What Is Revelation 8:8-9 Describing?

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Due to the nature of this study, I am NOT dogmatic on the information presented. I could be totally wrong, but after meditating on the passage and looking at some data, I think I know what this passage is depicting. Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section. Do you agree or disagree?

Some of the things in the book of Revelation are a bit of an enigma to even the most sanctified Christian. But as time has gone on, the Bible has unsealed more and more of what it is describing (Daniel 12:4). The book of Revelation, to those that are saved and diligently study the Lord’s precepts, continually reveals more and more information – at least for me it does every time I go back and read it.

In this study I want to present a theory of what I believe Revelation 8:8-9 is describing. To give some context to this passage, this would be the second trumpet of the seven that are blown in the book of Revelation by the angels initiating more and more wrath from the Lamb, Jesus Christ. These trumpets are blown in the latter half of the seven year time of Jacob’s trouble.

[8] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; [9] And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

Revelation 8:8-9

If you have not figured out what I believe could be potentially depicted here by the picture, I think that the Yellowstone volcanoes are what are being described. Let me elaborate a bit.

Scientists keep going back and forth on when the volcanoes can erupt. Some say we are long overdue or they will never blow for another hundreds of thousands years [into the future that will never happen]. But they have, by and large, concluded it will definitely blow. Many of them say it has the potential to blow, theoretically, any day now.

For those that don’t know, Yellowstone National Park is sitting on a deep magma chamber that is constantly churning and bubbling. This is why they have the famous geysers like Ol’ Faithful constantly launching hot water into the air.

Geologists have determined, that, if and when these super volcanoes blow, it will pretty much mean the extinction for most of North America (United States, Canada, and a tiny bit of northern Mexico).

Here are some videos explaining some of what will occur. Please ignore the evolutionary dating numbers that are projected. The third clip is from the Hollywood apocalyptical film “2012.”

A paper was released in 2014 discussing the ashfall of the volcano eruption and what would be projected to occur. Here are a few charts that visualize how far the ash would travel across the U.S. and Canada. Everybody would get some ash that would kill just about everything as inhaling it would destroy the innards of any man or animal that breathes it in; the crops would suffer and die very quickly, and a long and extended winter would occur all over the earth, as the ash would get trapped in the atmosphere and reflect sunrays causing the earth to slightly cool off a degree.

So how does all of this relate to the passage in Revelation? Well, here are my theories:

All the ash that is launched will cover and land across the pacific ocean. This would effectively kill a large chunk of sea life, “the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died.” The Pacific ocean is the deepest of all the oceans in the world, so a massive eruption could wipe out a third of the sea life there. The death would cause the seas to turn into blood, as the passage depicts.

It should also be noted that turning water into blood was one of signs God performed through Moses when the Hebrews were in captivity to Egypt. “The Jews require a sign” (1 Corinthians 1:21), and seeing a replaying of a sign judgment from the writings of Moses on a global scale cannot be ignored.

As for the third of the ships being destroyed, I have some other theories on this as well. Yellowstone constantly has earthquakes all the time, so it is nothing new. But some have hypothesized that other earthquakes could set off a chain reaction that erupts the volcanoes in Yellowstone; or vice-versa. Beyond the ashfall, all the ports would get destroyed along the west coast of the U.S., western Canada, the state of Alaska, and potentially other trader ships coming to and fro – such as Chinese and Japanese vessels. We already know places like California are sitting right on top of fault lines, so all it takes is for a major one to occur and the ports would easily be wiped out.

The book of Revelation, and even some references in the Old Testament prophets, are filled with mentions of earthquakes. Could some of those earthquakes be tied in with this trumpet judgment?

Without digressing too much, if you look at the first four trumpets specifically, they all have to do with the destruction of the earth’s food and water supply, if you really start to contemplate and imagine the effects of what the judgments would do at this very moment. This further relates to some of things discussed in our study about the black horse of Revelation.

As I said, I am not dogmatic on this. I do believe Yellowstone will blow up eventually, but the question is, Is this “the great mountain burning with fire” the passage is depicting? I do not know. But please share your thoughts below as I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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