23 Aug 2013
Revelation 8:8-9
Revelation 8:8: “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.”
Reading this over, it sounds like a large asteroid hits the Earth (or, specifically, one of the oceans) and causes all kinds of devastation. Just as one-third of all trees were destroyed in the previous judgment, this time one-third of sea life dies and one-third of all ships are destroyed. (I’m sure that this is accompanied by a large loss of life; at the very least, everyone on those ships is probably going to die.) The first judgment was upon the land; this judgment is upon the sea.
As if that was not enough, one-third of the sea becomes blood. In this case I don’t think that is symbolic; in Egypt when this happened the Nile actually turned into blood. As it says later in Revelation, the nations have been drunk with the blood of the saints so God has given them blood to drink. All of those beach resorts and island paradises are no longer going to be looking out over a blue sea; instead the sun will rise (and set) over a literal ocean of blood.
This is a truly massive disaster. As bad as the BP oil spill was, it only polluted a portion of the Gulf of Mexico. In this judgment, God destroys one-third of all sea life, and turns one-third of the oceans into blood. It is almost impossible to imagine this level of ecological devastation – but we are only at the second judgment. There are more to come.