IS THERE SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT FOR THE
SEVEN TRUMPETS OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION? (edited)
Revelation 8:1 starts the beginning dialog about the seven
trumpets. It says, “When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was
silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who
stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.” Over the next several chapters are scary
descriptions of hail and fire mixed with blood, burned trees, a great burning mountain
thrown into the sea destroying sea creatures and ships. Then there are numerous falling stars, and
water sources poisoned causing massive deaths.
A bottomless pit caused by a falling star, and strange looking locusts
prepared for battle …. For hundreds of years theologians have wrestled with
these passages. Are they symbolic,
metaphoric or literal? If it is literal,
what in the world are these chapters describing? Is there a scientific basis, and if so, what
is being described?
Tracing the meaning of certain words in the Bible back to
their usage in the ancient Near East reveals
a large body of internally consistent and detailed scientific information about
comets. For example, two of these key words are "star" and
"host." To the ancient Hebrews and Greeks the word "star"
was a non-specific term used to designate any of the luminous bodies seen in the
heavens, including comets, meteors and planets. The term "host" or
"host of heaven" was a reference to various objects in heaven and in
particular comets. The Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians believed
the objects of heaven, and most importantly comets were indwelt by a pantheon
or group of gods which they feared and worshipped (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3 and
Acts 7:42). The Hebrew people were explicitly warned not to worship or fear the
“stars” or “host of heaven.”
In the Bible the words “host” and “star” are sometimes used
as direct references to comets. In the
book of Isaiah scripture says in
effect that God created comets, commands comets, calls them all by name and
none faileth to appear when called.
Isaiah 45:11-12 says:
“Ask me of things to come . . . and concerning the work of my
hands command ye me. I have made the
Earth, and created man upon it. I, even
my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their host (‘stars’ in Septuagint
and ‘starry hosts’ in NIV; that is, comets) have I commanded.”
And Isaiah 40:25-26 says:
“To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith
the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high,
and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by
number (‘starry host one by one’- NIV, comets): he calleth them (the comets)
all by names by the greatness of his might for that he is strong in power; not
one (comet) faileth (‘fails to appear’ in Tanakh).”
Indeed, in Daniel 4:1-3, 35 and 37, Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon whose
people worshipped the host of heaven, nevertheless proclaimed that Daniel’s God
was “the most high God” (NAS) who “doeth according to his will in the army of
heaven” (‘host of heaven’- NAS and Tanakh).
In my book "THE
COMETS OF GOD" I explain how the Bible says that God commands comets,
and refers to comets as God’s “mighty ones,” “weapons of wrath,” and
“messengers of flaming fire,” and says that God uses comets to bring correction
and judgment. In other words, God uses the power of nature to express his
wrath, and he has no need of mans’ weapons or nuclear bombs to accomplish his
ends.
Some theologians and great number of end time authors have
speculated even proclaimed that Revelation’s events are the result of a nuclear
war. However, all the nuclear bombs in
the world detonated together cannot produce a fraction of the amount of energy
needed to cause the mega-disasters called for during the “end times.” Yet, a
large comet impact could cause the earth to rock in space, cause an earthquake
over 14 on the Richter scale, unleash a series of tsunamis whose waves could exceed a mile in height, and even
cause the earth’s crust to melt. Many prophetic passages make sense once we
recognize that much of Revelation’s mysterious imagery is describing the
effects of comet impact. Incoming comets
produce different types of destruction depending on whether the comet explodes
after hitting the atmosphere, the land, the sea, the earth’s rivers and lakes,
or after penetrating the earth’s crust.
Catastrophes described
in the Old Testament and the New Testament’s Book of Revelation are being
recognized by a growing number of astronomers and planetary scientists as
descriptions of cometary impacts. The recent discovery and dating of the
Burckle Impact Crater in the Indian Ocean and the discovery and dating of the
Amarah Impact Crater in Iraq provide physical evidence for the Bible’s Flood
story and its story of the Tower of Babel. For those who are trying to grasp
the bigger picture, these discoveries have brought the issue of God using
comets to accomplish his ends into focus. In the case of Revelation consider
the comments of Dr. John S. Lewis, a recently retired Professor of Planetary
Sciences at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and Co-director of the
NASA/University of Arizona Space Engineering Center who in his 1997 book (pages
11-13), "Rain of Iron and Ice: The
Very Real Threat of Comet and Asteroid Bombardment" said:
". . . the description of future events in Revelation
leans heavily upon the phenomenology of violent cosmic events . . . The central
theme is clear and unambiguous: the events described in Revelation are of
astronomical origin and describe real physical events, not mere portents or
symbols. Did John (the author of the Book of Revelation) somehow know more
about impact phenomena than any scientist before the present decade?"
Also, consider
that Dr. Victor Clube, a Senior Research Fellow in Astrophysics at the
University of Oxford and a past Director of the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh,
and Dr. Bill Napier, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh in
their book “The Cosmic Serpent: A
Catastrophic View of Earth History” said
that “a reasonable interpretation of the Exodus account is that it took place
much as described and the events seen until now as miraculous simply describe
an impact with a fragment from a great comet during a close encounter.” (Psalm
106:7 says: “Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt.”) These
astronomers also said that passages of the Book of Revelation were “impact
inspired.” Ironically, these secular
scientists noted that they were not championing Revelation but were only
“remarking on the clarity of the astronomical associations,” which they said
involved comet impacts. In their follow up book, “The Cosmic Winter” they even presented a table listing the comet
impact elements for the Seven Trumpets and the Seven Vials of the Book of
Revelation.
The strange events described in the Book of Revelation start
to make incredible sense in light of what astronomers and geophysicists have
learned about comets and their impacts.
Below is a brief list of the
Seven Trumpets listed in Revelation
(Revelation 8:7-9:21 and 11:15-19).
1) The First Trumpet tells of “hail and fire
mingled with blood” (“blood” is a metaphor for “death”) hitting the Earth and
burning up one third of the trees and grass.
The expression “hail and fire” is used not only in the Bible as a
reference to cometary material hitting the Earth (Exodus 9:18-25, and Joshua
10), but also in the Sumerian and Akkadian literature. In the Sumerian “Lamentation over the
Destruction of Sumer and Ur” there were “hailstones and flames” and large trees
were destroyed, and “large stones, one after another, fell with great
thuds.” NASA recently took pictures of a
twenty mile wide cloud containing hailstones the size of basketballs enclosing
and travelling with Comet Hartley 2.
Passing through the Earth’s atmosphere before hitting a heavily forested
area, these dust laden hailstones would be on fire.
2) The Second
Trumpet tells of a “great mountain burning with fire” hitting the ocean and
killing a third part of the sea life and a third part of the ships upon the
sea. A very large comet fragment or
small comet hitting the ocean would
cause enormous fatalities, first from the impact itself then the subsequent
large tsunami.
3) The Third
Trumpet tells of a great star burning as a lamp and it falling upon the rivers
and fountains (sources) of water. The
name of the star is called “Wormwood,” (a reference to a species of plants that
has a strong bitter taste) and it causes one third of the waters to become
bitter and cause the death of many people. Remembering that in the ancient world the
word “star” can refer to any luminous body in the heavens; context indicates
that Wormwood is comet. The waters are made bitter and poisonous because comets
and the tails of comets contain a number of substances that are poisonous to
humans. For example, in recent NASA
photos of Comet Hartley 2, scientists were surprised by the volume and purity
of deadly cyanide in the gas shooting out of the vents of the comet.
4) The Fourth
Trumpet tells of the Sun, the Moon, and stars being partially darkened for a
third part of the day and night. A comet
or cometary fragment exploding and disintegrating after hitting the Earth’s
atmosphere could easily put enough dust particles in the sky to quickly blot
out the Sun, the Moon and the stars for a large number of people on the planet,
depending on their location in relation to the atmospheric explosion.
A number of researchers believe that the huge explosion that
took place in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 was caused by the atmospheric impact of
a cometary fragment about five miles above ground level. (This belief is based on the lack of a
definitive crater, the pattern of fallen trees out from the center of the
explosion, the “scorching” of trees on their inward facing sides, and the
presence of certain chemicals.)
5) The Fifth
Trumpet tells of a star falling from heaven opening up a bottomless pit, smoke
arising out of the pit as the smoke of a furnace, the Sun and the Moon being
darkened by the smoke, and “locusts” coming out of the smoke. Locusts with power to hurt people up to five months, yet not harm the grass or
any green things. The Fifth Trumpet is clearly a very large comet hitting the
Earth opening up a very deep crater (“bottomless pit”) and raising a column of
dust and smoke that darkens the Sun and the Moon. Based on the description given,
the Fifth Trumpet uses the term “locusts” to refer to what we today call
“bacteria.” (The bacteria in the
cometary dust are likened to “locusts” because like locusts, the bacteria in
the dust raised by the impact will go wherever the wind carries them.) A growing number of prominent scientists
believe that comets, asteroids and meteors can carry bacteria and viruses, but
this has yet to be fully proven. In
scripture bacteria caused “pestilence” is repeatedly associated with comets and
cometary products such as “great hailstones, fires and brimstone” and “burning
coals” (Ezekiel 38:22 and Habakkuk 3:5).
6) The Sixth
Trumpet tells of four angels being loosed which were prepared for an hour, a
day; a month and a year to slay mankind.
An army of 200 million horsemen is described as having heads like lions
and breastplates of fire, jacinth (blue) and brimstone. Then the Sixth Trumpet tells how fire, smoke
and brimstone issued out of their mouths and says that their power is in their
mouths and tails which were like those of serpents. Understand that the word translated “angels”
can also be translated as “messengers.”
In the ancient world comets were sometimes referred to as “messengers,”
so the Sixth Trumpet tells us that four comets are loosed and bound for (not
in) the Euphrates River area. The
description of the Sixth Trumpet is a scientifically accurate description for
the physical appearance of outgassing comets coming in to strike the Earth. In the ancient world a comet was sometimes
described as a star with a mane like a horse or a mane like a lion. In overall appearance, active comets do have
heads and tails like serpents. Active
comets are also surrounded by comas or clouds which have the appearance of
breastplates of fire, jacinth (blue), and brimstone. Active comets also have vents or “mouths” in
their crust out of which they outgas or issue fire, smoke and brimstone
(burning sulfur). In addition, their
power is indeed in their mouths as a result of the gas jetting out of their
mouths and their power is also in their tails, which act like the rudder of a
ship and can affect the comet’s movements through space. The recent NASA photos of Comet Hartley 2
shows the vents or “mouths” on the surface of the comet spewing out jets of
fire, smoke and brimstone and even cyanide.
An army of horsemen is reasonable imagery for four comets and
the millions of cometary fragments that can travel along with comets that are
beginning to breakup. Recall the 21
separate comet fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy that struck Jupiter during
July 9, 1994.
7) The Seventh Trumpet
tells of an earthquake and great hail. A
comet hitting the Earth could produce an earthquake that is tens of thousands
of times greater than an earthquake produced by the largest of faults in the
Earth. The “great hail" also tells
us that a comet is involved. As already
noted, NASA’s recent photos of Comet Hartley 2 show that comets can be
surrounded by a huge cloud of hailstones, some the size of basketballs which
could weigh upwards of 100 pounds. This
would be “great hail.”
Comets being God’s weapon of choice for the Seven Trumpets is
supported by a number of other scriptures.
For example, recognizing that comets can be a form of “snow” or “ice” or
“hail” Job 38:22-23(NIV) tells how God has reserved comets in the cloud of
comets (the Oort Cloud) at the edge of the solar system, for times of trouble
and days of battle and war. Job 38:22-23(NIV) says:
“Have you entered the
storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve
for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?”
Considering the Seven Trumpets in the full context of other
Biblical catastrophic passages, we see a pattern involving how God brings judgment. There is scientific support for the Scriptural passages in which comets
are the common denominator between the Flood, the destruction of the Tower of
Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, some of the plagues of the
Exodus, Joshua’s great victory over the Amorites, Debra and Barak’s victory
over the Canaanites, the “blast” that killed 185,000 Assyrians during the rule
of King Hezekiah, and the catastrophes prophesied in the Seven Trumpets and
Seven Vials of Revelation.
Does the idea that comets were the cause of these Biblical
events take away from the awesome power of God?
Just the opposite – God’s power is made more evident.
The information in the above blog represents a glimpse at
what is said about the Seven Trumpets of the Bible’s Book of Revelation in the book “THE COMETS OF GOD-New Scientific
Evidence for God: Recent archeological, geological and astronomical discoveries
that shine new light on the Bible and its prophecies.” More detailed explanations, scriptural
references and citations can be found in the book. The book’s website contains
a free downloads and links to scientific articles that deal with this subject.
Free downloads on this website give added information and dozens of links to related scientific articles.
About the author:
An archeologist and a geologist, Dr. Goodman has devoted over
twenty- five years to the study of the Bible. He holds a geological engineering
degree from the Colorado School of Mines, a M.A. in anthropology from the
University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from California Coast
University. He also earned a M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of
Business. He was accredited by the former Society of Professional
Archeologists. Goodman is a Messianic Jew who was saved in 1987.
