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4. The Fourth Bowl of Wrath: The Sun Scorches Men on the Earth (Revelation 16:8-9)
REVELATION 16:8-9
8 The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9 People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn’t repent and give him glory.
In the last judgment there is blow on blow. At first men living on the land were stricken with painful sores. All investigations of the soil will not lead to any solution, as the poison is deep in man. Afterwards the sea, the rivers and all water fountains get contaminated and turn to blood red. Water tastes disgustful and is full of coagulated blood clots. Men get nervous and start boring for ground water, but it is not enough for all people. And now the wrath of the Lord strikes the sun, the source of our light, the source of thermal heat and energy.
In the fourth trumpet judgment the radiation intensity of sun, moon and stars were reduced by one third perhaps through a volcanic cloud or an impact of a meteor, so that only a pale light was shining. The temperature dropped down tremendously, glaciers grew rapidly and a new ice age was coming in (Revelation 8:12).
In the fourth bowl of wrath judgment mankind will be stricken by the exact opposite: the sun loses its protective shield and shines to the earth in its full intensity so that the earth becomes a desert like moon and stars which lack a protective atmosphere. Astronauts need a special spacesuit which protects them in the space against the heat of the daytime and the icy coldness of the night. If the ozone hole over the North Pole increases due to increasing greenhouse gas emission, perhaps up to the Tropic of Cancer or beyond it, the radiation intensity of the sun will increase significantly. The glaciers in Greenland, in Switzerland and in the Himalaya will melt. The arctic tundra will become a great marsh and many people will develop skin cancer. Sun-hungry nudists will visit cold stores as the rays of the sun and the heat will get unbearable.
At best the skin of man is developing a protective shield like the inhabitants of the Tropical Zone so that the white race become black and has no further reason to despise them.
God gives up those people who deny his truth and reality and do not worship the creator and judge of the world so that they destroy themselves. Natural disasters occur not by chance or are a freak of nature, but are a call to repent and judgments of God over the pride of man. Extended forest fires or torrential floods want to warn us and call to us to repent immediately, to fear God, to love him and to keep his commandments.
Yet men do not want to repent. They do not want to bow down before God, their creator, but at the same time they are willing to celebrate their own heroes, to idolize them or even worship them. The masses seek out film stars, top athletes, bold adventurers and artistic geniuses so as to glorify and worship themselves through their idols.
On the other hand many people know or at least suspect that nevertheless God exists. A child in the former Soviet Union once said to his teacher: “As the term 'God' belongs to our language, so there must really be a God!” The answer of the teacher was a slap in the face of the child, because he was afraid of a disciplinary punishment or relocation, if he tolerates the faith in the existence of a godly person in the spiritual prison of materialism.
The anti-Christ and his followers will pronounce God guilty, because of the bowls of wrath judgments, and will blaspheme and curse him. Indirectly they confess their belief in the existence of God, yet in a negative mode. They do not really deny his existence like Nietzsche, who said, “God is dead!", but they know at heart that there is a god and hate him. Thus they believe in his existence, but intend to destroy and eradiate him and his followers.
Those who are possessed by the spirit of Satan breathe fire and brimstone and always think of nothing but themselves only. In doing so they destruct themselves finally: the hot, everything scorching sun will make the earth a hell's antechamber.
Every man is called to become an image of God, to honor God alone and get transformed through his love and truth so as to glorify him by word and deed as well as through keeping silent and through confessing. Followers of Christ do not look out for number one any longer. They died to their ego. They have found a new focus. They love the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Father, please do not enter into judgment with us, but sanctify us so that we respond to your judgments with our repentance representative for others and by glorifying you by word and deed and loving you with all our heart. Amen.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we worship You and thank You for the light and warmth of the sun, but when sin grows the heat of the sun will increase, and then pastures will dry up, forests will burn, multitudes will die of thirst, deserts will spread, and unbelievers who began to acknowledge the presence of God will curse Him. Amen.
QUESTIONS:
- To what extent will the leaders of nations succeed in putting an end to the global warming?
- Why will unbelievers blaspheme against the names of God after the judgments? Do they believe in the Lord's presence and do they hate Him?