Tag: Global Warming

Caused by the increase of greenhouse gases (GHG), such as carbon dioxide and methane in the earth’s atmosphere, the gradual rise of global temperatures is producing climate change around the world that will become increasingly hostile to life (Rev 16:3, 8-9).

Article Review

Flooding Cities Around the World

Science says as global warming heats earth’s atmosphere, it holds more water, fuels greater storms, drops ever-worsening torrential rains leading to floods. Jesus’ Revelation says that the earth is going to get very warm: “Men were scorched with fierce heat” (Rev 1:1; 16:8-9). Science and prophecy agree the earth is warming and its ramifications are threatening life on earth. The new norm is ever-changing, record-breaking extremes.

Global warming has a few general rules: Dry places get dryer. Wet places get wetter. Extremes will become the norm.

New York, Tokyo, London, and Miami are examples of cities spending billions of dollars to fight ever increasing–torrential rainfall, rising sea levels, storm surges, tidal flooding, hurricanes, flooding aquifers, rising ground water into streets and buildings leading to—excessive flooding.

This post is an article review of Sinking Cities, a DVD documentary on the global threat of climate change, distributed by PBS, © 2018 Cineflix International Media Ltd. You should see with your own eyes what is happening in these cities.

NEW YORK CITY

New York City is surrounded by water on all sides with 578 miles of coastline. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy dropped 1.6 billion gallons of water onto the city accompanied by a 13 foot storm surge leaving 700,000 tons of debris in its wake. It was the worst natural disaster in the city’s history.

However, this was only the beginning of large-scale catastrophes as scientists calculate a 6 foot sea-level rise by 2100 intensifying hurricanes, storm surges, and tidal flooding that will batter this city.

Studies analyzed sediment in the area taking them back 2,000 years to show that before the industrial revolution (starting around 1750), temperatures, sea levels, and storms were predictable within a stable range. After the industrial revolution revved up and industries accelerated emissions of millions of tons of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO₂), into the atmosphere, global temperatures, sea levels, and storm violence steadily increased. Within the last 200 years, sea level rise has shown a rapid increase in rate.

NYC Mayor Andrew Cuomo and city scientists, engineers, and mathematicians calculated that to safeguard the 8.6 million people in the five boroughs will cost $7 to $8 billion in climate-change protection. Since NYC is partially built on Sandy’s flood plain, some parts will become permanently uninhabitable. For other parts, engineers have finished plans for “The Big U,” a 10 mile and 20 foot high sea wall to protect “the $500 billion biggest business district in the U.S.” Breakwaters are planned to slow down storm surges. Fourteen (14) under-river tunnels to drain flood water out of the city are also coming. Architects are designing skyscrapers with the mechanics (electricity, heating, etc.) no longer in the basement, but many floors higher (like the 48^th floor in one housing project).

Sandy only cost the city $19 billion. Without preparation, losses by the end of this century for NYC would surpass $90 billion.

When Jesus says, “You also must be ready,” New York City is getting ready. (Matt 24:44) But it won’t be enough. “The cities of the nations fell,” (Rev 16:19).

TOKYO

Tokyo—the largest city in the world with 38 million people housed 130 feet above sea level–has always suffered from typhoons (aka hurricanes), storm surges, tsunamis, floods, and earthquakes. Now add liquefaction (ground that acts like quicksand during an earthquake) sinking entire buildings down into liquefied soil and sand. However, it is getting worse.

Since 1954, precipitation has increased by 30%. (Increasing global warming, causes greater quantities of water to be held in the atmosphere, until stronger storms drop it all at once.)

The September 2015 typhoon (hurricane) had normal winds, but broke all records for heavy torrential rains that flooded the Kinu River in Joso, Japan just north of Tokyo. Orders were given to evacuate 170,000 people, yet 65,000 were trapped and thousands disappeared in the storm surge and flooding. Seven thousand (7,000) homes were destroyed. Twenty inches (20”) of rain fell in 24 hours in Joso.

Dr. Tomoya Shibayama, professor at Waseda University in Japan has done scientific research for 40 years and along with other scientists around the world has discovered that until recently, typhoons lost power and intensity as they neared land. However, now with warming oceans and temperature increase in sea surface water, a typhoon not only does not lose strength, it grows, intensifies, and does more damage. By 2100, sea surface temperature near Tokyo will increase by 4° F. The typhoons will be more numerous and powerful.

Current predictions for sea level rise by 2100 around Tokyo are three (3) feet, which will mean a loss of 60 sq. mi. in the city.

Tokyo is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. It sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire bringing 1,500 earthquakes a year. Liquefaction is causing entire neighborhoods to sink. Tsunamis hitting Japan’s coast, like the 2011 tsunami that caused a meltdown in the Fukushima Nuclear Power, are renowned. Japan averages 11 typhoons a year which are rising in number and intensity. Increasing torrential rains filling the massive Ebo River (one of 170 rivers) that flows through the city into Tokyo Bay is a major flooding concern. Torrential rains, mudslides, hurricanes, storm surges, earthquakes, liquefaction, and rising ground water place the city at extreme risk.

Kamaishi, a city 350 mi. north of Tokyo had the largest sea wall in the world to stop sea rise, storm surges, and tsunamis. It was 20 ft high, 6,500 ft long, took 30 years to build, cost $1.6 billion, and was finished in 2009. Everyone felt safe. Two years later (2011), a tsunami crushed the wall with a 32’ high tidal flood that swept through the city. Over a thousand people were never found. The sea wall is in the process of being rebuilt.

The Japanese take climate change extremely seriously. They took 13 years (1993-2006) and $2 billion to build the Tokyo Flood Tunnels that look like an underground football stadium attached to long tunnels. However, in 2015 a typhoon overwhelmed the city with torrential rains that took four (4) days to expel with four (4) gigantic pumps as big as Boeing 737s. Doubts are rising as to whether this is enough.

The next plan—created by Toshio Makajima—is the “Floating City” of Tokyo. The Japanese are courageous, brilliant, hard-working and organized in their preparations for climate change and all its ramifications that are already hitting their country, but with an aging population and financial problems, will they make it?

Jesus said, “The cities of the nations fell,” (Rev 16:19).

LONDON

London—a city of 8 million people–is on a big island surrounded by water with a huge river—the Thames—running through it. That’s a lot of water everywhere. The same global warming principles apply—warmer atmosphere holds more water produces bigger storms and dumps more water. Jesus said the earth was going to get warm (Rev 1:1; 16:8-9). The world is experiencing all of global warming’s ramifications—including flooding.

The British faced their storm surges and flooding earlier that most countries. They took 30 years and spent the equivalent of over $2 billion to build the Thames Barrier; a 600 yard 10-piece flood gate that spans the River Thames. It was finished in 1982. It closes off the river during storm surges to protect London from flooding—which has been quite successful for years and only had to be used 2 or 3 times a year.

But within the last 10 years, bigger water problems have hit London. They did not take into consideration sea level rise due to global warming. London has experienced a 20% increase in rainfall. Their drainage and sewer systems were built during the Victorian era and mix flood water and sewage together, so when the flood water is too much for the system, it all pushes up into the streets causing serious flooding and sanitation problems.

It got worse. In December of 2013, Hurricane Xaver hit. The Thames Barrier held, but storm after storm dumped record-breaking rains. For the first time, the Barrier was not just stopping a storm surge coming up one way toward London, but flooding coming down the other way from the Thames’ estuaries. London held, but surrounding areas flooded for three long weeks. The unprecedented rainfall in storm after storm forced the Thames Barrier to close 50 times in the 2013-14 winter. (Normally, there were only one or two closings per year.)

Scientists in the Met Office, the UK’s meteorological National Weather Service, knew the mathematical formulas (more atmospheric heat, more water in the atmosphere, bigger storms, greater downpours) and were gathering data from the atmosphere, ocean buoys, cities, villages, ships and pouring it into giant super computers. There was now a 10% chance that every winter would break new water records. An 8 foot sea level rise was coming by 2100 to the coast of England. The life expectancy of the Barrier—given the leap in usage—was only until 2030. So modifications had to be made to stretch its productivity until 2070 when other solutions could be found.

The government has a massive multi-billion dollar project called TE 2100 to tackle climate change. The Thames Tideway Tunnel running 200’ below the Thames and parallel to it, channels flood water out of the city. This costs a little under $4 billion and will take 7 years to finish—by 2023. A sewage treatment plant was added to stop sewage from being dumped into the ocean. Concrete towns are tearing up roads and putting down porous bricks for water to seep back into the ground. “Daylighting” tunnels opens up rivers to flow onto flood plains before flooding sewer tunnels and pushing up into neighborhood streets. Victoria’s massive underground drainage tunnels throughout the city that funnel the water causing flooding has been outgrown. And of course, floating cities (like those used in the Netherlands) are already in the works for London.

But even the scientists, with stalwart British character and intelligence, look at the massive North Sea, the darkening tempests, and the rising waters and wonder if it will be enough.

Jesus said it won’t (Rev 16:19).

MIAMI

[10] Florida lives with a half dozen hurricanes every year.

Hurricanes are getting worse on the west coast of Florida according to Florida Gulf Coast University scientists and professors. As sea surface temps rise, the number and intensity of hurricanes worsens. Miami is only 6’ above sea level. Most FL residents are used to flooding during tropical storms, but now flooding is coming up from the ground in Miami on sunny days in neighborhoods and the city itself during King Tides (full or new moons) because of rising seas. Scientists calculate that by 2030, the city will be threatened by tidal floods 50 times a year; by 2045, 150 times a year. In the last ten (10) years, flooding has increased by 400%.

Miami is built on an aquifer situated on a porous limestone foundation. As the sea level rises (due to global warming melting glaciers and ice sheets and expanding the water itself), the high tides get higher. In Miami, the ocean water easily seeps through the limestone, comes up into the aquifer, which pushes water up into the sewer systems, forcing up fresh water with sewage into the streets which is one health problem. When the salt water finally inundates drinking wells, another health problem will emerge. Driving to work through flooded streets is also a problem.

Given its location, Miami will see a sea level rise of 2’ by 2060; 3’ by 2080; and 6’ by 2100. Miami is the “most-at-risk city” for potential property damage; $416 billion. Skyscrapers are going up everywhere and many do not follow any building precautions to account for rising waters and flooding. It is a quick turnover market; build, buy, sell, buy, sell . . . always hoping the next sell will bring in a profit. The city itself has no adequate building code for climate-change preparation. (Given the politics of the leaders, most don’t acknowledge climate change, pandemics, etc. However, a few are pushing for preparation.)

In 1991, Hurricane Andrew hit Category 5 with 173 mph winds and required an evacuation of over a million people leveling 25,000 houses and seriously damaging 100,000 other structures. The cost was $27 billion and 8 insurance companies went out of business. It was second only to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In accord with Japanese scientists, Florida’s scientists have discovered that hurricanes no longer diminish as they hit land, instead there is a “rapid intensification” of hurricanes as they go over the warmer coastal waters. Not only the warm shallow waters but the heavy warm sea-spray winds pumps energy into the atmosphere and revs up the hurricane.

Jane Gilbert, the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Miami, is in charge of helping the city to get ready in advance for devastating events with better codes etc. She expressed concern about the denial of serious near-future threats from climate change to Miami. She has fought hard against the inertia slowing preparation for high-risk events due to global warming; such as stronger hurricanes, rising seas, higher storm surges, flooding aquifers, overflowing sewage, saline well water, etc.

So far, practical preparation for the future of Miami has included the following: (1) A series of pumps to empty streets of water ($500 million); (2) Upgrade of sewage treatment plants; (3) Raising sea walls along beaches, canals and creeks; (4) Raising up low-lying streets. They took 2 years and $27 million to raise up the streets in a 6-block neighborhood by 30 inches. The streets no longer flood many times a year and this solution will last for 30 years—or so they hope. (P.S. The cost-to-result ratio sounds nuts to me. Sorry.) (5) A few high-rise buildings like the Perez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County have built with future flood prevention in mind. This included moving all the mechanics (electric generators, heaters, etc.) out of the basement up many stories above any potential flood; building an underground garage that doubles as a flood container; building lower floors of water-proof materials (like cement); and elevating the whole building on a man-made hill. They are preparing.

Is Miami getting ready? It sound like they are stacking life-jackets around the dance floor on the Titanic.

What does Jesus say? (Rev 16:19)

WHY THIS POST?

Why worry? That’s the problem, most have no concern whatsoever—especially if the catastrophe is “far, far away in another galaxy.”

But Jesus asked, “Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times?” (Matt 16:3) As Americans—especially the Church—most of us cannot even discern the sky, much less where all these signs are heading. Strange. The Bible and scientists are screaming at us in one accord in total harmony shouting out the signs of the times.

No worries? God will rapture us into the clouds and out of this earth before any of the really bad stuff arrives?

But Jesus said, “After that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken . Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven,” (Mark 13:24-27 and Matthew 24:29-31).

The darkening of sun, moon, and stars is Old Testament (OT) symbolism for a time of great destruction (Isa 13:10-11; Ezek 32:7-8; Joel 2:31; 3:15; Rev 6:12). According to His own words, Jesus comes after global catastrophes and the great tribulation. “Elect” means “chosen by God” and refers to every believer in God across all nations and all time who is saved by Jesus (Romans 8:33-35; Ephesians 1:4; Revelation 5:9). Angels gathering Christians and carrying them up from the earth into the clouds to meet Jesus at His second coming to earth is called “the rapture” (c.f. 1 Thess 4:14-17). According to a literal reading of the Bible, there is only one second coming (not two parts or two comings), and it is loud, visible, and glorious before the whole world. At His second coming, He raptures Christians from earth who join Christians from heaven, then the resurrection occurs (you get a brand new body that is powerful and immortal). Then we all return to earth with Jesus who starts His 1,000-year reign.

If you believe (like I did before I carefully investigated all the Bible verses on the topic) that Jesus will come back to rescue you before the great tribulation, then I beg you to read my other post entitled “The Rapture According to Jesus” which will write out ALL the Bible verses that specifically and directly talk about the second coming, the tribulation, and the rapture. Read those verses with your own eyes and decide. I’ve given you one of two very clear, direct verses wherein Jesus tells us explicitly that He will come back after the great tribulation. There is not one verse in the entire Bible that directly says He comes back before the tribulation to rapture Christians; NOT ONE!

https://www.revelationisnow-beready.com/the-rapture/

A Global Collapse of Civilization

So why this post, “Flooding Cities Around the World”? Most of the church is falling asleep (in darkened theology) or drifting into apostasy (1 Thess 2:1-4). We need the light of truth to wake us up. Jesus says this world is going to get hot and end in the global collapse of civilization (Rev 16:8-9; 6:12-17). Scientist say that global warming is happening and that its worst-case scenario might devolve into a global collapse of civilization. Jesus says it will. The Bible and science are pointing to a global collapse. Calculating biblical prophecies and scientific predictions points to a collapse somewhere around 2100.

Our kids and grandkids—our progeny—are going to face a whole new planet: hot, extreme, and struggling for survival. Jesus has said that His coming will be like the days of Noah (global collapse of civilization) and that we had better be ready (Matt 24:37, 44)! Noah took a 100 years to get ready, even before clouds appeared in the sky. He trusted God that the storm was coming. He picked up his hammer.

We can see the maelstrom gathering in the horizon. Jesus says it. Science describes it. We can see it coming now. We see it in raging forest fires, in melting glaciers, and in flooding cities.

Here is what Jesus says:

1 Thess 5:2-6 You yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord [the second coming of Jesus] will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.

We must stop dancing on the Titanic and start building our arks!

(Ark-building plans in Chapter 15.)

[1] Apocalypse tsunami of the future by Stefan Keller from Pixabay.

[2] New York City skyline by dawnfu from Pixabay. Florida hurricane by NASA. Night flooding pictures from Hurricane Sandy from Wikimedia.

[3] Tokyo skyline by Steffen Zimmermann from Pixabay. Tokyo rainbow overpass by xegxef from Pixabay. Japan flooded in 2011 in Tonoku and tsunami found in Wikimedia Commons.

[4] Tokyo Flood Tunnel form Wikimedia Commons.

[5] London skyline by night with Thames River by Skeeze from Pixabay.

[6] Thames Barrier (big view) by TheOtherKey from Pixabay. Golden Thames Barrier by Derek Sewell from Pixabay. Stormy clouds over the Thames River by David Mark from Pixabay. London flooding from NASA and Climatecentral.org used in theguardian.com.

[7] Future flooding in London by Climatecentral.com.

[8] Miami night skyline by Jorge 2015 from Pixabay.

[9] Miami flooding today and tomorrow; free images from NASA.

[10] Florida hurricane (Michael, category 5, October 10, 2018) by NASA.

[11] End Apocalypse–city underwater by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay (also on Facebook).

Article Review

Land – Locust Plague

“A plague amid a pandemic: East Africa and West Asia combat surging locust outbreak”

by Linda Givetash for

NBC News on June 22, 2020

Plague of Locusts and One Locust Devouring Mandarin Orange Leaf [1]

Deut 28:38 “You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it.”

Deut 28:21 “The pestilence [will] cling to you.

Rev 6:8 “Behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with . . . famine and pestilence.

Matt 9:35 “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

Rev 16:2 “The first angel went and poured out the first bowl on the earth; and it became (a serious disease).”

Desert locusts have rarely reached beyond biblical proportions, but spraying over 45 billion of these insects did not stop them. The FAO (the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization) stated that a one-kilometer swarm can consume in a single day the food that 35,000 people need. Now more than 20 million people across the Horn of Africa are already suffering with insufficient food supplies. A “hunger pandemic” arising from a combination of wars to the growing locust plague could lead to as many as 300,000 deaths a day from starvation by the end of the year.

Desert locusts only live three months, but under good conditions, such as global warming, they can multiply 20 fold in one generation. Climate change exacerbated the plague with plentiful rain, including two cyclones from the Indian Ocean, that provided lush vegetation in the desert where locusts could multiply unhindered. Such an outbreak has not hit in remembered history.

The coronavirus pandemic created another barrier (besides low funds, untrained peoples, and wars) to killing off the hoards darkening the skies across countries with a blanket of devastation. Without continuous help to stop the spread, these locusts could annihilate crops leaving millions of people in at least 23 countries hungry by the end of the year.

[1] “Plague of Locusts on the Move” by CSIRO, March 7, 2020, on Wikimedia Commons; Creative Commons Attribution (CCA) 3.0 Unported license. “Egyptian Locust” by Katja Schulz, December 17, 2015, on Wikimedia Commons; CCA 2.0 Generic license. Also on Flickr. Locust feeding on leaves of Mandarin Orange.

Article Review

Oceans – Warming

“Earth’s warming oceans store energy for destructive storms,” by Denise Chow January 14, 2020

Rev 8:9 “A third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died.”

Rev 16:3 Later “every living thing in the sea died.”

Rev 16:8-9 “The sun was given it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat.”

According to an article published January 13, 2020 in the Journal on Advances in Atmospheric Sciences by an international team of 14 scientists, the world’s oceans hit their warmest level in recorded history in 2019 providing more evidence that “the Earth is warming at an accelerated pace” due to global warming and climate change. Ocean temperatures in the past decade have been the warmest on record. “The pace of warming has increased about 500 percent since the late 1980s,” said John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, one of the article’s authors. “The warming is continuing, it has accelerated and it is unabated.”

Lijing Cheng, an associate professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing, and the lead author of the study, said, “The amount of heat we have put in the world’s oceans in the past 25 years equals to 3.6 billion Hiroshima atom bomb explosions.” The oceans have absorbed about 90% of the heat trapped on our planet by greenhouse gas emissions since 1970. Abraham noted, “Oceans are the biggest reservoir of heat and therefore the best indicator of climate change. If you want to know how fast the Earth is warming, look at the oceans.” Warming oceans put more energy into the atmosphere increasing extreme weather and intensifying storms. “It’s like putting the weather on steroids,” said Johnson.

Nick Bond, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, pointed out that warmer oceans expand, melt ice, and accelerate the pace of sea-level rise. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the sea-level rise could reach 3 feet by the end of the century dooming coastal cities and countries from Miami to Bangladesh. Warming water also holds more carbon dioxide (CO₂) making the water more acidic. Many sea creatures and corals are already struggling, some dying, because of increased ocean temperatures and acidification. Chief scientist at Oceana in Washington, D.C. said that ocean warming will have enormous impacts on fisheries around the world affecting the food security and livelihood of large numbers of people. If this trend continues, “it’s really dire news,” said Abraham.

[1] Retrieved on 1/14/2020 from

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstores/weather-on-steroids—-earths-warming-oceans-store-energy-for-destructive-storms-ar-BBYVcGs?ocid=spartandhp

Bible and Science Merge

Chapter 1 – Overview

Revelation is happening now.

The Bible and Science agree on the condition of this planet and where it is going: Extreme Weather and Destruction; Heat Waves and Fires; Dying Oceans and Sinking Islands; Megadroughts and Famines; Darkening Skies and Pollution; Revelation says, “The cities of the nations fell.” NASA’s James Hansen says global climate catastrophe is coming. Jesus says, *“You must be ready!”* [10]

Global warming, a pandemic, Arctic heatwaves, 500 ocean dead zones, locusts in 5 countries . . . the Bible and science agree; global collapse is coming.

The last book in the Bible, Jesus’ Revelation, is centered on His second coming to earth (Rev 1:7). Surrounding that advent are circumstances gradually leading up to the collapse of global civilization (the worst-case scenario of global warming, all the cities of the nations fall, the governments of men disintegrate, widespread famine, conflicts, disease, fires, and extreme weather perturb the peoples (Rev 6:12-17; 8; 16:19). These prophecies are echoed by top leaders from U.S. security agencies and armed forces as they study scientific evidence pouring in from around the world on climate change, increasing world population, and threats to life-sustaining resources all careening toward a critical threshold where the planet transitions into a new state more hostile to life.

Your first reaction is probably denial. I don’t blame you. I took years avoiding catastrophic verses (like all the cities of the nations would fall in Revelation) with “not me . . . not now . . . no how!” However, Jesus said to followers that His coming was going to like the days of Noah (Matt 24:37-44)–global collapse–and so like Noah, we must be ready, even if the rest of the world is not.

The 2020 world around us is careening toward catastrophic change: increasing death tolls from the covid-19 pandemic, Arctic Circle temperatures soaring in places over 100°F (30 to 40 degrees above normal), melting permafrost releasing a greenhouse gas (CH₄) far stronger than CO₂ that can cross a critical threshold into runaway global warming, NASA Satellites taking photos of raging record-breaking fires across continents, 50% of the Arctic ice has melted in 40 years, 90% of the big fish in the oceans are gone, massive outbreak of locusts swarms (which spraying and killing 45 billion of the little beasts did not stop) across East Africa and West Asia devouring crops in five countries and placing 20 million people in famine, . . . The diseases, fires, plagues, global warming is all in Jesus’ Revelation. The Bible and science agree, the maelstrom is coming across the horizon.

It is past time to start building our arks. Both Jesus and scientists say a global storm like never before is coming. I want to convince you through the Bible and science (the study of God’s creation on this planet) that Revelation is happening today; that scientists across nations are terrified for good reason. It may not peak until the lives of our kids or grandkids, but we need that time to shift paradigms, to build our families and churches with a whole new perspective in a whole new purpose–not one of comfort, wealth, and entertainment, but of survival physically, spiritually, and emotionally as vicious feedback cycles of disintegrating, interrelated systems careen our planet on a collision course with global collapse.

There are several ways this book can be read. The first (and most comprehensive) way is one chapter at a time like a normal book. The other way is to choose a section to peruse. The first section lays a biblical foundation to understand accurate interpretation of the Bible, and then the greater context of why and how global collapse will happen from a theological study of what God has said. That is chapters 1 through 8. The next section (chapters 9-13) will delve into the science that is currently fulfilling the prophecies. Chapter 14 will summarize this huge global system in a few charts. The last chapter (15) will help you to pick up the hammer and start building your “ark.” How do we get ready for global catastrophe and hopefully decrease the suffering of our families, friends, and churches?

Let’s start with a table of contents (also found in the three-dot menu at the top and at the bottom of each post/chapter), then end with a sample of what the Bible and science are talking about.

TABLE OF CONTENTS and EXCERPTS OF CHAPTERS

1. Overview

Science proves prophecy is taking place today.

2. Revelation in the 21^st Century

For the first time in history, the fulfillment of prophecies surrounding the second coming is not only possible, but probable.

3. Biblical Laws and Sublaws (Sound Hermeneutics) for Truth

Truth reveals reality.

4. Rules for Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature

A literal hermeneutic unlocks biblical mysteries.

5. Deuteronomy 28 and Revelation

God warned that He would remove life-sustaining resources.

6. The Prophets and Revelation

God’s judgment of sin can bring down a nation or a planet.

7. The Complex, Global System of Revelation

God’s judgment affects global lands, oceans, terrestrial waters, and skies.

8. The First Four Trumpets, Bowls, and Seals in Revelation

This vicious cycle will cause the fall of earth’s civilization.

9. Land in Revelation and Science

A third of the earth will be burned up (Rev 8:7).

10. Oceans in Revelation and Science

A third–increasing to all–creatures in the oceans will die (Rev 8:9; 16:3).

11. Terrestrial Waters in Revelation and Science

A third of the waters will decimate human populations (Rev 8:10-11; 16:4-7).

12. Skies in Revelation and Science

A third of the skies will be transformed until people on earth are scorched with fierce heat (Rev 8:12; 16:8-9).

13. Extreme Weather in Revelation and Science

Global warming will cause catastrophic climate change wreaking havoc and chaos.

14. Charts

Charts provide a visual overview of Revelation and associated passages on what happens just before and after the second coming of Christ.

15. Surviving the Collapse of Civilization: “Noah Now”

“Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste,” (Isa 24; Rev 6:12-17).

OVERVIEW

Dear Friend,

It is time to bring Revelation into the 21^st century. Prophecies in the Bible are roaring across the horizon of humanity and even unbelievers across the nations are sounding alarms.

In depth knowledge of these breaking events and research from the Bible often correlated with current international science, is presented in this website. Revelation is now – we must be ready!

Sidebar: There is good science and bad science, just like there is good theology and bad theology. The only way to achieve “good” is to follow the biblical laws for the discovery of truth–which, by the way, are the foundation of good science (c.f. chapter 3). Theologians and scientists who do not follow these laws of God end in error. Those who do, greatly increase their power to understand reality.

Jesus said in the Bible, “You must be ready,” (Matt 22:42). The Bible is God’s only word to humankind. It is the highest and final authority about and over whatever it speaks. God is universally sovereign, even over climate change. Good science is the accurate study of God’s creation, including climate change. Today, science is echoing biblical prophecies with terrifying predictions.[1]

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, . . . You also must be ready,” (Matt 24:37, 44). Noah was awake and took action to be ready for the coming global judgment–the collapse of civilization. It took him one hundred years to get ready. Jesus gave him as our example. Since he started long before he saw the approaching darkness, and we can now see storm clouds rising on the horizon, time is short. “When you see all these things, recognize that He is near,” (Matt 24:33).

I include below an abbreviated sample from one post on how Bible prophecy and science predictions are emerging and merging before the world today.

The Second Trumpet and Second Bowl: The Death of the Oceans

Revelation 8:8-9 and 16:3

The second trumpet in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, sounds the death of one-third of the creatures in the seas. The second bowl pours out death on all of the creatures in the seas. Revelation is global. According to this context, the word “seas” in the New Testament represents every ocean on the planet. The transition from the death of a third to all living creatures in the oceans reveals a process taking place over time. Sometimes God’s judgment was immediate (Sodom). Many times God’s judgment took years (the droughts during the days of Joseph and Elijah) as He showed mercy giving widespread knowledge of coming catastrophes and time to repent and to prepare. Revelation gave us time. That time is coming to a close; for the first time in history, every general and specific prophecy of His coming has a high probability of fulfillment in this century, including the gospel being preached to all the nations before the second coming of Jesus (Matt 24:14).

Death in the Oceans According to Revelation and Science

Revelation says that a third progressing to all the sea creatures in the oceans will die. In 1950, there were 45 dead zones in the oceans around the world; zones so devoid of oxygen or so toxic that fish could not survive. Research in 2008 counted 405 dead zones in oceans around the world and this number is growing.[2] As of 2018, Britain’s top newspaper, The Guardian, reported “at least 500 dead zones have now been reported near coasts” around the world.[3] Professor Robert Diaz at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science emphasizes not only “the increasing expansion of coastal dead zones [but the] decline in open ocean oxygen” that will lead to “severe and persistent mortality of fisheries.”[4]

The oceans’ fisheries (large populations of different species of fish) are dying from rising temperatures, anoxia, pollution, overfishing, and plagues due to tropic cascades (i.e. kill off predators–like the harvest of 274,000 sharks every day–and a plague of jellyfish destroys fisheries).

“In 2003, a scientific report estimated that industrial fishing had reduced the number of large ocean fish to just 10 percent of their preindustrial population.”[5] Ninety percent of the large fish in the oceans are gone. Regarding all the fish, large and small in the oceans: 53% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, 32% are overexploited or depleted, and the top ten marine fisheries (30% of the fish) are fully or overexploited.[6] “The global fishing fleet is 2.5 times larger than what the oceans can sustainably support–meaning that humans take far more fish from the ocean than can be replaced naturally.”[7] “Led by the sushi market in Japan, the global demand for succulent tuna meat has driven stocks of the once ubiquitous species to the brink of collapse. Fisheries in the Mediterranean . . . are in particular peril, with some studies showing highly prized blue fin tuna near extinction there.”[8] The Atlantic cod and California’s sardines were harvested to the brink of extinction by the mid-1900s. The Peruvian anchovy fisheries crashed in the 1970s. The cod fishery off Newfoundland collapsed in the 1990s. The sole fisheries in the Irish Sea and English Channel are close to shutting down. Pacific herring is down 71% and Atlantic herring down 63%. By 1989, 90 million tonnes per year of catch were being taken from the oceans crossing the peak of production. “Unless the current situation improves, stocks of all species currently fished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048.”[9] The World Health Organization states that one billion people on the planet depend on fish as their primary protein source.

Conclusion

We can hear the second trumpet loudly sounding. We can see the second bowl slowly pouring. They are indicative of all first four trumpets and bowls in Revelation heralding the disintegration of our planet’s lands, oceans, terrestrial waters, and skies–a vicious, complex feedback system revealed through science–in preparation for the eventual collapse of civilization; a state so severe that nations will clamor for one man to unite them, to control the chaos, to bring back peace and prosperity. He will have forty-two months (Rev 13:5). The world will worship him for his accomplishments, but he will do so at an unconscionable price (2 Thess 2:1-4). The good news is that after this man of lawlessness unifies the nations, the Lord Jesus will come back to earth. These are the signs of His return. Jesus said,

“You must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming,” (Matt 24:44).

This site is about the coming downfall of global civilization according to Revelation’s first four trumpets, bowls, and seals and other scriptures. Like the days of Noah, this catastrophe will be global (Matt 24:37-39, 44). I will lay a foundation of biblical and scientific knowledge for you to see how serious and urgent it is for us to shift paradigms; we must stop dancing on the Titanic and start building our arks.

Dr. B. A. Vannah

[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.

[2] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ocean-dead-zones/ “What Causes Ocean “Dead Zones?” September 25, 2012.

[3] Damian Carrington, “Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn,” January 4, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.the guardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating/

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] World Wildlife Federation (WWF Global), “Unsustainable fishing.” Retrieved from http://wwf.panda.org/about_out_eart/blue_planet/problems/problems_fishing/

[7] World Wildlife Federation, “Overfishing-the plundering of our oceans.” Retrieved from http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work/

[8] Retrieved from http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-overfishing/

[9] B. Worm et. al., (2006), “Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services.” Science, 314:787.

[10] Images in order of appearance: “Lightning and Tornado Over Village” by Ralph W. Lambrecht from Pexels.com; “Fire Seasons Getting Longer” by climate.nasa.gov.; Turtle in Dead Reef by Belle Co on pexels.com; “Cracked brown soil” by redcharlie from Unsplash; Smoke Pollution Sunset on Pixabay; “Staring Down Hurricane Florence” from nasa.gov; “City Disaster End of the World“–Free Photo on Pixabay. James Hansen, “Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity,” (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009).

Dynamics of Global Collapse

Chapter 8 – The First Four Trumpets, Bowls, and Seals in Revelation

This vicious cycle will cause the fall of earth’s civilization.

Revelation 8:7-12; 16:1-10; 61-8

Forest fires destroy trees (a carbon sink) and emit smoke (a carbon source) which increase global warming (heat) which increases the strength, length, and breadth of forest fires, which increases global warming (heat) . . . . See the feedback cycle getting stronger and stronger? [9]

Global warming (like hitting into the 90’s to 100’s degree F above the Arctic Circle in 2020) causes Arctic ice (which is white and reflects heat) to melt leaving more ocean water (which is dark and absorbs heat) thus warming the Arctic Pole 2xs faster than anywhere else on earth (except the South Pole which is 3xs faster) causing more global warming which melts more ice . . . . See the feedback cycle getting stronger and stronger? [9]

Global warming causes Arctic ice to melt on land with permafrost (containing methane) and sea (containing methane hydrates) releasing the methane into gas which is 23xs stronger than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. More methane in the atmosphere increases global warming which melts more ice . . . . See the feedback cycle getting stronger and stronger? [9]

Understanding context and patterns in the trumpets, bowls, and seals reveals Revelation’s dynamics for the global collapse of civilization.

Context

Revelation is global (all tribes, peoples, tongues, nations).[1] The theme of Revelation is the second coming of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:7) and how that affects everyone on the planet. The context is what happens directly before, during, and after Jesus’ return to earth. Therefore, the first four (4) seals, trumpets, and bowls all refer to global situations or events surrounding His second coming. Once the biblical linguistics is understood, the biblical dynamics of global collapse can be illuminated.

In the global context of Revelation’s trumpets and bowls, the word “sea” refers to all the “oceans.”[2] The word “springs” (underground water) refers to all the aquifers and water tables. The word “rivers” (above-ground water) includes lakes and streams. “Trees” refers to all the forests and orchards on earth. “Grass” refers to all the prairies, meadows, savannah, grazing lands, and tundra. “Sea creatures” refers to all the fish, crustaceans, and mammals in the oceans. “Sun scorching men” refers to global warming affecting everyone under the sun.

Syntax

Syntax–the study of patterns of formation in sentences and phrases–in the first four (4) of the trumpets, the bowls, and the seals is extremely consistent and thus, critical for understanding and indispensable for accurate interpretation. Understanding the context and patterns reveals Revelation’s dynamics for the global collapse of civilization surrounding the second coming of Jesus. [3]

The simplified pattern is this: Each of the seven trumpets or bowls or seals ALWAYS starts with symbolic (metaphorical) language representing the literal power of the spiritual world of heaven above “throwing down” judgment to earth below and ALWAYS ends with mostly literal language representing the consequences of God’s judgment coming upon the physical earth. The beginning (Part A) is spiritual (invisible)—coming from the heavenly realm. It is metaphorical of God’s power. The ending (Part B) is physical (visible)—what happens on earth. It is literal portraying what will happen on earth. That pattern does not change across the first four trumpets, first four bowls, and first four seals.

Here is the nutshell of how to determine which words are figurative (symbolic, metaphorical) and which words are literal (concrete, tangible reality) in apocalyptic literature such as Revelation. Take everything literally, except: Anything that breaks major hermeneutical rules (sublaws of truth); anything that contradicts Scripture (i.e. God is a bird—Scripture says He is literally spirit, omnipresent, creator of the universe, . . . birds don’t qualify etc.), and anything that would be absurd–if taken literally—(like God has wings, thus, He is a bird). “Wings” is metaphorical. Reference to hiding under His “wings” is metaphorical for His protection just as a mother bird protects her chicks.

“Hide me in the shadow of Your wings,” Psalm 17:8. Jesus “saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit descending like a dove upon Him, ” Mark 1:10.

[6]

Blood was thrown down from heaven to earth (1^st trumpet) and the sun was struck (4^thtrumpet) both occur in the first half of each trumpet’s passage; they are absurd images. Clouds do not drip literal blood all over the earth (Revelation is global). Striking (defined by OT meanings as a mortal attack, Exod 12:12) the sun would lead to a solar-system annihilation. If taken literally, blood-from-heaven and striking-the-sun would be absurd. OT studies show these two phrases symbolically represent the wrath/judgment/power of God coming down on sinful humankind. Jesus’ says, “Fear God . . . because the hour of His judgment has come” on the earth (Rev 14:7). The symbolic interpretation of the blood and sun passages in these two trumpets fit OT meanings for symbolic words and the context of the book of Revelation. The literal-absurdity hermeneutic rule proves that the first half of each trumpet is metaphorical.

We can reasonably assume that the pattern for Part A is consistent across the trumpets. However, let’s take one more example. The great flaming mountain thrown to earth (2^ndtrumpet, Rev 8:8) is either metaphorical or a global-killer asteroid. Since Revelation does not wipe all advanced life off the planet or talk of a global winter, a literal interpretation is absurd. In Revelation 8:8-9, Part A of the passage is symbolic and Part B is literal as in all of the first 4 trumpets.

“The second angel sounded [his trumpet], and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and a third of the ships were destroyed” (Revelation 8:8-9).

[7]

How do we know an asteroid the size of a mountain would be a global killer? The Chicxulub Crater on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico was caused by such a flaming mountain.

Image from NASA’s Shuttle Radar revealing a ring of cenotes (sinkholes usually filled with water) showing outline of the Chicxulub Crater. [8]

Here is what scientists discovered (does this sound anything like Revelation?): The asteroid had a 6 to 50 mile diameter (about the size of Mt. Everest). It hit Mexico at 45,000 m.p.h. with the force of 100 trillion tons of TNT (more than a billion times the energy of the atomic bombs that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Ground zero superheated to 16,000°F; melted rock; sent out 2,000 m.p.h. shockwaves; created 300’ megatsunamis, megaquakes, and volcanic eruptions around the globe; catapulted 70 billion tons of soot into the atmosphere around the world (found by scientists in layers of mountains on the other side of the world); hurled 500 billion tons of debris into the air; caused a global firestorm from superheating the atmosphere; ignited the after-splash of debris exploding back into the sky after the impact and then–falling back down to earth–set fields and forests aflame around the planet. When global fires stopped, then came years of volcanic winters because of all the soot and high concentrations of SO₂in the atmosphere. (Revelation does not talk about a rapid-cooling earth or global winters). Within a few years, the volcanic gas of SO₂dropped out of the sky as acid rain (killing plants and poisoning terrestrial waters, fish, etc. with sulfuric acid). However, the gaseous volcanic CO₂ (a greenhouse gas) remained in the atmosphere for centuries and as soon as SO₂was out of earth’s skies (SO₂shields and cools earth), the CO₂shot the global temperature up by 10˚F. That’s global warming by 10˚F!!! The global food chain was shattered (first by global winter then by a global furnace). There was a 70% extinction rate of plants and larger animals that included the death of larger animals such as all the dinosaurs. (Paleologists found no more dinosaur bones in layers of earth above the layer displaying the Chicxulub impact causing a global cataclysm.) Remember, this paper is talking about Revelation’s collapse of civilization accompanied by global heat—men “scorched” but still alive and complaining about it (Rev 16:8-9)—not a global furnace incinerating or starving everyone. Larger animals (including Homosapiens) would not survive a global winter followed by a 10˚F rise of global warming.

Metaphorical is reasonable. The fiery mountain thrown down from heaven is God’s judgment in many ways (Rev 4:7). Global extinction is not.

A great star from heaven (not an anachronistic missile from one place on earth to another, but “from heaven”) in the 3^rdtrumpet, is also not literal; stars do not literally fall to earth.

The first phrase (Part A) in the four trumpets always starts from the spiritual realm of heaven metaphorically declaring the great power of God being thrown down to earth to execute His judgment on (Part B) the literal physical earth (Rev 18:10).

More Consistent Patterns across the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls

Linguistic patterns are important for accurate interpretation.

In the chart below, note the consistent structure of the trumpets and bowls: The first in both the trumpet and the bowl is land. The second in both is sea. The third in both is waters. The fourth in both is skies. This structure is important: the first trumpet progresses to the first bowl; the second trumpet to the second bowl; the third to the third; and the fourth to the fourth. Land (1^st trumpet) is tied to land (1^st bowl); seas (2^nd trumpet) to sea (2^nd bowl); waters to waters; skies to skies. Each trumpet is connected to its respective bowl. This pattern manifests progressive interaction and growth between a trumpet and its respective bowl (second trumpet to second bowl).

However, science also reveals that land, oceans, waters, and skies are a complex interactive system. So there is direct interaction between the 2^nd trumpet and the 2^nd bowl, but there is also interaction between the 2^nd trumpet and the other trumpets and the other bowls.

The bowls are not separated from the trumpets. The bowls, to a limited extent, follow the trumpets but also interact with the trumpets in a feedback system. One third death in the seas (2^nd trumpet) is followed by everything dead in the seas (2^nd bowl). However, mankind scorched with heat and with fire (4^th bowl) influences the burning of a third of the earth (1^st trumpet). The numbering of first through fourth does not signify sequential order in the chronology of events; it is there to link the trumpet and bowls together.

Here is what the structure shows that the trumpets and bowls do. For clarity, start with the second trumpet and the second bowl. In the second trumpet, 1/3 of the fish in the oceans die. In the second bowl, all of the fish in the oceans die. This shows progress–from bad to worse. This shows an interrelationship between the 2^nd trumpet and the 2^nd bowl.

The Dynamics of Global Collapse

Earth’s lands, oceans, waters, and skies along with population growth and limited resources, are in a complex web of interaction, some of which are in states of destructive disintegration worsening the ecosystem of the planet heading into global collapse. In other words, everything affects everything for either good or ill, and right now, the planet is getting sicker (more aversive to life).

In reality elucidated by science and the Bible; the land, seas, waters, and skies are in a complex system that has over a dozen feedback cycles that–occurring today–gradually worsen the condition of the planet, decrease life-sustaining resources, and eventually lead to global collapse. Forty billion tons of the greenhouse gas CO₂are pumped into our atmosphere every year from human emissions (changing the state of our atmosphere as found in the 4^th trumpet and 4^th bowl). (1)The warmer the skies, the more ice at the poles melts, the less reflection of heat by ice (white) from the sun, the more the dark (ice-free) waters of the ocean absorbs the heat, the warmer it gets. (2) The warmer it gets the more frequent, intense, and extended are forest fires. The more trees that burn (increasing a carbon source and decreasing a carbon sink) the more carbon dioxide (CO₂) goes into the atmosphere, thus, the warmer it gets, causing more forest fires. They are linked, interactive, and feedback.

These feedback cycles are not the worst. (3) The real bad boy is methane (CH₄). There are 1.4 trillion tons of CH₄–a greenhouse gas at least 23 times stronger than CO₂–located in the Arctic permafrost, which is melting across Alaska, Siberia, and the rest of the Arctic Circle today releasing CH₄! Areas in the Arctic that used to have permafrost year around are hitting temperatures over 100°F in the summer of 2020—temperatures not expected until 2100. So, the warmer the atmosphere, the more permafrost that melts, the more CH₄is released into the atmosphere, the warmer it gets.. Today, that cycle stops in winter. But sometimes, mid-winter temperatures soar above freezing in the Arctic and CH₄ is released! As it gets warmer, more days in winter (much less summer) will soar. The day will come when a critical threshold is passed that will release CH₄ year around speeding up atmospheric warming until nothing can stop it. Scientists call this “runaway global warming.” It is this critical threshold (tipping point, hockey stick change from linear to nonlinear rapid rising) that pushes global warming off the charts.

It may be that this change of state from gradual to catastrophic warming (crossing the tipping point or critical threshold) all over the planet occurs when the first four trumpets transition into the first four bowls (when 33% of the sea life dying over decades suddenly transitions to kill 100% of the sea life in a few years: the second trumpet leading into the second bowl). Or more likely, interactive systems between land, oceans, waters, and skies spiral together in a vicious feedback with ever worsening conditions. When God’s wrath is poured out in the bowls, earth’s geo- and ecosystems will go over the cliff in catastrophic disaster–the Euphrates dies up, armies march to Armageddon (Har-Magedon)–and everything spiraling and synergizing together causes the collapse of civilization (and eventually, the end of the Antichrist’s global rule and the beginning of Christ’s global reign).[3]

This is what God has done in the past–the removal of life resources until sin-filled men are on their knees turning back to Him. Except this time, all the nations of earth will rage against the Son of God who has returned and is back in Jerusalem.[4] This rejection of His Son calls out the wrath of the Father, which will remove or diminish multiple life resources through the first four trumpets, bowls, and seals (crops, herds, fish, orchards, forests, waters, leading to climate migrations, diseases and plagues, conquests, wars, famines) causing extreme suffering and massive death, until every leader is hiding in caves, every government has disintegrated, and every person on the planet is on their knees before the Son of God.[5]

Consider the destructive cycle involving the first four seals, trumpets, and bowls:

First 4 Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls Comparing Part A (Metaphorical) and Part B (Literal)

Having considered how earth’s land, oceans, terrestrial waters, and skies are an interactive system with feedback loops causing a vicious cycle that warms the planet and decreases life-sustaining resources, let us now look to science in the next four chapters to determine how scientific discoveries and predictions are showing the terrifying fulfillment of these biblical prophecies in Revelation in these four areas as God’s judgment emerges on this planet.

As you peruse the scientific evidence supporting biblical prophecies in the next chapters, consider the sources. Are they following the biblical laws of truth? In other words, are these sources credible according to God’s standards? These chapters cite studies from experts like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association), investigative reports in nationally known reputable newspapers, major scientific journals, and an international association of top scientists from major countries (IPCC, the International Panel on Climate Change). Assessing the credibility of witnesses is part of the laws of truth. Are these true scientists: impartial, basing their conclusions on empirical evidence, scientific investigations, highly educated in a relevant field, with peer-reviews (“2 or more eyewitnesses of credible (expert) backgrounds”–biblical laws), objectively seeking the truth of what is happening in reality no matter where it leads or whatever the cost? Or are they a former employee of big oil company fighting off carbon tax by denying global warming? Some oil companies deny global warning while buying/leasing Arctic lands and ocean fronts as they anticipate the melting ice sheets and huge oil or gas reserves buried below! Are the sources prejudice, bias, holding hidden agendas, politically motivated, accepting bribes or jobs from fossil fuel companies paying millions to discredit tens of thousands of top scientists and influence politicians? Are the sources cited? Could you find and verify these sources?

If you are around climate-change deniers, consider their sources and levels of expertise, their motives, their numbers in comparison to every major scientific association across all major nations on the planet warning that global warming is happening and, if it continues, will cause global catastrophe. I have lost count of how many good friends have argued against me citing, “A friend of mine said that an (unnamed) scientist from an (unknown) place said that. . .” or “I know scientists that contradict your scientists” (but they can’t cite one name or institution or association these scientists come from). Some follow conclusions from politicians or “scientists” strongly associated with political institutions, not good science.

NASA wrote an article entitled “Scientific Consensus: Earth’s Climate is Warming (https:climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consenus/) which includes a graph using data across countries on global temperature rise between 1880 and 2020 is displayed. Among them were the American Medical Association (AMA), American Meteorological Society, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Global Change Research Program (a federal agency), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA, a federal agency), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with top scientists across major countries), and a lot more.

SIDE BAR: There are two types of thinkers. First type studies all the relevant facts then discovers the conclusion from those facts. This is logic. Second type starts with their conclusion, then picks out facts to support it. The conclusion is usually based on personal gain, power, popularity, price, politics, some other hidden agenda or logical irrelevancy. We either start with the facts and let these facts portray the conclusion, or we start with a conclusion and then pick out facts to create the desired conclusion. The first type of thinking sets truth as the highest priority. The second type of thinking sets something other than truth as the highest priority.

When scientists start with a thorough investigation of the facts and evidence (a biblical law for discerning truth, Deut 13:14; 19:18) through scientific experimentation, they are clear thinkers seeking truth in the physical realm (even if they are unbelievers in the spiritual realm, Rom 2:14-15). When people start with heavy bias or prejudice, opinions, hearsay, speculation, grapevine, conjecture, unsubstantiated sources, irrelevant authorities (like a politician giving medical advice), their thinking is muddied with logical irrelevancies (not associated with actual truth). Logical irrelevancies darken, dampen, damage, or even destroy truth.

IRRELEVANCY: If you wonder what my politics are (am I biased or prejudiced one way or the other), may I be transparent? To the best of my ability, I make decisions issue by issue based on the Bible, not based on a political party. In the preceding presidential elections, I could not vote for anyone who strongly supported positions in opposition to one or more of God’s major commands (laws so heavy that breaking them demanded the death penalty in the OT). Therefore, for my presidential choice, I wrote on my ballot “Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” I know He is coming back one day and will be the King of all kings over all nations. He already has my vote.

Whatever scientists (or politicians) we follow, compare what they say to what God says in the Bible. The top scientists cited in the following chapters are—unbeknownst to them—finding evidence and making predictions in total accord with Jesus’ prophecies in the areas under consideration. When scientists studying creation agree with the Creator’s words about His creation, we have the truth from two valid sources.

Lastly, in the following chapters, only the literal second half (Part B) of each trumpet, bowl, or seal describing what happens on earth will be considered. The first half, Part A, usually describing metaphorically the great power that is thrown down by God from the spiritual heaven, will be omitted. Science only deals with the physical world, as does the second part (Part B) of the first four trumpets, bowls, and seals in Revelation.

[1] Rev 7:9; 10:11; 11:9; 17:15.

[2] Rev 10:11, “peoples, nations, tongues, kings.” 11:9, “peoples, tribes, tongues, nations.” 11:18, “nations.” 12:5, “rule all the nations.” 14:8, “all the nations.” 15:3-4, “all the nations.”16:19, “cities of the nations.” 17:15, “peoples, multitudes, nations, tongues.” 18:3, 23, “all the nations.” 19:15; 20:3, 8; 21:24, 26; 22:2, “the nations.”

[3] The collapse of global civilization is found in Rev 6:15-17 when kings desert their thrones, governments fall, and all the powerful hide from “the wrath of the Lamb.” Then, every knee will bow to the Son of God on earth ruling from Jerusalem (Rom 14:11; Phil 2:10; Rev 14:1. “For the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,” Isa 24:23; Psa 48:2; Joel 3:16-21).

[4] Rev 11:17-18; 17:14; Psa 2.

[5] Rev 11:17-18, “You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign [Jesus starting His reign on earth in Jerusalem over Israel]. And the nations were enraged [the Antichrist ignited the nations against Him and launched the world into Har-Magedon], and Your wrath came [God poured out the bowls of wrath in response to Har-Magedon against His Son, and determined] to destroy those who destroy the earth.” The parallel passage is in Rev 17:14, “These will wage war against the Lamb” and “They gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon,” (Rev 16:16).

[6] “Flying Dove” Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

[7] “Impact Event” image by Fredrik (for NASA) who released it into the public domain. Found on Wikimedia Commons. C.f. Article. The “Chicxulub Impact Event” took place in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and land on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. By Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) supported by NASA and part of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) for prominent U.S. scientists (2019).

[8] “The Chicxulub Crater” Diagrams on Yucatan Peninsula taken from imaging from NASA’s Shuttle Radar.

[9]“Forest Fire and Smoke” Image by skeeze from Pixabay. “Polar Bear on Melting Ice in Arctic” by Coco Parisienne from Pixabay (License on https://pixabay.com/service/license). “Melting Ice in Arctic and Releasing Methane” by tps from Pixabay.

[10] “Pollution in Malaysia” free on Pexels.com.

First Trumpet and Bowl in Revelation

Chapter 9 – Land in Revelation and Science

A third of the earth will be burned up.

Burning earth includes fires, droughts, deforestation, and pests destroying massive forests decreasing carbon sinks and increasing carbon sources.

Rev 8:7 [Part A] The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and [Part B] 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.

Rev 16:2 [Part A] The first angel went and poured out his bowl in the earth; and [Part B] it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.

NOTE: Part A is mostly symbolic (except the angel(s) is real). Hail, fire, and blood, as well as, pouring out the bowl on earth represent the tremendous power of God coming down from heaven onto the earth to execute His judgment (Rev 14:7). Part B is literal. Please look at NASA’s yearly “Wildfires from Space” showing satellite photos from space taken by MODIS revealing massive fires all over the earth.[1]

The word for “burned” in Revelation 8:7 is used three times, but the word “fire” is not there. Some may assume that the land, trees, and grass burn only from fire. However, vegetation can be “burned” by heat waves, droughts, pests, even “ice burns” as in the tundra due to warming, as well as literal conflagrations.

Global temperature rise is generating heat waves and droughts, desiccating soils and vegetation, augmenting ferocity and frequency of fires. The increasing numbers of forest fires are in direct proportion to earth’s rising temperatures.[2] Since atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂)and global temperatures are steadily increasing, it is no surprise that most of earth’s warming has taken place in the last 35 years, with the six warmest years on record since 2014–every year to 2020 (as I write).[3] The USDA reported that around the world, fire seasons are an average of 78 days longer than they were in 1970, and the number of acres scorched each year has doubled since 1980. The hotter it gets, the worse the fires. Forests cool lands, store water, and release water vapor necessary for rain. The fewer forests, the less water, the worse the fires, (the more greenhouse gases go into the atmosphere), the worse the heat; a dearth of forests creates hotter weather. Hotter weather ignites hotter fires.

“By most accounts, deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world’s roads” (transportation is 14% and deforestation is 15%).[4] By August 2019, the Brazilian Amazon had 75,336 fires since January. This number exceeded the previous year by 85%. Brazil’s space research agency (INPE) said that humans were primarily to blame due to slash and burn. NASA’s Earth Observatory released images showing the smoke was so bad that it darkened the skies above São Paulo at midday.[5] Twenty percent of the Amazon has already burned down. At the current rate of burning, the Amazon will be savannah or desert by 2100.

This is one of the feedback cycles fueling global warming. According to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), half the world’s forests have been cleared by deforestation. In 2017, humanity destroyed an expanse of tropical forest nearly the size of England.[6] According to researchers from the University of Maryland, a third of that area (14,000 sq. mi.) was primary rainforest. In 2015, massive forests burned in Indonesian islands presenting serious health threats to millions of people across Southeast Asia.[7]

Global warming is already igniting unprecedented mega-fires and extending fire seasons in the U.S. “Between 1950 and 2000 the number of major fires on the American continent increased from two per decade to fifty per decade.”[8] Randy Anderson, a twenty-four-year head wilderness firefighter pointed out that in 1987, the biggest fire in the western U.S. was the Dude Fire burning 20,000 acres, shocking everyone. “Today, we’re seeing 400,000 acre fires.”[9] The U.S. Forest Service reports that “each year, an average of more than 73,000 wildfires burn about 7 million acres of private, state and federal land and more than 2,600 structures.”[10]

In the California fires of 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2015, an average of a million acres were burned in each of those years.[11] The governor of California stated, “There’s no more fire season, we have wildfires year around.”[12] Over the last 10 years, an average of 745,000 acres burned per year in that one state. According to Harvard University scientists, the area burned by wildfires in the American West is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2050 due to rising heat and drought; the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies by 175 percent.[13] By 2018, the biggest fires in California’s history raged across the country. “In California, 15 of the 20 largest fires in state history have burned since 2000.”[14]

It is no surprise that the most damaging fires are on the West Coast where droughts and heat are pounding the land. The East Coast has the least amount of fire damage, a fact that is correlated to the projection of increasing the intensity of Atlantic hurricanes with more Category 4s and 5s, as well as greater rainfall rates in hurricanes. So the West will be hotter and dryer, especially in spring and summer (augmenting fires), while the East will be warmer and wetter, especially in fall, winter, and spring (suppressing fires).[15]

Tom Swetnam, professor at the University of Arizona, is a world expert on tree rings and has samples going back 3,000 years. He concludes that over the last hundred years the climate impact on forests has been hotter and dryer increasing the number of fires, the length of fire seasons, and the intensity of fires making them six times more destructive as they cover six times more area than they did between 1970 to 1986. Forest fires have become so hot, that they “burn through the soil, so that the soil erodes, and it can take trees up to a thousand years to grow back.”[16] Because of global warming, the wildfire season is now averaging 78 days longer than it did just 30 years ago.[17]

Due to the warming climate, the bark beetle has doubled its reproductive cycle and expanded its territory from lower California, across the Rockies, far into Canada and Alaska unleashing a plague that has killed 45 million acres of pines devastating entire forests into a tinder box of dead trees just waiting for one match or one lightning strike.[18] Diana Six, professor of Forest Entomology and Pathology at the University of Montana, who has been studying this pest for sixteen years, stated, “The death of all the trees from beetles and fires is setting off a vicious cycle. All the carbon released by the dead trees will speed up the rate of climate change which will only lead to higher temperature, more beetles, and more fires.”[19] This is a positive feedback loop. A few decades ago, Canada and Alaska were cold enough to kill the beetles and keep their numbers small allowing forests to survive. Today, the beetles are so comfortable with the rising temperatures that they have reached plague-of-locust proportions, killing tens of millions of acres of forests, preparing them for the fire, and moving on. “All the trees . . . shall the (insects) consume.”[20]

During the 2003 European heat wave, 71,000 people died from the heat while goliath forest fires scorched dry terrain equal to the size of Luxembourg, consuming orchards, houses, and eighteen lives. Such wildfires will become increasingly common in Spain, southern France, Turkey, and the Balkans, as the subtropical arid belt moves northward spreading Sahara-like weather into southern Europe.

Warming climate will turn extensive boreal forests (found in a continuous belt across northern Alaska, Canada, and Eurasia) into a carbon-and-methane time bomb.[21] The boreal area is also called the taiga, a Russian word for a swampy, damp forest. The boreal forest is the largest forest ecosystem on the planet comprising 11 percent of earth’s terrestrial surface. Unlike most temperate and tropical forests where carbon is predominantly stored in living trees, 80 percent of the carbon in boreal forests is in the soil.[22] About 231 billion metric tons of carbon is stored in boreal soils, while 58 billion tons of carbon is stored in live vegetation.[23] The world’s boreal forests–plants and soils–contain more than one-third of the planet’s terrestrial stores of carbon, which if released would have a disastrous effect pushing the climate past tipping points into run away global warming.[24]

CBS News reported on the morning of June 21, 2020 that the hottest temperature ever has been recorded for the Arctic at the town of Verkhoyansk (67.5°) at 100.7°F, which is 32 degrees above normal and almost unheard of. Usually this town is one of the coldest spots on Earth. As a result of hot-dry conditions, numerous fires rage nearby and smoke is visible for thousands of miles on Satellite images. Parts of Siberia have been toasting for weeks remarkably above normal since January. Above the Arctic Circle, Khatanga hit 78°F (46 degrees above normal and shattered the previous record by an astounding 22 degrees). The average heat across Russia from January to May 2020 is so shocking because these temperatures were projected for 2100. Last summer, Markusvinsa in Sweden in the Arctic Circle hit 94.6°F. With the warming and drying, unprecedented Arctic fires made summer 2019 the very worst fire season on record.[25] Imagine how those temperatures are thawing the “perma”frost and releasing the methane all across northern Russia!

In 2016, there were over 30,000 fires burning 3 million acres in the U.S. In 2015, wildfires burned more than 10 million acres. “Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate that by 2050, the total amount of acreage burned annually will be at least twice as high as it is today” due to global warming.[26] During the same time, Canada was evacuating 88,000 people. (“One of the largest evacuations in North America,” said Bill Stewart, the co-director of the University of California’s Center for Fire Research at UC Berkeley). They lost 1,600 structures in the Fort McMurray fires that burned over 1,000 sq. km. (about 386 sq. mi.).

In the summer of 2019, Europe suffered another scorching heat wave that headed into Greenland melting the top of the mile-deep ice sheet (which is usually the coldest place and never melts). At the same time in northern Russia and Siberia, more than 100 “intense and long-lived wildfires” broke records for over two months cloaking more than 4.5 million sq. km. (almost 2 million sq. mi. remembering that the U.S. is 3.5 million sq. mi.) in smoke visible from space. Satellite photos over the North Pole showed over half the land mass in flames from boreal and Arctic wildfires breaking records in scale and duration. Ice in the Arctic and Greenland is melting at record-breaking levels.[27] In the summer of 2019, 700,000 acres burned in Canada, and 230 fires raged across Alaska pouring carbon dioxide (CO₂), and even worse methane (CH₄),into the skies.

In 2020, California and Oregon broke all records for wildfire destruction and smoke pollution turning skies a dark orange. In Oregon on September 11th, hundreds of thousands were evacuating on top of a half million (more than 10% of the 4.2 million people in the state) because of uncontrolled wildfires. Gov. Kate Brown said that over 900,000 acres (larger than Rhode Island) had burned in the last 3 days. That was almost double the land burned in a typical year. [31]

The orange darkened skies blotting out the sun are blanketing the state with air pollution so bad that it threatens the health of everyone. “What’s notable is that it’s everywhere,” said Anthony Wexler, director of the Air Quality Research Center at UC David. “So no matter which way the wind blows you’re getting hit by smoke and ash. It’s pretty brutal.” The health effect of wildfire smoke over the state include irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, asthma attacks, and increase risk of heart attacks and stroke. Wildfire smoke increases the smog-forming pollutants in the air. The levels are in the danger zone. [34]

At the same time in 2020, California began September having already broken previous records with 3 million acres of scorched earth. Fires have become so numerous and vast that they actually join up in what is referred to as “complexes”–“the scope of which the state has never seen.” Last Thursday (9/10/20), the August complex, which was produced by 37 fires merging in and around Tehama County, became the largest recorded in California at 471,000 acres. [32] Daniel Berlant, an assistant deputy director at Cal Fire, stated, “We are hitting the record books in ways that we never would have imagined, and definitely not records that we like breaking.” California’s wildfires are growing bigger and moving faster leaving less time for warnings and evacuations. “We have seen multiple fires expand by tens of thousands of acres in a matter of hours, and 30 years or more ago that just wasn’t fire behavior that we saw,” said Jacob Bendix, a professor of geography and the environment with expertise in wildfires at Syracuse University. Ever warming temperatures and years of drought related to global warming are prime factors for this trend. US Forest Service forester Steve Lohr observed, “When you have a fire run 15 miles in one day, in one afternoon, there’s no model that can predict that. the fires are behaving in such a way that we’ve not seen.” [33]

There is no doubt in any scientist’s mind that increasing trend in fire days, fire zones consumed, and intensity of fires is the product of global warming. Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist professor of Earth System Science at Standfor University has documented just how much worse California’s fires have become as the planet has warmed. His studies showed, “The frequency of extreme wildfire weather during the autumn season in California has doubled in the last four decades.” Now, the fire season is essentially year-round. [35]

Earth has always had fires, but those humanity saw were smaller, cooler, less frequent, less deadly. With rising global warming, the fires are hotter, longer, cover more area, destroy more forests, kill too many people, and decrease a major carbon sink (a sink absorbs CO₂ out of the air) while becoming a carbon and methane source. The first trumpet sounded and “a third of the earth was burned up.”[28]

The first bowl was poured and “a loathsome and malignant sore” appeared on the people who worshipped the beast of Revelation.[29] The beast has not yet appeared, neither has this disease. However, as previously noted with the pine park beetle and mosquitoes in Alaska, warming climate change does expand the territories of agents and vectors and the diseases they carry, including all tick-borne diseases (Lyme), all mosquito-borne diseases (malaria), and other protozoan diseases (dysenteric amoeba). In the U.S., I was rarely ill. When I moved to Africa near the equator (hot and humid), sicknesses rocketed in our family including frequent malaria and intestinal and skin parasites. As a family, we went from visiting the doctor once a year in the U.S. to every month or more in Africa. Everything from bacteria to worms grows better in warm, moist environments.

Both the trumpet and the bowl are linked to the land. With warming weather, the land burns, crops and herds decrease the food supply, pests and parasites against crops and man increase . . . the human body weakens and is more susceptible to disease. However, how Revelation’s malignant sore disease is linked to both the land and the mark (666) is still a mystery.

As NASA has said, “Something on earth is always burning. Satellite photos reveal the shocking extent.

As Revelation says, “A third of the earth (will) burn.”

Revelation is happening now.

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/images/content/484444main_firemap_ or “NASA – Wildfires: A Symptom of Climate Change.”

[2] Al Gore, The Future (New York: Random House, 2013) 337.

[3] Years of Living Dangerously, “The Scariest Climate Change Facts,” p. 3. https://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/science/scary-facts.

[4] “Deforestation and Its Extreme Effect on Global Warming,” Scientific American, 2016. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deforestation . . . . Between 2000 and 2009, 32 million acres of tropical rainforests were cut down each year.

[5] Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/newsworld/what-you-should-know-about-the-fires-raging-in-the-amazon on August 22, 2019. The article sites Reuter’s, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, NASA, INPE, Global Forest Watch in World Resources Institute, and Huff Post.

[6] Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tropical-forest-the-size-of-england-dstroyed-in-2018-report.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Compiled from data from the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center, 2010; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report, 2005. Emmott, 164-165.

[9] Documentary: “Years of Living Dangerously,” episode 2, “End of Woods.” Miniseries by Roaring Fork Film Production, created by Joel Back and David Gelber, 2014.

[10] U.S. Forest Service, “Fire,” www.fs.fed.us/managing-land/fire.

[11] “List of California wildfires,” October 23, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California)wildfires.

[12] Ibid., comment stated by former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who oversaw many of the fires.

[13] “Years of Living Dangerously,” episode 2, “End of Woods.”

[14] Tim Wallace, “Three of California’s Biggest Fires Ever Are Burning Right Now,” August 10, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/10/us/california-fires.html.

[15] EPA, “Future of Climate Change,” https://www.epa.gov/climate-change-science/future-climate-change. The article is citing Jerry Melilo et al., Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment. U.S. Global Change Research Program, USGCRP, 2014. C.f. The U.S. National Climate Assessment, 2014. C.f. IPCC (2013), Climate Change 2013, The Physical Science Basis. From the Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 2013.

[16] “Years of Living Dangerously,” episode 2, “End of Woods.”

[17] Years of Living Dangerously, “The Scariest Climate Change Facts,” p. 10. http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/science/scary-facts.

[18] National Research Council of the National Academies, Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2013) 21.

[19] “Years of Living Dangerously,” episode 2.

[20] KJV, Deut 28:42. The specific insect mentioned in this verse is the whirring locust. NASB and ESV translate this a “cricket,” the KJB as “locust,” the NEV as “whirring locust,” the CJB as “bugs,” the GNV as “grasshopper,” the NJB and NLT as “insects.” Sometimes the Bible gives one common specific example to portray a general principle that applies across many examples. This is why some translations use more general terms that would be better understood across continents. USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), “Bark Beetles, 2014. www.fs.fed.us/research/invasive-species/insects/bark-beetle. The U.S. Forest Service (fs) cited “unprecedented bark beetle mortality (41.7 million acres across multiple ownerships) in 2011.” 800-832-1355.

[21] borealforest.org. www.borealforest.org/index.php?category=world_boreal_forest. Lakehead University, Canada.

[22] Elizabeth Nelson, et al., Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, “Combating Climate Change Through Boreal Forest Conservation: Resistance, Adaptation, and Mitigation,” June 2007. www.greenpeace.org/canada/Global/canada/report/2008/4/combating-cc-boreal-forest . . . .

[23] Earth Observatory, NASA, “How Boreal Fires Impact Global Climate,” earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/BOREAFire/boreas_fire_4.php.

[24] Andrew Freedman, “Arctic’s Boreal Forests Burning At ‘Unprecedented’ Rate,” July 22, 2013. www.climatecentral.org/news/arctics-boreal-forests-burning . . . .

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

[26] Andrew C. Revkin, “Burning Economic Issues Behind America’s Wildfire Problem,” August 1, 2016. Retrieved from http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/01.

[27] Rafael Cereda. Retrieved from https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/26/if-you-re-worred-about-the-climate-in-Europe-spare-a thought-for-the-Arctic-circle-this-year.

[28] Rev 8:7.

[29] Rev 16:3.

[30] NASA satellite photo of South American and African Fires. NASA satellite photo of Amazon Fire burning for weeks. NASA photo “Wildfire 1.” “Forest Fire, River, and Deer” by Wikilmages from Pixabay.com. “Bark Beetle Found in Ponderosa Pine” on Wikimedia Commons. “Bark Beetle – Destruction of Forest” by Akveniam on Wikimedia under Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. “Trees are cut down in Drei Annen Hohn (Harz -Germany) because of destruction due to bark beetles.”

[31] Gillian Flaccus and Andrew Selsky, the Associated Press, September 11, 2020; https://www.msn.com/en-us-news-us-evacuate-now-wildfires-grow-in-oregon-as-500k-flee/

[32] Anita Chabria, Paige St. John, Luke Money, et al. for the Los Angeles Times at https://www.msn.com/en-us-weather-topstories/california-s-staggering-fire-toll-a-record-3-million-acres-and-it-s-still-early/

[33] Megan Diskin for USA TODAY at https://www.msn.com-en-us-news-us-in-california-august-complex-fire-becomes-state-s-biggest-blaze-ever-at-a-whopping-471-000-acres/

[34] Ibid.

[35] Radio.com. Retrieved on Sept 11, 2020 at https://www.msn.com/en-us-weather-topstories/climate-change-is-worsening-california-s-wildfires/

[36] Wikimedia Commons images of wildfires from various places.

[37] Wikimedia Commons images of high smoke pollution from various places.

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.”

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.”