predicted by scientists and prophesied by Scripture is coming by the end of this century.

The Fourth Trumpet

Rev 8:12 The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.

Rev 8:7 And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

The Fourth Bowl

Rev 16:8-9 The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.

In consideration of the literal (descriptive) view of the fourth trumpet, it should be noted that many things could darken the sky: extreme storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic ash, chemicals, smoke, smog, etc. With regard to the fourth bowl, there are many consequences and ramifications of “fierce heat”: less snowpack, melting glaciers, decreased mountain runoff harming summer crops across expansive plains feeding millions of people on different continents, increased pumping of aquifers, water shortages, extreme weather events augmenting in intensity and frequency, air pollution, and darkening skies. All of these are the I.P.C.C.’s (the International Panel on Climate Change composed of the largest group of scientists from major countries around the world producing regular reports on climate change for all the nations) “business as usual” worst-case scenario of climate change; the path we are still on.

The fourth trumpet and the fourth bowl spiral into a vicious cycle; from black skies to hot skies and back again even worse. This is a complicated meteorological system that interacts with the systems of the first three trumpets and first three bowls; land, ocean, and terrestrial waters all tied to the atmosphere–one huge system. For example, rising atmospheric greenhouse gases increases oceanic and atmospheric temperatures, increasing the atmospheric energy and holding capacity of water vapor producing bigger clouds, darker skies, stronger storms, wider floods, longer droughts, higher heat waves, and greater damage to lands.

Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)

Before the industrial revolution beginning in 1750, carbon dioxide (CO₂) was below 280 ppm (parts per million). From the industrial revolution beginning in the 1750s to 2019, atmospheric CO₂ has steadily risen to 416.8 ppm by June 2020. According to NASA’s Charles Miller who works on atmospheric greenhouse gases, CO₂ amounts are increasing 2.75 ppm annually.[3] The year 2018 hit 2.7% growth in global emissions.[4] This is “business-as-usual” with no indication of slowing down. The world pours 40 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

The most famous curve in history–the Keeling Curve–started in 1958 by Charles Keeling taking daily CO₂ measurements on Mount Mauna Loa in Hawaii has continued to date by the University of California at San Diego with Scripps Oceanographic Institute. It shows the steady, unbroken rise of CO₂in earth’s atmosphere.[5]

As of January 18, 2017, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) revealed that 2016 was the warmest year on record globally since modern record began in 1880.[6] Then on January 18, 2018, 2017 became the warmest year globally. The year 2018 was the 4th hottest year on record.[7] Nine of the 10 warmest years globally have occurred since 2005. The last five years have been the five hottest years recorded.[8]

NASA reported that 2010 through 2019 was the hottest decade ever recorded. The World Meteorological Organization ranked 2019 second warmest for earth (2016 still holds first place.)[9]

In graphs, the rising slope of global temperature is directly related to the rising slope of increasing greenhouse gases (especially CO₂and CH₄) in the atmosphere.[10]

“The warmth last year factored into extreme weather around the globe that brought widespread death and destruction from hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and heat waves. ‘Temperatures over the planet as a whole continue the rapid warming trend we’ve seen over the past 40 years,” said NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt. “The five warmest years on record have taken place since 2010 with the past four years rising to the four warmest since 1880.'”[11] The planet’s average temperature has risen 2˚F (1.1˚C) in the past century, placing it consistently and significantly above the average global temperature (57˚F) for the twentieth century. “Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001.”[12]

NASA’s measurements come from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and data from Antarctic research stations. NOAA scientists use most of the same raw data with different methods to investigate earth’s polar regions.[13]

Most global winters are also warmer than usual, except in 2009, 2010, 2014, and 2015 when cold snaps swept across the northern U.S. due to Arctic wind currents breaking out of the polar vortex, an enormous air current circling the North Pole usually corralling cold air in the Arctic, but the vortex was destabilized from warmer temperatures in the Arctic circle.[14] Ironically, even the unusual cold snaps are caused by global warming.

On July 22, 2020 a major new comprehensive, international climate study concluded that the world is on course for doubling ppm of CO₂ within 50 years. Doubling means 560 ppm compared to the preindustrial level of 280 ppm. Today’s steadily-growing level is 415 ppm with a high of 417ppm. Double ppm of atmospheric CO₂ would raise earth’s global average temperature between 4.1° F to 8.1° F (1.5°C to 4.5°C). At that threshold, scientists say there will be “disruptive sea level rise, intolerable heat waves, and other extreme weather and permanent damage to ecosystems.” This study ruled out mild consequences and concluded that climate change is going to have severe global impacts. [14A]

The Consequences of a Warming Planet Included in the U.S. Government Report: Global Warming Causing Widespread Damage

By November 2018, the U.S. federal government released a 1,000-page report on climate change representing numerous federal agencies declaring that they were more certain than ever that climate change poses a severe threat to American’s health and pocketbooks, as well as the country’s infrastructure and natural resources. Coral reefs in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Florida and U.S. Pacific are experiencing severe bleaching events (due to heat). Wildfires are devouring ever-larger territories with longer fire seasons. Western mountain ranges are losing snowpack threatening water supplies in the valleys, especially during the summer growing season. Permafrost in Alaska’s Arctic is increasingly thawing (releasing more methane, a greenhouse gas stronger than carbon dioxide). By 2050, the country could experience 2.3 additional degrees of warming in the continental U.S. Key crops (corn, wheat, and soybeans) will suffer declining yields as temperatures rise during growing seasons. [15]

President Trump said later that he did not believe the report; he continues to support fossil fuel companies and roll back environmental regulations–actions that will fulfill Revelation’s prophecies of blanketing this planet in “fierce heat,” (Rev 16:8-9).

In 2017, the year that President Trump pulled out of the Paris accord and mocked global warming, the U.S. was slammed with extreme hurricanes, fires, and floods–after a drought that lasted more than a decade in various states.[16] “The country recorded 15 weather events costing $1 billion or more each through early October, one short of the record 16 in 2011, according to the federal government’s National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, North Carolina . . . (not including the recent wildfires in southern California).”[17] Killer hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, and Maria) and devastating wildfires in northern California tallied $210 billion in losses with $100 billion in insured damages, according to Mark Bove, a senior research scientist with Munich Reinsurance America in Princeton, New Jersey.[18]

At the beginning of the year, blessed rain briefly interrupted the drought in California producing bumper crops of grass and brush. When the rains stopped, high heat scorched foliage ripe for flames driven by high winds and low humidity burning county after county in central and southern California. The Thomas fire set a record as the largest ever in the state. “Prolonged drought and warming temperatures in California are not just extending the state’s wildfire season, they are increasing the evaporation rate of water,” Bove said. “This means that extreme wildfire conditions will return to California after a rain event more quickly today than in the past.”[19]

By April 2020, the biggest megadrought in over 1,200 years has been declared in the western U.S. covering California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Idaho. It began in 2000 and has continued to date. A megadrought is a severe dry period across a large area for many decades. The occasional wet period between parched years does not signal an end to a megadrought. This megadrought worsens conflicts between thirsty cities and struggling farmers (especially in fast-growing states), increases use of pumping water lowering aquafers, decreases food supply, and places ever-growing numbers of people in water stress.[20] The third trumpet and third bowl declare how people will suffer and eventually many will die because of the waters (perhaps desiccation, pollution, overuse, evaporation, or a combination made worse through global warming).

Retreating Ice

Ice never lies. If you want empirical evidence of Revelation’s coming fierce heat, look at ice.

In the winter of February 2018, scientists from the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that “although it is shrouded in the darkness of a 24-hour polar night, temperatures in the Arctic have soared well above freezing this week.”[21] Calculations from Cape Morris Jessup, the world’s northernmost land-based weather station, recorded February temperatures in eastern Greenland and the central Arctic were averaging about 15˚C (27˚F) warmer than seasonal norms. Robert Graham, climate scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, explained Arctic warming as a combination of warm weather patterns coming into contact with retreating sea ice and rising, warmer sea levels. Shrinking ice (that used to reflect atmospheric heat and cool the air) with ever increasing exposure of dark water (holding heat and warming the air) allows warm southerly winds to travel further north; a vicious cycle that causes the Arctic to be one of the fastest warming places on earth.

While February should be the height of the sea ice season, NOAA’s head of Arctic research, Jeremy Mathis, told CNN that 2017 marked the first time that he and his group of researchers, sailing around on a Coast Guard icebreaker, discovered no ice in the seas off Alaska. Last year (2017) was the worst year for greatest loss in volume of sea ice until 2018. “Every winter we get a new record minimum,” Graham stated.[22] Ironically, since the polar vortex winds no longer tightly swirl around the North Pole, keeping the cold air at the top of the world, they drop further south chilling the northern continents. Jason Box, an American scientist and professor of glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, stated, “A new pattern that we think is part of climate change is where the normal so-called polar vortex that keeps the cold air bottled over the Arctic Ocean, that cold air is spilling out . . . . The pattern that we have seen over the last 10 years is that the Arctic Ocean has been warmer than normal, and Northern Eurasia is colder; we call it ‘cold continents warm Arctic.'”[23]

By June 21, 2020, CBS News announced unheard of temperatures were blasting Siberia north of the Arctic Circle with 100.4°F in the town of Verkhoyansk (32 degrees above the normal high temperature and possibly the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle). Due to the hot, dry conditions raging fires were having a field day visible for thousands of miles on Satellite images. Parts of Siberia have been way above normal since January. These temperatures were not expected with global warming until 2100. However, the chronic pattern of heat made 2019 the worst fire season on record for Arctic fires. Over the past four (4) decades, sea ice has decreased by 50%. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as any place else on earth; white ice used to reflect the heat, but as ice melted, dark waters absorbed and maintained the heat. This also means that permafrost is melting releasing huge quantities of methane (CH₄), a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂). This feedback system ensures heat waves like these will become more frequent and intensify.[23A]

Of the 42,298 glaciers atop the Himalayan mountains, at the current melt rate, 40% will disappear by 2050 and the rest by 2100.[24] In Asia, over 500 million people obtain some of their drinking and irrigation water from Himalayan glaciers.[25] In South America, scientists calculate that most Andean glaciers will be gone by 2030. The vast Yukon Territory in Canada had 1,400 glaciers. Three hundred are gone. Canadian glaciers are losing about 4 billion tons of ice a year.[26]

In 2020, data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment calculated that Greenland lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost 127 billion tons of ice per year during that time. During the last ten years, the rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled. Satellites observe that glaciers are retreating all over the world, including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.[26A]

Permafrost is ice in the ground that is permanent year around in the Arctic Circle. However, this ice began to melt in the summer decades ago. In June 2019, the Canadian Arctic reported 231,000 sq. mi. of melting permafrost from satellites showing thousands of melt ponds and sink holes (where ice has retreated) making the land look like Swiss cheese. The largest group of international scientists (IPCC) predicted this kind of change would start in 2090.[27] However, as noted above, the summer of 2020 had temperatures in the Arctic Circle over 100°F. They underestimated the rising global heat.

In this permafrost is methane (CH₄), a greenhouse gas far stronger than carbon dioxide (CO₂). With melting permafrost releasing stocks of carbon which microbes will convert into methane and melting ice in the oceans containing methane clathrates (plus biomass burning and energy emissions) scientists expect an increase in methane emissions into the atmosphere between 500 and 1,150 Gt per year (a gigaton is a billion tons) by the end of the century.[28] Given its heating capacity, methane could rightly be considered a pollutant since it is 23 times stronger than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. NOTE: This is a vicious feedback cycle. The warmer it gets, the more methane is released. The more methane that is released, the warmer it gets. Along with massive loss of forests through fires, loss of marine plankton through warming seas, loss of Arctic ice no longer reflecting heat, and a dozen other feedback cycles, this entire interactive global system could spiral out of control, cross a critical threshold, fall off the cliff (aka the hockey stick or enter a new nonlinear trend), and catapult earth into a new state of rapid disintegration with runaway global warming.

The skies are darkening both metaphorically and literally in many cities due to pollution, countries due to hurricanes or fires, and globally due to rising heat.

Today, the rise in earth’s temperature is melting as much as 857 billion tons of ice all over the planet per year.[29]

Revelation’s prophecies are heating up. “Men (will be) scorched with fierce heat.” Since many of the Christians I talk with still doubt the coming heat, look at the ice. If the ice is retreating, the heat is coming. The ice proves the earth is warming. Scientists unknowingly echo Jesus’ words in their discoveries. NASA’s James Hansen wrote in the title of his last book, “The Coming Climate Catastrophe.” Jesus in Revelation forewarned of the worst-case scenario of global warming (Rev 16:8-9). God inspired the Bible. God created the world. All truth is God’s truth. Both biblical prophecies and scientific predictions agree that our planet will heat up causing catastrophes so severe that the eventual collapse of civilization will result.

[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). Dr. Hansen is NASA’s best-known scientist for testifying before Congress in the 1980s about the coming danger of global warming. Photo of Dr. Hansen courtesy of Pixabay.com.

[2] Rev 16:9.

[3] http://climate.nasa.gov/400ppmquotes. Dr. Miller specializes in the remote sensing of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. C.f. https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Miller. C.f. Keeling Curve, https://scripps.ucsd.edu.

[4] Brady Dennis & Chris Mooney, “The unmitigated growth of carbon emissions.” December 5, 2018. online The Washington Post. China’s carbon emissions grew 4.7%, the U.S.’s 2.5%, India’s 6.3%. Only the E.U. decreased by .7%. Thirty-seven (37) billion tons of CO₂was poured into our atmosphere in 2018.*

[5] https://scripps.ucsd.edu/graphs/mlo_full_record.png. C.f. https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127127417. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/05/13/climate-change-co-2-levels-hit-415.

[6] Doyle Rice, “Global warming roars on: Past four years have been Earth’s hottest on record,” USA TODAY, January 18:2018. “NOAA’s analysis does not include data from the Arctic, while NASA’s does,” according to scientist Deke Arndt. “The Arctic has been warming faster than any part of the world.” http://www.nasa.gov/press/

[7] Retrieved from https://www.noaa.gov/news/2018-was-the-4th-hottest-year-on-record-for-globe/

[8] Ibid. Data up to February 6, 2019. C.f. https://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/the-10-hottest global-years-on-record/

[9] Retrieved from https://www.noaa.gov>news>2019-was-the-second-hottest-year-on-record/

[10] Retrieved from NASA, “Global Warming.” Https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming/page2.php.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Sean Potter, “NASA, NOAA Data Show 2016 warmest year on record globally,” released January 18, 2017. sean.potter@nasa.gov.

[13] Rice.

[14] Ibid. The whirlpool of frigid air, known as the “polar vortex,” is usually strong enough to keep cold air swirling around the north pole. But global warming, which hits harder in polar regions, weakened this vortex and large currents of cold air leaked out hitting North America.

[14A] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/weather/major-new-dlimate-study-rules-out-less-severe-global-warming-scenarios/ C.f. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/22/climate-sensitivity-co2/

[15] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/major-trump-administration-climate-report-says-damages-are-‘intensifying-across-the-country’/as-BBQ1DIZ?ocid-spartandhp.

[16] Madeline Scheinost and Taylor Ward, “Hurricane season 2018 is forecast to be above average,” April 5, 2018. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/

[[17] Bloomberg, “‘A Disproportionate His.’ 2017’s Weather Disasters Are Among the Worst in U.S. History,” TIME, December 28, 2017.

[8] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Andrew Freedman and Darryl Fears, “The western U.S. is locked in the grips of the first human-caused megadrought, study finds.” Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/the-western-us-is-locked-in-th-grips-of-the-first-human-caused-megadrought-study-finds/

[21] Kara Fox and Brandon Miller, “Arctic temperatures surge in the dead of winter,” CNN, February 27, 2018. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/msn/arctic-temperatures-surge-in-the-dead-of-winter/

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid.

[23A] Jeff Berardelli, CBS News, “Arctic records its hottest temperature ever.” Retrieved on June 21, 2020 at https://www.msn.com/en-us-weather-topstories-arctic-records-its-hottest-temperature-ever/

[24] Mark Hertsgaard, Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Hartcourt, 2012) 57. NASA’s Jim Hansen warns of the loss of most Himalayan glaciers this century. Another NASA scientist, Yao Tandong estimates 40% will be gone by 2050.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Kathryn Hansen, NASA’s Earth Observatory, “Alaska’s biggest (ice) losers are inland,” July 7, 2015. climate.nasa.gov/news/2305/alaskas-biggest-ice-losers-are-inland/

[26A] Earth Science Communications Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/shrinking-ice-sheets/ and https://climate.nasa.gov/glacial-retreat/ last updated: June 18, 2020.

[27] Grant Currin, “Arctic Permafrost Is Going Through a Rapid Meltdown–70 Years Early,” June 13, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/65709-artic-permafrost-melts-decades-early.html.

[28] Y. H. Chen and R. G. Prinn (2006), “Estimation of atmospheric methane emissions between 1996 and 2001 using a three-dimensional global chemical transport model,” Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 111: D10307 1-25. D. J. Wuebbles and K. Hayhoe (2002), “Atmospheric methane and global change,” Earth-Science Reviews 57: 177-210.

[29] Hansen, “Earth’s Energy Imbalance and Implications,” (2011) 13435.

[30] Image: Earth’s Atmosphere at Night by NASA

[31] Images in order of appearance: Earth’s Atmosphere by NASA; Melting Glacier by Adam Derewecki from Pixabay; Orange Sky Pollution by Chris LeBoutillier from Pixabay; Two Polar Bears by Gerhard G. from Pixabay; Arctic Ice Melting in 1984 and 2016 by NASA.

[32] Photo of Dr. James Hansen. Wikimedia Commons free images. Simple English Wikimedia; “James Hansen.”

Destabilizing Nations

Chapter 13 – Extremes in Revelation and Science

Revelation says that global warming will cause catastrophic climate change wreaking havoc and chaos that will destabilize the nations.

F5 Joplin Tornado with windspeeds above 200 mph and her aftermath. Category 5 Hurricane Katrina, the 3rd largest in history, with windspeeds of 174 mph and her aftermath. Forest fires increasing in intensity, length of time, coverage of territory, and destructiveness. Future storm surge over city. Extremes will be the new norm. [33]

Extreme events exacerbated by global warming, rising population, resource stress, and international insecurity will lead to global collapse of civilization.

Rev 16:9 Men were scorched with fierce heat. (The context is global.)

Rev 6:14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

Rev 16:18-21 There were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. (Rome) was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men, and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.

Today’s science and biblical prophecy are shouting extremes; extreme heat, extreme weather, extreme fires, extreme water problems, extreme atmospheric changes, extreme geophysical changes, . . . extreme will soon be the new norm.

Supercell Split

The scroll in Revelation 6:14 is metaphorical for a supercell split–one mammoth tornado that splits into two–and follows the same dynamics as–looks just like–unrolling a scroll; this is extreme weather! Global warming pours more heat energy into our skies and causes more monstrous, ever-growing storms.

Disappearing islands are a near-future reality with sea rise. For example, the islands of Kiribati, Tuvalu, Maldives, and Marshall Islands are in harm’s way. The Marshallese are left with two choices: evacuate or elevate the land, a very expensive idea that–with 600 billion tons of melting ice pouring into oceans around the world every year, is a temporary solution.

Earthquakes from Glacial Rebound

Stronger earthquakes moving mountains will happen more frequently as “glacial rebound” increases. Glacial rebound results from the shifting weight of continents and continental shelves upon their tectonic plates due to melting billions of tons of glaciers from global warming. (CBS News reported that the towns in the Arctic Circle recorded temperatures above 100°F on June 21st, 2020. The Arctic has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Eight days later, CNN reported that Antarctica has been warming for 30 years three times faster than the rest of the world. Ice is melting.)

How does God drop every major city on earth–including splitting Rome into three parts and dumping her into the sea (Rev 16:19; 18:21)? Study the tectonics under Rome–Scripture has it right! It splits despite colliding African and Eurasian tectonic plates. There is a back-arc causing the split. It’s all tied together in our planet’s system: global warming causes the loss of glaciers and ice sheets; which causes the shifting of weight upon tectonic plates that lie on the fluid, moving, molten rock of earth’s mantle, (and by the way, such shifts of plates will wake up volcanoes around the world–Rev 9:18–killing a third of humankind); causing unimaginable global earthquakes so that “the cities of the nations fell” and mountains moved. (Rev 16:18-21.)

Why does God allow us to know how He is going to do something? First, so we know that something this big is real. It is hard to believe. The Bible says when that earthquake hits, it will be like nothing humankind has ever seen before (Rev 16:18). There is no reason not to take this literally, especially when backed up by science. Second, when we believe it’s real, we have time to repent (change our minds and follow Jesus) and/or to prepare (build our arks). The Bible tells us what. Science tells us how. Both agree. This is God’s mercy–a twofold witness according to the laws of truth. “You must be ready,” (Matt 24:44). It will happen.

However, in Oral Collins’ book, The Final Prophecy of Jesus, Collins ignores the facts from a literal reading of the text, the context, and other hermeneutical rules to suggest that Revelation’s biggest earthquake in history splitting the city into three parts is not an earthquake and not a city, but means instead a “three-fold political division . . . [a] change in the European commonwealth” (Collins, p. 382-3). Within his paragraph, I counted 21 assumptions unsubstantiated by Scripture and not one biblical fact for support.

To the contrary, the three-part geological split of the great city (Rome) is one verse after the biggest earthquake in human history–all of which occur in the seventh bowl (Rev 16:17-21) with lightning, hailstones, islands disappearing, mountains moving, and the fall of all the cities of the nations. This global earthquake(s) is not only possible but highly probable due to glacial rebound caused by the redistribution of weight from the extensive melt of glaciers from global warming; a redistribution of weight across continents shifting their underlying tectonic plates triggering extreme earthquakes. These will be real events.

This is God’s geophysical response to our world wherein everyone creates their own rules, realities, and relationships in defiance of biblical law. This is God’s response after our world has mobilizing Armageddon (Har-Magedon) against His returning Son (Rev 16:12-21). The three-part split is not the political axis of the Antichrist rising in power. It is an act of God!

The maximum of facts with the minimum of assumptions gives the highest probability of accuracy. Multiplying assumptions and ignoring, twisting, or denying facts decreases the probability of accuracy and darkens understanding. Stick with the facts in the Bible and science.

Earthquakes razing cities is realistic. Glacial rebound is scientific. Glacial rebound is caused by melting glaciers from global warming. There is no reason to step outside of the literal facts. The Bible and science say it is real.

Reviewing Extremes

Rev 8:7-12 A third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. . . . a third of the sea became blood, and a third of all the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. . . . a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter . . . a third of (the sun, moon, and stars) would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way. [Everyone of these is a byproduct of the complex system of global warming and climate change. All of these affect extreme weather.]

Rev 16:2-9, 12, 18, 21 On the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. . . . and every living thing in the sea died. . . . and the rivers and the springs of waters; they became blood. . . . The sun . . . scorch(ed) men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat [global warming!]; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. . . . The great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up. . . . There were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. [These are all byproducts of global warming and tied into a system producing extreme weather.] . . . Huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe. [The mega-storm system needed to create hailstones the size of bicycle wheels is going to be Himalayan! This is extreme weather!]

Isa 19:7-8 All the sown fields by the Nile will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. And the fishermen will lament, and all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will pine away. [From extreme storms to extreme drought bad enough to dry up great rivers like the Euphrates and the Nile; these are signs of worse-case global warming.]

Isa 29:6-8 From the Lord of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with whirlwind [tornadoes] and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire. And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against (Jerusalem), even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. It will be as when a hungry man dreams–and hold, he is eating; but when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied. Or as when a thirst man dreams–and behold, he is drinking, but when he awakens, behold he is faint and his thirst is not quenched. Thus the multitude of all the nations will be who wage war against Mount Zion.

Rev 6:2-8 As the nations are destabilized by the first four trumpets and bowls, the four “horsemen” will ride. Nations will rise up conquering, exploding in wars, leaving behind famines, accompanied with plagues of pestilence, causing peoples over a fourth of the earth to die.

Covid-19 Pandemic

Personally, I do not think at this time that the covid-19 pandemic is part of the Revelation 6:8 prophecy (the fourth seal/horseman spreading war, famine, and pestilence brining death to a quarter of humankind), although it does qualify for the Luke 21:11 prophecy, “There will be . . . in various places plagues and famines.” And it is part of the end-time extremes spreading death among masses. As of October 2020, worldwide, 37.7 million have caught the coronavirus and over one million have died. In June, China almost licked it, but 18 cases more broke out and the government locked down 400,000 people to stop it in its tracks. By July, their country’s graph was one of the lowest in the world. In contrast to China, the U.S. had 30,000 new cases a day in April; 20,000 in May; 40,000 by the end of June; and 70,000 by the end of July hitting over a thousand deaths a day. By October, 7.7 million Americans have caught it and 214,000 have died–above 1/5 of the world’s death statistic.

President Trump mocked masks and caught it. After receiving the best medical care available, he returned to work mocking it. Eleven of his secret service men caught covid-19 and dozens were quarantined. In July, after shutting down plans for re-election campaigns in two states exploding in covid cases with poles showing him lagging behind Biden, Trump softened on wearing masks. By the end of July, forty states were rising in cases. Cities that had opened bars are closing them again. One church went ahead with choir practice. Fifty-eight caught covid-19. Two died. After a “covid party” of younger adults, as one thirty-something-year-old lay on her death bed, she said, “I thought it was a hoax.” It was a pandemic.

By October 2020, Covid-19 is still globally on the rise including countries with the highest rates (over 14,000 new cases each week) being the U.S.A., Colombia, Argentina, France, Spain, and the UAE.

This microscopic virus shows us how easy it is to shut down societies, to bring jobs to a halt, to send the economy into a tailspin, and to close churches and scatter their people (if they care about the lives of physically weaker people like Jesus did–what we do to the least, we do to Him, Matt 25:40-45). This pandemic has brought a mild disintegration (falling apart) of society. It is a wake-up call. It helps us to visualize, to understand, to taste a sip from a spoon of adversity. Revelation forewarns drowning gulps of adversity from bowls of wrath.

Pastors, churches, families, friends, and individuals–what would you have to do to survive for years in a massive vortex of disintegrating interactive systems shutting down our global civilization? A pandemic gives you a tiny taste of Revelation.

Isa 13:11-13 I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; . . . I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir [Solomon’s gold]. . . And the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of His burning anger.

Isa 24 Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters it inhabitants. (Society disintegrates.) The earth will be completely laid waste. . . . The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers. . . . The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws. . . . Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. . . . The earth is broken asunder. The earth is split through. The earth is shaken violently. . . . In that day, the Lord will punish . . . the kings of the earth. They will be gathered together like prisoners in the dungeon . . . for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem.

Rev 6:12-17 From all the kings of the earth to the least of the slaves, all are hiding in caves. Riches have blown away like chaff. Armies have withered into dust. Big cities lie in rubble. Governments have dissolved. Civilization has collapsed. The earth is ready for a new King; Jesus has returned.

Now consider how science mirrors Scripture portraying extremes.

Tornadoes, Hail, and Lightning

Revelation’s global warming puts more heat energy into the atmosphere spawning bigger and bigger storms. Revelation and other books speaking to the end of the end times such as Isaiah, give examples of extreme weather phenomena such as a supercell storm split (the sky unrolling like a scroll), great whirlwinds (tornadoes), lightning storms, and hundred pound hailstones.[1]

A supercell over Belgium on May 25, 2009 produced 30,000 lightning flashes in two hours. The World Meteorological Organization confirmed that on October 31, 2018, the largest lightning strike in history–called a megaflash–hit southern Brazil. It was a spider-like discharge that raced across a horizontal distance of 440 miles.[2]

A single supercell (tower of clouds) with one updraft can evolve into two separate storm systems (two towers of clouds) with two updrafts that separate like an unrolling scroll–Revelation’s description of a superstorm.[3] This is called a “splitting supercell.”According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) one humungous storm can separate into “two mirror-image splitting storms” (split like a scroll), such as the one that hit Indiana on May 28, 1996. [4] Revelation says, “The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up.”[5] This is an extreme storm.

“Huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each came down from heaven upon men.”[6] Revelation is portraying extreme weather due to climate change. A megastorm spawning 100 pound hailstones (having the diameter of about 29 inches, the diameter of a bicycle wheel, and could reach a terminal velocity in its fall of 284 m.p.h.[7]) is going to also produce massive tornadoes, lightning, and rain–a plague of destruction. Revelation says extreme weather is going to be indicative of the end of the end times. Let’s consider the rise of one form of extreme weather, tornadoes.

“From the Lord of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire . . . the multitude of all the nations who wage war against (Jerusalem [where Jesus will reign]).”[8]

The National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) did in depth studies for 2003’s hot year finding extreme weather events in the U.S. Here is just one: An unprecedented [record breaking] series of tornado outbreaks occurred in portions of the Great Plains, Midwest, and Mid-South of the U.S. during the week of May 4 through 10, 2003. During this seven-day period, there were a total of 393 tornadoes resulting in 39 deaths. . . . Six of these tornadoes were classified as violent (F4 or F5) on the Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale.[9]

A few years later in 2011, a tornado outbreak would exceed all records for the highest number of tornadoes in a twenty-four-hour period and rival the worst in violence and destruction. Usually, only one F5 occurs annually. Usually, tornadoes last a few minutes and travel a few miles before dissipating. Usually, tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour. Usually, the average damage per year from tornadoes is about $1 billion.[10] Not that day.

During a 4-day period from April 25-28, 2011, more than 200 tornadoes occurred in five southeastern states. The deadliest part of the outbreak was the afternoon and evening of April 27, when 122 tornadoes resulted in 313 deaths. . . . There were 15 violent (Enhanced Fujita Scale 4 or 5) tornadoes reported. Eight of the tornadoes had path lengths in excess of 50 miles. . . . The event was one of deadliest tornado events since formal record keeping began in 1950. Nationwide, 199 tornadoes developed across 14 states on April 27. . . . In all, 31 of these tornadoes were rated as EF3 or stronger. Eleven tornadoes were EF4 and four were EF5. The average EF4 and EF5 tornado path length was 66 miles. . . . A round of severe thunderstorms preceded the April 27 outbreak.[11]

When the Midwest and Northeast were added to the account of all the days in April 2011, the National Weather Service confirmed 355 tornadoes in 21 states from Texas to New York to southern Canada. In this outbreak, the Joplin tornado totally leveled the city with a wind speed in excess of 200 mph cutting a mile-wide swath.

In the 2011 record-breaking outbreak, 348 died from tornadoes and 24 died from lightning in thunderstorms, hail, and flash floods. This was the largest, costliest ($11 billion), most expansive, and one of the most intense and deadly outbreaks ever recorded. It also broke the record for the most tornado touchdowns in a 24-hour period totaling 211 (the previous record was 147 in the Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974).[12]

In 2019, the Washington Post reported another record-breaking year for tornadoes in May following with the National Weather Service confirming with eyewitness reports over 500 observed tornadoes in just 30 days.[13]

Flooding

The scientific models consistently show that such extreme weather will occur more frequently; storms of the century will happen every decade, then every few years as global warming increases. One of the countries that has taken major action on these highly probable predictions is the Netherlands. “The Dutch are spending billions of euros on ‘floating communities’ that can rise with surging flood waters, on cavernous garages that double as urban floodplains and on re-engineering parts of a coastline as long as North Carolina’s. The government is engaging in ‘selective relocation’ of farmers from flood-prone areas and expanding rivers and canals to contain anticipated swells.”[14] As of 2014, a national effort is underway to upgrade the thousands of miles of dams and dykes that protect the Netherlands.[15] The 1996 Flood Protection Act sets a safety standard of 1/10,000 per year meaning that the coastal flood defense must be high and strong enough to withstand storm surges that have a likelihood of occurrence of 1/10,000 per year. [16] The Dutch are preparing for the unlikely, because global warming is pushing the unlikely into the likely. The 1 in 10,000 will drop to 1 in 100 then 1 in 10. “You also must be ready.”[17]

Droughts and Crop Failures

The North American drought of 2012-2014 in the northern U.S. was an expansion of the 2010-2012 drought which hit the southern U.S. and was on track to become the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.[18] The drought cost more than $35 billion in the Midwest; corn and soybeans failed. In the south, the Mississippi water levels plummeted. Across 36 states, 1,692 counties were legally declared primary natural disaster areas by August 2012.[19]

The 2010 drought in Russia was the worst in fifty years with high temperatures doubling the price of wheat around the world.[20] The drought forced Russia to ban export of wheat.[21] That summer was the hottest recorded in Russian history and ignited the worst wildfires recorded in their history, only to be surpassed by the fires of 2012. “A combination of the smoke from the fires, producing heavy smog blanketing large urban regions and the record breaking heat wave put stress on the Russian healthcare system. Munich Re [an international insurance company that insures insurance companies] estimated that in all, 56,000 people died from the effects of the smog and the heat wave.”[22] The drought in 2012, from another record-breaking heat wave, cut the wheat production not only in Russia, but in Australia, Argentina, and the U.S. sending wheat prices soaring.[23]

“A warming climate and increasing precipitation [in Russia] will likely expand the amount of land that could be cultivated in the coming years. But economic models predict that largely due to floods, droughts, and heat and cold waves, wheat production could decrease by up to 15 percent within five years.”[24]

Rising Polar Heat, Heat Waves and Death

Hot Saharan summers are encroaching on southern Europe, such as the heat wave that killed 71,449 people within a few weeks in 2003.[25] By 2050, such heat waves are expected once every two years.

CNN, NY Times, and Nature broke the news on June 29, 2020, that the South Pole has been warming at more than three times the global average over the past 30 years, which will have enormous ramifications for rising global sea levels, marine life, and Antarctic ice sheets. Between 1989 and 2018, the South Pole warmed 1.8°C. Scientists said the warming was due to increasing sea surface temperatures thousands of miles away in the tropics, especially the western tropical Pacific Ocean carrying warm air down the South Pole. The World Meteorological Organization stated that Antarctic’s ice sheet contains enough water to raise the global sea levels by nearly 200 feet. Last February, Antarctic reached its hottest temperature every recorded–65°F (18.3°C).[25A]

In June 2020, CBS News broke headlines with the “Arctic records its hottest temperature ever,” which was 100.4°F, 32 degrees above the normal high temperature in the town of Verkhoyansk, Siberia above the Arctic Circle. The area was blazing in fires due to unusually high temperatures since last December. Other areas north of the Arctic Circle such as in Markusvinsa, Sweden hit 94.6°F last summer 2019 leading to “the worst fire season on record.”[25B]

Air Pollution

On a windless day, Beijing’s noon sky looks like the twilight zone leaving visibility about a half a block due to a heavy fog of smog.[26] Residents wear masks outdoors. According to the World Bank, coal smoke in the atmosphere kills 1.9 million people a year throughout China establishing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema and chronic bronchitis) as the leading cause of death.[27]

For 2018, the worst cities in the world for air pollution were in Asia and the Middle East, especially India, which took 22 of the top 30 slots. However, making the top 100 list included cities in China, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Kuwait, and Nepal.[28] Some cities suffer from pollution from ozone (smog), while others from ammonia from livestock excrement and fertilizer. The poor air quality spawns a host of health problems including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.[29] The American Lung Association reported that over 133.9 million Americans–that is two out of every five people, an increase of 125 million in the 2017 report–now live in counties with unhealthy air pollution. That includes ozone (smog) and/or particle pollution (soot, dust, chemicals that damage lungs, etc.) leading to lung cancer, asthma, and other lung-associated diseases.[30] The worst U.S. cities in 2018 for air pollution were spread from the west to east coast.[31] These are only a few of the cities that the American Lung Association lists with heavy air pollution that are beyond safe levels and endanger health.

“The sun and the moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness.”[32] The skies grow dark when massive fires consume millions of acres; towering storm cells spawn extraordinary hurricanes and tornadoes; factories pour more than 40 billion tons of CO₂ and pollutants into the atmosphere producing smog so thick that noonday becomes twilight. Just imagine how bad this is going to be when–as Revelation says–one-third of the time during the day and night across the world the skies are darkened.

Summary

Ice never lies. The rising global temperatures have been melting “perma”frost across the northern tundra, scorching towns above the Arctic Circle with 100°F temperatures, and warming the Arctic two times (2xs) faster and Antarctica three times (3xs) faster than the rest of the world. Only 26 of the original 150 glaciers observed in 1850 in Glacier National Park, Montana remain. Between 1993 and 2016, NASA calculated that Greenland has lost 286 billion tons of ice per year and Antarctica 127 billion tons per year. The Arctic has lost 95% of its oldest ice. These are extremes. They are increasing. They are only the tip of the iceberg.

Worldwide–catastrophic disasters such as forest fires, floods, tornadoes, lightning storms, hurricanes, droughts, deadly heat waves, . . . are all rising in intensity, expanding in territory, inflating in cost, and destabilizing the communities, states, or even countries they ravage. Yet, they are only the beginning. If scientists have gotten anything wrong, it has been to underestimate the growing speed and intensity of what NASA’s James Hansen calls “The Coming Climate Catastrophe” and its ramifications in this complex global system.

Science is uncovering ever-growing, record-breaking, devastating events around the world across many fields. Scripture is describing what scientists call the worst case scenario of global warming, extremes in weather, and geophysical upheavals; their ramifications, consequences, and future direction. They are racing toward the global collapse of civilization. It is hard to believe. But it is true, and we must push past the built-in inertia of society, of church, of family, of our own habitual ways of thinking (“not me, not now, no how,” or like Trump, “stop testing,”) and instead, train our thinking in the laws of truth to test reality, to discern reality, and to face reality. Mountains of evidence are pouring in from across the earth. The Bible and science are decades out in front of us in knowledge and understanding of the near-future state of this planet. The Bible and science are the two watchmen on the wall shouting down to us to wake up, to catch up, and to get ready–like Noah did–for those we love, because a devastating “flood” of catastrophes is going to inundate this planet.

[1] Rev 6:14; 16:21; 16:18; Isa 29:6-7.

[2] https://www.frankdeboosere.be/nieuws/news2009/extreme%20hagel%2025-26%20mei . . . ) c.f. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercell. See also https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/5/lightning-megaflash-world-record.

[3] Rev 6:14.

[4] https://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/soo/doc/supercell.php. c.f. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/soo/88dimg/52896_evt.php.

[5] Rev 6:14.

[6] Rev 16:21.

[7] Wayne, “Revelation 16:21; The Largest Hailstones Every,” Prophecy Proof Insights, March 9, 2012. https://www.prophecyproof.org/2012/03/revelation-1621-the-largest-hailstones-ever.

[8] Isa 29:6-7.

[9] Department of Commerce, USA; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); National Weather Service; Service Assessment, “Record Tornado Outbreaks of May 4-10, 2003.” https://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/data/pdfs/03MOspringfield.pdf. 10, 4.

[10] “Tornado Statistics,” April 28, 2014. https://www.statisticbrain.com/tornado-statistics.

[11] Ibid., “The Historic Tornadoes of April 2011,” iv, 5.

[12] National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. https://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/storms/description.html. The April 3-4, 1974 tornado outbreak was considered the worst up to that time in terms of total number (148 tornadoes), path length (average was 18.7 miles), six F5s, and total damage (335 deaths, $60 million). By comparison, the Tri-State out-break of March 18, 1925 had 7 tornadoes. The Palm Sunday outbreak had 31 tornadoes. “April 25-28, 2011 tornado outbreak,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_25%E2%80%9328_2011_tornado_outbreak. Moving forward, the El Reno (OK) tornado on May 31, 2013, was the widest ever recorded (2.6 miles) with winds of 296 mph. https.//www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-earther-gang/wp/2013/06/04/deadly-el-reno-okla-tornado-was-widest-ever-measured-on-earth.”; “Historical Records and Trends [through 2012],” https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/extreme-events/us-tornado-climatology.

[13] Ian Livingston, Capital Weather Gang, “At least 225 twisters in 12 days: A historic tornado outbreak ravages the U.S.” Retrieved from https.//www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/05/29/least-twisters-days-historic-tornadoes.

[14] Anthony Faiola, Juliet Eilperin,”Dutch defense against climate disaster: Adapt to the change,” the Washington Post Foreign Service, December 6, 2009. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/05/AR2009120502186.htp.

[15] Sophie Yeo, “Netherlands to upgrade flood defenses to cope with climate change,” RTCC (Responding to Climate Change), March 7, 2014. https://www.rtcc.org/2014/03/04/netherlands-to-upgrade.

[16] “Coastal flood risk The Netherlands,” https://www.climateadaptation.eu/netherlands/coastal-floods/.

[17] Matt 24:44.

[18] Anthony Kimery, “FEMA – Dealing with Drought,” Homeland Security Today, January 6, 2012.

[19] CBS News, “U.S. drought: Half of all counties disaster areas,” August 1, 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%9314_North_American_drought.

[20] https://www.bloomberg.com/new/2010-08-03/worst-russian-drought-in-50-years-threatens-more-crops-grain-sowing-plans. Maria Kolesnikova, “Worst Russian Drought in 50 Years Threatens Next Crop.

[21] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/world/europe/06russia. Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin banned all exports of grain after millions of acres of Russian wheat withered in a severe drought, driving the prices higher around the world. He pointed out that Russia was suffering from the worst heat wave since record-keeping began more than 130 years ago.

[22] “Russia Wildfires Rage Amid Record Heat,” voannews.com. August 3, 2010. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (37):E2415. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Russian_wildfires.

[23] Javier Blas in London, “Wheat Soars After Russian Crop Failure,” November 8, 2012. https://www/ft/cms/s/07cbc024c-2998-11e2.

[24] Russia-wheat, National Geographic, May 2015, p. 11.

[25] Hertsgaard, 51. The early report said 30,000 people died in 2003, but in 2008 the European Union reexamined the data and realized there were over 70,000 deaths.

[25A] Helen Regan, CNN Weather, “The South Pole has been warming at three times the global average over the past 30 years, study says.” Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/weather/south-pole-record-warming-antarctica-intl-hnk/

[25B] Jeff Berardelli, CBS News, “Arctic records its hottest temperature ever,” June 21, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us-weather-topstories/arctic-records-its-hottest-temperature-ever/

[26] Bill McKibben, editor, The Global Warming Reader: A Century of Writing about Climate Change (New York: Penguin Group, 2011) 142-146.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Bianca Britton, “The world’s top 100 most polluted cities in 2018,” March 5, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/05/health/100-most-polluted-cities-in-2018.

[29] Katherine Kornei, “Here are some of the world’s worst cities for air quality,” March 21, 2017. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03.

[30] CBS News, “U.S. cities with the worst air pollution.” Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/air-pollution-worst-us-cities-2018.

[31] Ibid. Compare to American Lung Association, State of the Air, April 19, 2017. Rafi Letzter, “The 25 most dangerously polluted cities in the US,” https://www. businessinsider.com/most-polluted-cities-in-us–2017.

[32] Rev 6:12; Joel 2:10; 3:15; Matt 24:29; Luke 21:25; Ezek 32:7; Isa 13:10-11, “For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil.” Such passages can sometimes be taken both literally and metaphorically.

[33] NASA photo of Earth with Hurricanes. Google: NASA free images. Black Tornado south of Dimmitt, Texas on June 2, 1995 by Kim Newton for NASA. “The Aftermath of a Tornado” in Joplin, Missouri after a supercell thunderstorm produced the Joplin F5 tornado on May 22, 2011 with windspeeds over 200 mph. Captured by a member of the Ozarks Red Cross for Earth Data USGS; NASA. C.f. “A View from Above: The Aftermath of a Tornado,” the study by USGS and NASA: 158 people died, 7,000 homes leveled, $2.8 billion in damages. “2011 Joplin Tornado F5” by NASA, U.S. Government. “NASA Image of Hurricane Katrina” in 2005. A Category 5, Katrina was the 3rd largest in recorded history. “New Orleans in Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina” by Lt. Commander Mark Moran, NOAA Corps, NMAO, AOC on NASA.gov free images site. “Forest Fire Wildfire Blaze” an image by Skeeze from Pixabay. “Storm Surge/Tsunami over City” by Stefan Keller from Pixabay: apocalypse. Tsunami Wave over Bridge. Image by Yuri_B from Pixabay

Bible and Science Merge

Chapter 14 – Global Collapse of Civilization 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.”