From the Book of Revelation    155 

This description is not a metaphor for a subtle event. There will be great 

destruction over a large portion of the earth. 

    What could cause such devastation? At this point in the sufferings of 

Revelation, the punishments sent by God are from nature guided by God's 

Providence. (Some of the later sufferings are supernatural in origin, coming 

from  God and His angels.) Hail and fire falling from the sky over a large 

portion of the earth cannot be caused by a storm, nor does fire fall from 

clouds. There have been past cases of meteors which exploded into pieces as 

they entered the atmosphere, causing  a shower of fire and hail like small 

meteor pieces. This phenomenon can cause great destruction. The source of 

the hail and fire could be a shower of meteors large enough not to 

completely burn up in the atmosphere. 

    However, Holy Scripture describes hail and fire falling to earth. Ordinary 

hail is frozen, but does not burn. Most meteors are made of stone; they burn 

as the fall to earth, but they are not frozen. Comets are frozen, like hail. If a 

comet broke into pieces and some of those pieces fell to earth, the pieces 

would burn as they fell through the atmosphere. If enough pieces fell to 

earth, the result would be exactly what Revelation describes, a large portion 

of the earth's surface would be burned up. 

    The suffering of the first trumpet is caused by a comet  that breaks into 

pieces. Many of the pieces will fall to earth and cause widespread fires and 

destruction. Comets sometimes break into pieces, as happened with comet 

Ikeya Seki (1965), comet West (1976), comet Shoemaker Levy 9 (1994), and 

comet LINEAR (2000). But none of those comets are the one mentioned in 

the first trumpet. I think that the comet that will cause this event of the first 

trumpet is comet Tempel 1. This comet has a 5.5 year orbit and will be near 

earth's orbit in 2038. NASA is planning to send a spacecraft to impact the 

comet in 2005 and produce a large crater in the comet 

(http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov). This crater could weaken the comet so 

that it eventually breaks into pieces. NASA thinks it unlikely that this comet 

will break apart and unlikely that the pieces would fall to earth. But comets 

often break into pieces all on their own. Impacting a comet to cause a crater 

can only increase the likelihood of the comet breaking apart. 

The Second Trumpet (Rev 8:8 9) 

     The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great 

mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea 

became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of 

the ships were destroyed.  (Rev 8:8 9). 

    The  great mountain, burning with fire  fits the description of a large 

meteor, such as a large piece of a comet, which strikes the earth. An object