“I saw a large
ball of fire, with a long tail that
descended rapidly from the sky and
fell before our incredulous
eyes,” said teacher Elmer Adan
Rivera. Francisco Aguilar Sabillon
described it more graphically,
“I arrived almost immediately to
the site of the explosion –
there were enormous flames, and
everything was destroyed…I fled
from the place, frightened.”
Residents were terrified by the
fireball that crashed and broke into
a number of red and yellow pieces,
igniting a fire that destroyed acres
of coffee plants and a main highway
on November 22, 1996. What were these
people from Western Honduras
describing? Was it space debris from
an orbiting satellite? Was it a bomb?
What caused this explosion and the
resulting 165-foot wide crater? On
December 15, scientists confirmed
that a meteorite had slammed into a
sparsely populated area of Honduras.
The fireball, explosion and crater
were caused by a meteorite estimated
to be 6-10 feet in diameter.
(Associated Press, 12/16/96)
In forthcoming
studies, I will report on
ever-increasing scientific data,
which indicates to scientists and
scholars alike, that planet Earth is
coming precariously close to the end
of its history. Many people make the
mistake of evaluating political,
social and geological events by
finding Bible texts to support their
specific understanding of how
prophetic events will occur. For
example, an event that stimulated
significant apocalyptic interest was
the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. More
than a dozen authors wrote religious
books describing how this invasion
and the worldwide response fulfilled
Bible prophecy. The passage of time
proved most of these conclusions to
be in error. However, the Bible does
predict significant political, social
and geological events will occur
before Christ’s second return.
So, how do we keep a balanced
perspective regarding
“signs” of the end? Jesus
advised His disciples to take a
lesson from a fig tree. “Now
learn this lesson from the fig tree:
As soon as its twigs gets tender and
its leaves come out, you know that
summer is near. Even so, when you see
all these things, you know that it is
near, right at the door.” (Matthew
24:32-33) If we use spiritual
discernment God has given us,
Christ’s return will not
surprise us like a thief in the
night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)
The first few articles
in this continuing series will
address geological harbingers, each
on concentrating on a specific
geologic phenomenon. The Old
testament prophet, Joel, when
describing what would happen on Earth
before Jesus returns wrote, “I
will show wonders in the heavens and
on the earth, blood and fire and
billows of smoke. The sun will be
turned to darkness and the moon to
blood before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the LORD.” (Joel
2:30,31) The apostle Peter quoted
this text after Pentecost (Acts 2).
God’s purpose for
Earth-shattering wonders is to awaken
people to consider the gospel and
recognize that the end of the world
is at hand. For purposes of this and
following articles, there ate two
time-periods that need to be
considered. Prior to casting
down of the censer, described in
Revelation 8:5,the number of
geological catastrophes will continue
to increase. As the number of
earthquakes,
meteorites/asteroids/comet
appearances, volcano eruptions,
floods hurricanes, tornadoes and
other disasters continue to escalate,
a sense of impending doom permeates
each individual’s thoughts.
During the last century, the number
of these “natural” events
have continued to intensify with
unparalleled proportions. In addition
to natural geologic events, people
are also concerned about what will
happen after the year 2000.Some
authors have labeled it
“millennial fever.” Concern
about the future and the next
millennium prompts people to seek
knowledge about the future. Interest
in psychics, prophets (both true and
false), new age concepts and
apparitions, all demonstrate that
people have a fear about the future.
It may surprise you to learn that god
has set these societal concerns in
motion and will utilize them to the
fullest to ensure that as many people
as possible will be ready to hear the
end time message and choose
salvation. For example, NBC aired a
mini-series about an asteroid
impacting the Earth that causes
devastating results. This is no
accident. The media continues focus
on apocalyptic issues because members
of the media know the increasing
interest people have in catastrophic
situations.
The second time period
involves the trumpets as described in
Revelation 8. When the censer is cast
down and the trumpets actually begin,
the people of Earth will realize that
this is far more than random acts of
nature. The global nature of the
events, the concise order in which
they occur, allows no other
alternative but to admit that these
events are acts of God Unlike the
increasing number of
“natural” events that occur
prior to the casting down of the
censer, the timing, order,
catastrophic and global nature of the
trumpets events will compel people to
listen to Revelation’s story.
Incidentally, this series of articles
will address each type of global
event, provide current, relevant
scientific information, evaluate the
impact on public awareness (as
related to Revelation’s story)
and, through this process,
demonstrate that god is in control. “I
know that our LORD is great, that our
LORD is greater than all gods. The
LORD does whatever pleases him, in
the heavens and on the earth, in the
seas and all their depths. He makes
clouds rise from earth; he sends
lightening with the rain and brings
out the wind from his
storehouses.” (Psalm
135:5-7)
The History
Jesus made a statement
to His disciples in Matthew 24:29 “Immediately
after the distress of those days,
“the sun will be darkened, and
the moon will not give its light; the
stars will fall from the sky, and the
heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
Think about what the disciples
must have thought when He made that
statement. Their only exposure to
stars falling from the sky perhaps
were meteorites that they may have
seen on occasion, streaking through
the night sky. John however, provided
details in Revelation 8 as he
outlined the first three trumpets. He
described “hail and fire mixed
with blood,” “a huge
mountain,” and “a star,
blazing like a torch.” With
today’s scientific knowledge, we
can comprehend much more of what
Jesus and the apostle John were
describing.
The human race has
always had an interest in astronomy
and the movement of celestial bodies.
Many ancient calendars were based on
the movements and alignment of stars.
In pagan cultures, astrologists used
the movement of stats as a basis for
their conclusions. In fact, even the
Hebrew calendar was based on the
relationship between the equinoxes
and the orbit of the moon. Even
though there was much interest in
heavenly bodies during Biblical
times, it was not until the second
century that Ptolemy developed a
geometric scheme that predicted the
motions of planets. He believed that
Earth occupied the center of the
universe. Finally, in 1543,
Copernicus published his theory that
Earth and the other planets revolved
around the sun. As you might expect,
this created enormous controversy
among the authorities at that time.
It took more than a century for the
ideas proposed by Copernicus to be
generally accepted. During this
entire tome period, no one knew that
asteroids even existed. The ancients
believed that meteorites were stars
that fell from the sky, since they
could not see the asteroids. Italian
astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered
the first asteroid in 1801. He named
it Ceres and it had a diameter of
about 600 miles. Since that
discovery, there has been an
explosion in scientific knowledge
about asteroids. In 1898, the
asteroid Eros was discovered and for
many years was thought to be
Earth’s nearest neighbor –
it approaches to within 14 million
miles. With this history in mind, it
is not hard to understand why the
apostle John described the second
trumpet as a huge mountain. His only
personal exposure to objects
impacting the Earth was watching a
“star” (meteorite) fall
from the sky. How could we possibly
expect him to correlate a small speck
of light trailing through the night
sky something as “big as a
mountain” being one and the
same? What is amazing about
John’s description is that it
has taken 18 centuries for us to
understand what he described in a few
short sentences. The remainder of
this article will focus on what we
know today about asteroids and how it
integrates with Revelation’s
story.
We are the Target
In ancient days, many
theories were proposed about what
existed in space. Lucian of Samosata
wrote one of the early books written
on this subject in the second century
A.D. His fictional story tells of a
man who was blown to the moon by a
strong wind and another man that
traveled to the moon on the wings of
large birds. It was not until the
early 1900’s that scientists
began to understand that the area
outside our atmosphere is a vacuum.
Until recently, scientists thought
that very few objects in outer space
intersected with Earth’s orbit
and if they did, were not large
enough to cause damage. Even though
impact craters have been observed on
the moon for many centuries, only
within the last 100 years have
scientists discovered similar craters
on Earth.
In the past decade,
scientific thought has changed
significantly. The consensus of
astronomers and geologists alike is
that our planet is in a cosmic
shooting gallery of various objects
from outer space. While the orbits of
planets (and their moons) within our
solar system are measurable and
consistent, other objects move within
our solar system that are either
undetected or whose orbits are
affected by the gravity of other
planets. If objects, such as comets
or asteroids impacted Earth, there
would be global devastation.
Depending on the size of the object,
life on Earth, as we know it could
come to an end. However, God’s
word reveals in Revelation that the
destruction caused by the first three
trumpets will not completely destroy
the human race. The impact in
Honduras, mentioned at the beginning
of this article, is one of several
events that have occurred recently.
Individuals in the United States have
observed two meteors passing through
the Earth’s atmosphere. On
October 3, 1996, a meteor entered the
Earth’s atmosphere near Artesia,
New Mexico where it began to break
apart and eventually showered the
Earth with Meteorites as far as
Lubbock, Texas.
The largest meteor
fragment bounced off the Earth’s
atmosphere back into space, orbiting
the earth once before landing near
Bakersfield, California. Commuters in
the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.
observed another meteor on December
17, 1996. People from McMinnville,
Oregon to Canada saw the
“fireball” (defined as a
meteor that passes through
Earth’s atmosphere, but does not
strike Earth).
What are the
Asteroids?
Asteroids, by
definition, are any one of a large
number of solid objects in the solar
system that orbit the sun. Asteroids
are made up of materials similar to
elements found on earth. The
characteristic that distinguishes
asteroids and meteorites is not, as
most people think, their relative
size, Instead, when an interplanetary
object enters Earth’s
atmosphere, it is called a meteorite.
Because asteroids orbit the sun,
rather than a planet of the sun, they
are sometimes known as “small
planets.” Objects less than 33
feet in diameter that enter
Earth’s atmosphere typically
burn up and explode high in the
Earth’s atmosphere. However, the
objects that concern scientists today
are those that are larger than 33
feet, and objects larger than one
kilometer are considered to be
“civilization threatening.”
The majority of
asteroids orbits the sun between the
planets of Mars and Jupiter and do
not pose a significant threat to
Earth. The orbits are elliptical,
which means that one part of the
orbit is closer to the sun than the
remaining part. The Amor asteroids
intersect the orbit of Mars; the Aten
asteroids orbit the sun inside
Earth’s orbit and the Trojan
asteroids orbit the sun in a similar
orbit and speed as Jupiter. However,
the asteroids of consequence to Earth
are the Apollo asteroids that
intersect Earth’s orbit. Ten
years ago, scientists believed only
50 asteroids intersected Earth’s
orbit. Now, they are determined that
asteroids have impacted Earth many
times in the past.
Satellite photography
has enabled scientists to identify
over 100 impact sites even though
many of the craters have been masked
by erosion or filled with water.
Technology has also improved our
ability to locate and track
asteroids. Since many asteroids have
not been located, often we are not
aware of how close asteroids are
until they have already passed Earth.
For example, in the Spring of 1989
asteroid 1989, FC passed our planet
inside the orbit of the moon, but
scientists did not see it coming.
What do we have to
Fear?
Although we can
observe previous impacts on earth,
statistically the probability of
Earth being impacted by an asteroid
is quite small. It is interesting to
note, however, that other
statistically remote events that
happen on Earth today are often
called “acts of God.” For
example, tornadoes are a common
occurrence in the state of Kansas.
Even though the probability of losing
a home by a tornado is small, it
still happens. Sadly, when this
occurs, the results are often
attributed to God. An asteroid impact
causing global destruction can be
compared to the tornado example. The
probability of global destruction is
remote, from a scientific sense.
However, an asteroid impact is one of
the few events that can be identified
directly from the Scripture as an
“act of God.” When the time
is right, God will give planet Earth
His warning. The consequence will be
catastrophic that the human race will
not be able to ignore it.
On June 30, 1908, an
object about 200 feet in diameter
exploded in the Siberian atmosphere
about three miles above the ground,
leveling trees for a 50-mile radius
and causing destruction in an 800
square mile area. The energy released
from the explosion was estimated to
be 20 megatons, which is the size of
a nuclear weapon designed to destroy
a large city. A significant amount of
dust was left in the upper atmosphere
that was observed at night for
several weeks after the explosion.
Consequences from a larger impact
would be even more severe. If an
asteroid one-kilometer in size hits
the ocean, it would cause a tsunami
that would wipe out all the port
cities in the ocean, not to mention
cargo ships and oil tankers in its
path. The ecological impact of
previous oil spills would pale in
comparison to this global
destruction. Further, thousands of
square miles surrounding an ocean
impact site would become anoxic
(oxygen deficient) for two reasons.
First, the heat generated by the
impact would boil the oxygen out of
the water. Second, the force of the
impact would stir the water, causing
warmer, deeper water, which contains
less oxygen, to be brought to the
surface. This warm, anoxic water
would be perfect breeding ground for
red algae. (The prophet John
described it as looking like blood.)
The consequences of a
land impact are no less significant.
An asteroid one-kilometer in diameter
would cause an explosion and shock
wave destroying everything for one
hundred miles. At the point of
impact, a crater would be formed
causing an ejection of material back
into the air. The larger sized
material would already be fiery hot
as it fell back to earth, would set
fires across the continent.
Consequences are not limited to the
continent that takes the hit. The
entire world population would be
affected by resulting dust ejected
into the air. The jet stream would
carry the dust around the Earth,
blocking sunlight and lowering
temperatures, thereby, destroying
crops around the world. Isn’t it
interesting that man’s concern
has been limited to “global
warming.” God’s actions
during the trumpets will cause this
globe to experience both hotter and
colder temperatures than our
civilization has ever known.
It is reassuring to
know that Biblical account of this
future event demonstrates God’s
control as He prepares people to hear
Revelation’s story. Interest
would have remained relatively low
regarding asteroid impacts outside
the scientific community without
physical evidence. However, God gave
plenty of physical evidence that
immediately heightened the general
public’s interest in
interplanetary impacts in July 1994.
At that time, fragments of comet
Shoemaker – Levy 9 crashed into
Jupiter at a speed of 60 kilometers a
second. Interestingly, this
astronomical event occurred only four
months after the end of the Jubilee
calendar. It certainly seems that
this is more than just mere
coincidence. Researchers have
calculated the size of the impact
fragments that hit Jupiter to be less
than one kilometer in size, which
computes to the 1.5-kilometer
asteroid striking Earth (at a typical
speed of 20 kilometers a second).
Impacts of this magnitude are
considered to be “civilization
threatening.” From the
scientific perspective: “No
longer is the question how often is
the Earth struck by objects 1km or
10km or more in diameter, but simply
when and where will be the next
strike…and what precise range of
physical and environmental
consequences may be expected.”
(Dr.Clark Chapman, The Risk to
civilization from Extraterrestrial
Objects and Implications of the
Shoemaker – Levy 9 Comet Crash,
Abhandlungen der Geologischen
Bundeanstalt, Wien, Vol. 53, pp.
51-54, 1996)
What Can we Do?
After the
Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact, people
suddenly realized there was a
significant threat posed by asteroids
and many organizations continue to
develop ways to reduce the
possibility of an asteroid impact. As
Christians, there are several points
that can enhance our faith if we
consider and accept them. First, God
has chosen to reveal information
about asteroids and their potential
life-threatening consequences right
on time. Advanced knowledge about
the threat needed to exist before
people could understand the eternal
consequences. Further, God provided a
physical demonstration of the
devastation that could appear on
Earth by giving us an object lesson
on Jupiter. Second, the hearts and
minds of Earth’s population are
much more receptive to
Revelation’s story when they see
the object lesson. For example, if a
person living in 1850 had come to the
conclusion that trumpets two and
three represented asteroid impacts,
he or she would have been committed
to an insane asylum. Even the timing
of this new millennium (the year
2,000 and beyond) presents questions
about the future, causing people to
consider Revelation’s story.
Third, now that the human race is
aware of the threat, they are taking
steps to reduce the potential of an
asteroid impact. Scientist is
seriously considering ways to
identify and divert life-threatening
objects so they will not hit Earth.
Consequently, within the next two
decades, if God does not act,
technology will be so far advanced
that asteroids will no longer be a
threat to people of Earth. These
three points converge so
convincingly, that I believe it is
safe to assume that history is on a
collision course with the final acts
of God.
The approach man
typically takes to resolve problems
follows this process. First, the
problem has to be identified. Second,
the problem has to be of a large
enough scope to affect large numbers
of people. Third, political entities
attempt to address the concern of the
people either by highlighting the
issue or by providing funds to
resolve the problem. Fourth, the
funds are utilized in an attempt to
resolve the problem. The issues of
potential future asteroid impacts
follow the same approach. In the late
1980’s, several scientific
articles were written about the
potential hazard of asteroid impacts.
In fact, an organization in the
Greater Dayton Area known as Wake Up
America Seminars produced materials
regarding this issue as early as
1986, before most of the scientific
community had even considered the
idea. They continued to share the
relationship between asteroid impacts
and Revelation’s story in their
materials, but their feeble efforts
were not enough to stimulate
politicians to act. Finally, through
the efforts of Clark Chapman and
David Morrison, the House of
Representatives in the United States
Congress issued the following
statement. “The chances of Earth
being struck by a large asteroid are
extremely small, but sense the
consequences of such a collision are
extremely large, the Committee
believes it is prudent to assess the
nature of the threat and prepare to
deal with it. We have the technology
to detect such asteroids and to
prevent their collision with the
Earth. The Committee therefore
directs that NASA undertake two
workshops studies. The first would
define a program for dramatically
increasing the detection rate of
Earth-orbit crossing asteroids; this
study would address the costs,
schedule, technology and equipment
required for precise definition of
the orbits of such bodies. The second
study would define systems and
technologies to alter the orbits of
such asteroids or to destroy them if
they should pose a danger to life on
Earth. The Committee recommends
international participation in these
studies and suggests that they be
conducted within a year of passage of
this legislation.” (1994
Statement from the House Committee on
Science and technology, amendment to
House Version of NASA Authorization
Bill.)
With that statement,
the political objective of
“appearing to resolve the
problem” was achieved. In
response to this, the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) issued a report in 1992 called
the “Spaceguard Survey
Report.” In the report, NASA
addressed the hazard of asteroids,
methods to detect them and projected
costs of about 100 million dollars to
implement the program. In 1994,
within a week of the Shoe-maker-Levy
9 comet impact, the House Committee
on Science and Technology required
that the Department of Defense and
NASA to identify and catalogue,
within ten years, all asteroids and
comets greater than 1 kilometer that
cross Earth’s orbit.
Governmental
activities concerning asteroids have
not been limited to just the United
States. On March 20, 1996, the
Council of Europe issued an action
titled “On the Detection of
Asteroids and Comets Potentially
Dangerous to Humankind” that
addressed their concern about
potential asteroid impacts and Near
Earth Objects (NEOs) stating:
“The Assembly
therefore welcomes various
initiatives - i.e. the
“Spaceguard Survey” report
published by NASA, the creation of
the “Working Group on Near Earth
Objects” by the International
Astronomical Union, and the recent
decision of the NEO community to set
up a “Spaceguard
Foundation” to coordinate the
efforts at the international level
– as important steps paving the
way towards the development of a
worldwide surveillance program aimed
at discovering all
potentially-hazardous NEOs and
tracking their orbits forward by
computer so that any impact could be
foreseen some years in advance,
allowing preventive actions to be
taken as necessary.
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