Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, November 21st, 2024
the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Commentaries
Smith's Bible Commentary Smith's Commentary
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2014, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, Ca.
Copyright © 2014, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, Ca.
Bibliographical Information
Smith, Charles Ward. "Commentary on Revelation 16". "Smith's Bible Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/csc/revelation-16.html. 2014.
Smith, Charles Ward. "Commentary on Revelation 16". "Smith's Bible Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/
Whole Bible (49)New Testament (15)Individual Books (21)
Verses 1-21
In the fifteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, we had sort of the introduction to chapter sixteen, as we saw the seven angels in heaven who are given the seven final plagues which complete the judgment of God upon the earth. And these seven angels came out of the temple and they were clothed in pure white linen. And one of the cherubim gave to the angels these vials of wrath to pour out upon the earth. And the temple of God was filled with the smoke from the glory of God and it was closed now to man. No man was able to enter in during the time that these seven plagues are being poured out upon the earth.
John said,
I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the eaRuth ( Revelation 16:1 ).
And so that awesome command is now given from the temple of God, and these angels are dispatched with the seven final plagues, with which God will smite the earth prior to the sending of His Son to take dominion and control and to rule over the earth.
And the first angel went forth, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the man which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image ( Revelation 16:2 ).
It would seem that God now makes a distinction that this noisome, which literally is a running sore, an ulcer type of a sore that doesn't heal, much like one gets from radiation burns, that God makes a distinction between who that are faithful to Him and those who have worshipped the beast and taken his mark. For the fact that it comes upon those, which have the mark and those that worship his image, does seem that God is now making a difference.
We remember when God poured out His plagues upon the Egyptians that God made a difference at that time, and that the judgments fell upon the Egyptians, but God protected the Israelites from those judgments. Though there was darkness over all the land of Egypt, there was light in the camp of Israel. And God made provisions to protect His people. He had them put the blood upon the lentils and the doorposts of their house so that they would not be grieved with the loss of the firstborn, as were the Egyptians when the Lord past through Egypt that night and killed the firstborn of the whole land. God was making the difference between those that were His and those that are not His.
And such is the case as this first angel pours out his vial and men break out with these horrible sores.
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea ( Revelation 16:3 );
Notice that the first angel touches the earth and the second now touches the sea.
and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea ( Revelation 16:3 ).
Just how God is to accomplish this is a matter of speculation. And as we study some of the natural phenomena of the past, we realize that there are many ways by which these things could happen.
Immanuel Velikovsky's book, "Worlds In Collision", a book whereby his premise that he seeks to prove is that the planet Venus was introduced into our solar system within the last ten thousand years, within the period of recorded history. And according to his premise, the plagues that came upon Egypt were a result of a near miss with the planet Venus, as it was coming in an erratic orbit into the solar system. And it passed close by the earth, and that the earth was moved from its orbit that it had at that time.
You see, they used to predicate time on a three hundred and sixty-day year, and then suddenly we started moving from three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter, for we realized that that is how much time it takes for us to make our orbit around the sun. But it is his premise that this three hundred and sixty-day year was a correct year. Of course, if you figured on a three hundred and sixty-day year within five years, all of your seasons would be totally fouled up. In every twenty years or so, you would be completely off in your seasons. So, the three hundred and sixty-day year must have been an accurate calculation. But the three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter, he does believe that the earth used to rotate in the opposite direction of the present rotation.
There are a lot of interesting things that he presents in that book which challenges your thinking, but he does feel that the near miss caused a tremendous amount of debris to be brought into our atmosphere. And that as it disintegrated into our atmosphere, as the meteorites do, they turned into a red dust that fell over all the earth. And as it fell into the waters, it turned them to a bloody red, as the waters of Egypt were turned to a bloody red and made undrinkable.
Interesting premise. It is also interesting that one of the concerns that the scientists have today is that of a large asteroid, perhaps getting caught in its orbit within the earth's gravitational pull and being drawn to the earth, and the tremendous devastation that would come if we were to have a collision with an asteroid that was, say, five miles or more in diameter. And presently they are watching an asteroid whose orbit is bringing it, as far as the astronomical calculations go, it is going to bring it into a fairly close orbit. It is about a seventy-five mile wide asteroid, which would do tremendous devastation to the earth, should we collide with such an asteroid.
There are several thousand asteroids in the solar system, most of them around the planet Jupiter. There is that asteroid belt there. And they have calculated the orbits of many of these asteroids. Some two thousand of them have an orbit that at some time is apt to interact with the earth. So, the chances of asteroids hitting the earth are three in a million every year.
There have been in the past asteroids that have collided with the earth. The crater that is out there near Windslow, Arizona that is three miles in diameter, they feel that that was probably an asteroid. And they also feel that an asteroid of that size impacting the earth is enough to tilt the earth or push the earth. In other words, if it hit at the right angle, it would flip the earth.
And there is a lot of speculation now that the physicists who believe that an asteroid, such as the one that hit in the desert in Arizona there, would have been capable of pushing the earth. So that suddenly, say we were living here in this pleasant Southern California climate, but if the asteroid would hit the earth at the right angle, it could suddenly push us under the Arctic mass of air in just a minute's time. We would be under this arctic air and everything in a moment would be flash frozen. Instead of sitting in this balmy weather of fifty degrees or so, which it will go down to tonight, we would suddenly be in fifty-degree below zero weather and everything would just be frozen.
And they believe that's perhaps what has happened in the past and that explains the Mammoths that are frozen in Siberia, who evidently at the time that this catastrophe took place were munching on tropical vegetation. For they in cutting their stomachs open, they found tropical vegetation in their digestive tracks, but suddenly they were frozen in place. And they feel that perhaps an asteroid hit and pushed the earth so that it twisted and an area that was once tropical was suddenly pushed under the mass of Arctic air and frozen in place. So, the change was not a gradual change, but sudden and catastrophic.
And so by what means, God is going to bring to pass these judgments is left to speculation, what kind of phenomena, whether it be an asteroid or what, is something that we do not know. Of course, our scientists are so concerned about this that our government and Russia are spending millions of dollars in the research of this program. They are putting up a new telescope on Kit Mountain near Tucson, and its purpose will be just to track the asteroids and to alert the world of the dangers. And there is talk of if it becomes an eminent danger of a particular asteroid coming into our gravitational field, that we would send perhaps a space shuttle on out to the asteroid and try to divert its orbit.
Or they have talked about blowing the thing up with an Atom bomb, but on further study of that they realized that we would be colliding with a lot of debris and that didn't seem to be too pleasant a thought. So, it is a major scientific project right now, the protecting of the earth from the possibility of impacting with asteroids that exist out here in our solar system, thousands of them. There are over two thousand that are already charted to, at some point, interact with us here on the planet earth. Who knows?
Next year we ought to have an interesting experience as Halley's Comet returns and unfortunately this time around we probably won't be able to see it, as far as seeing the tail as it makes its orbit. They predict now that the orbit will be made outside the sun, or before it gets to the sun, and as it moves away will probably not be visible to the earth. The tail of the comet is caused by the gravitational pull of the sun as it begins to move away. A lot of the debris. It has this million-mile tail of junk, just junk flying through the sky. We will be coming into orbit with that junk that is in the tail of Halley's, Comet and we'll have some interesting meteorite showers. After next year, though, we may not see the actual comet tail, and all. We will probably have some spectacular displays of what are commonly called falling stars, but are debris from space that come into our atmosphere.
There are some eighteen thousand meteorites that come into our atmosphere every minute and are burned as they come into our atmosphere. Small particles of space junk God has designed to dissolve, for the most part, as they heat up through friction as they come speeding into the denser atmosphere around the earth. And they, of course, disintegrate or burn out most of the time before they hit the earth. Some of them hit the earth and you have probably seen some of the meteorites that have fallen and hit the earth.
But God is going to bring these judgments. By what natural phenomena, we do not know. It could be that God will bring to pass something that man has not yet seen up to this point, but you can be sure it is going to happen. And whatever causes the seas to turn red like blood? We have even seen here, during those years where we have what is known as the red tide, the plankton as it multiplies it gives the water a reddish hue. This is the result of the plankton taking the oxygen out of the water and it is quite deadly to the fish, as the oxygen within the water is depleted by the red tide. It makes for spectacular viewing.
Whenever there is a red tide, I love to go to the beach at night and watch the surf, because it looks like neon tubes. When the surf breaks the plankton, which has a lot of phosphorous in it, and as the waves roll, the phosphorous lights up and it looks like neon tubes lighting up in the ocean. It is spectacular to watch, but horrible to swim in. The surfing is bad in a red tide. The water tastes horrible if you happen to swallow it and your eyes really burn if you get water in them with that red tide, but oh, how beautiful at night.
So, it could be a massive red tide depleting the water of the oxygen and causing those souls within the sea to die.
And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and the fountains of waters; and they became as blood ( Revelation 16:4 ).
So, not only will the ocean be turned as blood, but now also the rivers and fountains of water, also. The similar thing happened in Egypt, as you recall, and the water became undrinkable. So, when this happens on a worldwide scale, imagine what this is going to do to man when suddenly all your fresh water supplies are polluted. They are about half polluted now. In this particular plague, the water supplies being polluted is going to be devastating for man.
And as the waters are turned to blood and made undrinkable,
I heard the angel of the waters say ( Revelation 16:5 ),
Now, later on we are going to have an angel standing in the sun. Here is an angel that God has put over the charge of the fresh waters.
Interesting, these angels. They are going to be interesting persons to meet. I am sort of anxious to meet the angel that God is given charge to watch over me. The Bible says that "He will give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways, to bear thee up at any time, lest you dash your foot against a stone"( Psalms 91:11-12 ). So, it is going to be interesting to meet the angel that has been watching out over me. I want to know what happened to him on a few occasions. He was sleeping on the job or something. But that is all right. I forgive him. I want him to know before I get there that I don't hold anything against him. But it will be fun to meet him.
Now, here is an angel that God has put in charge of the waters. And the angel of the waters declares,
Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus ( Revelation 16:5 ).
It is just sort of right on God. What a perfect judgment! One thing about God is that His judgments are right. And here is the declaration of the righteousness of God's judgment and all the way through this whole period of judgment we find the voices that are declaring the righteousness of God's judgment.
It is interesting that though through heaven there comes the continual testimony of the righteousness of God's judgment. This is the thing that many people are concerned about and worried about is will God be fair. Would it be fair for God to condemn forever a man who never had the opportunity of knowing Jesus Christ? Would it be fair for God to condemn forever a baby who died without ever having knowing or heard or making a decision et cetera, et cetera? Whatever God does will be absolutely fair. God will not be unfair. He will not be unjust. You don't have to worry about that.
Here, as God turns the fresh water into blood, the angel says "righteous God". That is right on.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and now you've given them blood to drink; they deserve it ( Revelation 16:6 ).
They have shed so much blood. What a righteous judgment. They like blood so much, give it to them to drink.
And I heard another angel out of the altar say, Amen, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments ( Revelation 16:7 ).
So, the affirmation during the period of judgment of the righteousness of God's judgments.
Abraham, when the Lord announced to him that He was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham said, "Shall not the Lord of the earth be just?" Shouldn't God be fair? "What if there are fifty righteous people in that city. Would you destroy the righteous with the wicked? Shouldn't God be fair?" The Lord said, "If there are fifty righteous, we will spare the city." "What if there are forty righteous?" "Forty righteous, we will spare the city." "What if there are thirty?" "For thirty, I will spare the city." "What if there are twenty? What if there are ten?" The Lord said, "If there are ten righteous persons, we will spare it for the ten"( Genesis 18:22-32 ). The angels got to the city of Sodom and found one righteous man. So what did they do? They lead him out and they said, "Hurry get out of here. We can't destroy this thing until you are out."
God is righteous. God is fair. The judgments of God are righteous and true. You can count on that.
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God ( Revelation 16:8-9 ),
A lot of times we have the concept that if God would only send his judgment that people would turn from their wickedness. That is generally not the case. When God sends His judgment, the righteous, who have turned from their righteousness, turn back to God. And we do read in the Old Testament where the judgments of God caused the righteous to turn to the Lord. But the judgments of God so often just harden the heart of the impenitent. And such is the case during the great judgment period. Rather than turning these people to the Lord, they blaspheme God. These preachers who think their sermons on hell, fire, judgment, brimstone and all are going to turn people to the Lord are really not that versed in the scripture.
For the scripture says, "Know ye not that it is the goodness of God that bringeth a man to repentance"( Romans 2:4 ). That is the thing that really gets me. I know what I deserve. You don't have to tell me. But to tell me that God loves me and is willing to forgive me, willing to pardon me, willing to make me His child and to share His eternal kingdom with me, that is the thing that gets me. He causes me to turn my heart and life to God and to change. The goodness of God leads a man to repentance.
So, as God's judgments fall, and as the sun is now scorching men. Now again how this is accomplished is a matter of speculation. We know that the sun shall be darkened before the day of the Lord comes. The moon turns as blood and the sun into darkness. It could be before the sun goes into darkness; it could be that the sun goes into a super nova condition. This is a phenomena that we have observed in the universe, as stars that go into this super nova condition where they heat up for a few days and increase in their intensity and light as they are sort of burning out and then they just seem to die out.
The death of the stars is a super nova condition. It is sort of like a light bulb when the glass is broken suddenly. It will go very bright because the oxygen is now hitting those filaments. But because of the extreme brightness and the oxygen hitting the filaments, the filaments gets so hot that they burn in two and the thing goes out. With the stars it is a different principal. We don't know what causes a super nova yet. They become extremely brilliant and then apparently have burned out or something, but it is a super nova condition. It could be the sun will come into a super nova condition. Imagine what that would do to the people on the earth, if the sun became as a super nova. We do know that there is going to be a dimming effect. And the sun will shine for a third part and so forth during that part of the tribulation. So, this could be a super nova.
It could be that what is happening during these seven last plagues, this could be that there is a major nuclear holocaust upon the earth. That Russia and the United States and everybody else lets go all of their nuclear weapons. And we know one of the effects of the nuclear weapons being detonated in our atmosphere is the destruction of the ozone blanket which has already been depleted by all of the fluorocarbon gases that were used to pressurize the different shaving creams, and so forth, that we used to have in pressurized cans. And these fluorocarbon gases went up into the stratosphere combined with the ozone gases, which is a very unstable gas at best, and as they combine with the ozone, broke it down, and so the prohibition against the fluorocarbons in pressurized cans.
We know also that the atom bombs have the same effect on this ozone blanket, which is a protective blanket, which does shield us from much of the ultraviolet rays of the sun. And that seems to be the purpose for God putting the ozone blanket there to protect the earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays, for the exposure to these ultraviolet rays causes running sores. It causes noisome pestilences, really, if you are exposed to ultraviolet rays. It creates burns, skin cancer. So, maybe what we have here is a nuclear holocaust and these are the effects that would happen as a result of a nuclear holocaust.
God knows what man's folly will bring to past, as far as natural calamities. It is interesting that God predicted in Isaiah nineteen, the building of the Aswan Dam. Not only did He predict the building of the Aswan Dam, but He also said all of the ecological damage that would result from the building of that dam, the destruction of the fishing industry, the loss of farm land and crops and so forth, and the ecological problems that would result from the building of the Aswan Dam; He said that the counselors were fools because they did not take into the account the ecological damage.
Actually, there has been talk of blowing up the dam to cure the ecological damage that they have created by the building of the dam. They have, of course, lost the fishing industry completely. That used to be a great fishing industry around the mouth of the Mediterranean, because all of the debris brought by the Nile River fed the fish. With the dam now, all of these nutrients and all are not brought along the Nile River anymore into the Mediterranean.
As a result of the dam, they do not have any longer the silt build up, so you are getting the salt water intrusion into all of that rich delta farm land that used to exist there at the mouth of the Nile where it came into the Mediterranean. Because you see, tons of sand would be brought by the Nile River every year into the Mediterranean and it formed this beautiful delta of farmland and all, but that is not happening anymore; in fact, you are starting to get salt-water intrusion. And they have lost more agriculture acreage than they have gained by their ability now to irrigate with the water, but they have lost more acreage than they have gained. And they have lost the richest kind of acreage.
And so God knows the damage that will take place. And it could be that the Lord here is describing the damage that will result from a massive nuclear holocaust.
Men were scorched with the great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial on the throne of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain ( Revelation 16:9-10 ),
So even as God brought darkness upon Egypt, so God brings darkness upon the kingdom of the beast. And again, this could indicate a super nova condition of the sun where it becomes extremely bright for a few days and then becomes dark.
And blasphemed the God of heaven ( Revelation 16:11 )
Man continuing to blaspheme God.
because of their pain and their sores, and they repented not of their deeds. So the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof were dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared ( Revelation 16:11-12 ).
So, God is going to gather together the nations into the area of Israel from the valley of Maggedo to Edom. And so God dries up now the river Euphrates to prepare the way for the kings of the east, China and all of her vast hordes of people, India, Pakistan, Japan moving in from the east.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs [demons] that come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet ( Revelation 16:13 ).
Interesting thing here. Those who have seem to have had an out of body experience, where their spirits have left their bodies, and they were presumed dead, and had this conscious out-of-body state in which they looked back into the room and saw the activities that were going on in the room, but they were out of their body observing it; it is interesting that for the most part, these that have had these out-of-body type experiences are aware that as their spirit left their body, it left their body through their mouth.
It is interesting when you go back through the Old Testament and you read that God breathed into man and he became a living spirit, and those that have these out-of-body experiences will usually testify of their awareness that their spirit left through their mouth; and when their spirit came back, it came back in through their mouths. It is most common among those that have had these experiences to express it as the spirit going forth out of their mouth.
Now, the interesting thing is that these demonic spirits go forth out of the mouths. It is also interesting that when Jesus cast out many of the demons, there were the loud screamings from the mouths of the individuals as the demons departed. I don't think it would do any good to keep your mouth shut. It is just an interesting observation. That out of the mouth of the antichrist and his false prophet and out of Satan, out of their mouths go these spirits like frogs, demonic spirits.
For they are spirits of devils, [we are told] working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty ( Revelation 16:14 ).
And so by these demonic forces, the kings of the earth will be gathered together unto the area of Armageddon where they are going to seek to make war against Jesus Christ at His return, seek to thwart God's rule over the earth.
It is interesting how that men in high places of government today are many of them are controlled by demonic spirits. I don't think that you can really explain their actions apart from demonic spirits. The things that Hitler did and those that were in authority with Hitler cannot be explained except by demonic forces taking over their minds. They could not do the inhuman things that they did to man apart from control by demonic forces. And it is very common knowledge that Hitler was directed and guided by men who were masters in what was known and called white magic. The masters of the spiritist type of movements actually guiding and controlling Hitler. That is really the only explanation for the horrible atrocities that these men were able of committing against fellow man.
And as we look at what is happening in the world today we see that actions can only be explained many times by demonic forces. The going in and slaughtering of people is unthinkable to us in our right minds. How could you do it? How could you order such a thing? But the fact that they are controlled by these demonic forces is the answer.
Now, Jesus said,
Behold, I come as a thief. [He is talking about His return, the Second Coming.] Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And He gathered them together in a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon ( Revelation 16:15-16 ).
So, the Lord declaring His coming, coming soon as a thief. Watch and keep your garments. John says, "Lest we be ashamed at Him at His coming"( 1 John 2:28 ).
The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is finished ( Revelation 16:17 ).
This is it, the final plague of this Great Tribulation period, the final judgment of God upon the earth. It is over now. Now the time has come for Jesus to return in glory and establish God's kingdom.
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent [sixty to ninety pounds]: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great ( Revelation 16:18-21 ).
This describes a tremendous cataclysmic upheaval upon the earth, probably a polar-axis shift. And again a collision with an asteroid could be a possible culprit.
We do know that in times past there have been tremendous geographical changes where, for whatever reason, in the polar-axis shift, the waters are changed, the ocean floors are changed. And suddenly great canyons open up and water comes pouring in and the weight of the water breaking the earth's crust and causing other thrust areas to be pushed up into the air. New mountains are formed and new mountain ranges form.
In his book, "Earth's in upheaval", Immanuel Velikovsky, again brings many interesting phenomena from around the earth that show tremendous cataclysmic changes in the historic period of man that have created tremendous thrust, mountain ranges and so forth. There is an interesting thing that he brings out about Lake Titicaca down in Peru high up there in the Andes, and how that there is a tilt and all on that thing that happened sometime during the period of man's history upon the earth. "Earth's in Upheaval" is a fascinating book also by this man filled with interesting research. Though I don't necessarily go along with the conclusions that he has drawn, I find that the research that he has done is fascinating indeed. And I enjoy reading his books because of the tremendous research that was done.
Thunders, lightnings and a great earthquake; this is not a localized event. Now, we have earthquakes around here. We are existing on a couple of fault lines. There is the Newport fault line. And we are close enough to the San Andres fault line that whenever there is any shift there, we get the effects of it here. But these are local earthquakes. The epicenter is ten miles off Newport Beach or epicenter is down in Imperial Valley, and they can pick out the epicenter in localized earthquakes. But this is not a localized earthquake. This is a worldwide shaking. The earth itself is just going to shake.
Now, Isaiah the prophet also describes this same earthquake in the twenty-fourth chapter of Isaiah beginning with verse seventeen. He said, "Fear, and the pit, and the snare, or the trap, are upon thee, inhabitants of the earth." Three things: fear, snare and the trap. "And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the trap: for the windows from on high are open and the foundations of the earth do shake." This is not just the movement of the plates in a local area, but the whole foundations of the earth are going to shake.
"The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, but after many days, a thousand years, they shall be visited," and shall stand, of course, before the Lord for the Great White Throne Judgment. But here Isaiah describes this condition.
Now again from a scientific kind of an observation, this does sound much like a polar-axis shift as the earth wobbles to and fro like a drunken man and then is moved like a cottage. They believe that these polar-axis shifts take place about every five thousand years. It is a phenomenon that is well known to science. What we call the North Pole today has not always been the North Pole of the earth. The earth has shifted on its axis in the past. This polar axis shift does create tremendous cataclysmic upheavals around the earth, as we have told you about the different change of the ocean floors. They have found fossils high up in the Himalayas, which indicates that it was once covered by water. You go up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon and there at seven thousand feet you see the fossils of shells, mollusks and so forth, there in the strata which indicates that that was at one time an ocean floor. That was at one time below sea level, because the water covered the thing.
So, there have been these cataclysmic changes. It is going to happen again. The earth is going to go into what they call, "the wobble." The earth does wobble all the time. I think you know that. There is what they call the wobble affect and it cycles every seven years. It seems to peek out and then it sort of levels off for awhile, and has just a slight wobble, but then it begins to build up and every seven years the thing peeks out on this wobble. They feel that sometimes the wobble gets so erratic, that the thing like a top flips over. When this does that, then there is this tremendous cataclysmic change, islands fleeing away.
I said many times that Hawaii probably will not be here in the kingdom. So, if He gave me Hawaii to reign, it could be ten thousand feet under the water. So, I am not too strong on insisting that I get Hawaii during the kingdom as my sphere of reign.
Inasmuch as the whole earth will be restored into the endemic type of condition, it will probably be just as beautiful and lush and tropical in Alaska as it would be in Hawaii. So no matter where you are, it will be gloriously beautiful. "The whole earth filled with His glory." Out in the middle of the Sahara Desert there will be glorious streams and rivers and waterfalls and forests and all for the desert shall blossom as a rose and there will be rivers in dry places and all as God restores the earth.
So, I am for any place that He wants to put me. It is going to be beautiful to be here in that day when the Lord is reigning and righteousness covers the earth. And we see the earth as God intended it to be for man when He placed man upon it and told him to dress and to keep, be fruitful and to multiply.
But the judgments of God are coming before this great day of the Lord. "