If we took all the “apocalyptic” programs on cable TV seriously about the impending destruction of the earth, we would all be convinced that we should be preparing now for disaster tomorrow.
What does the Bible say about a global disaster?
Surprisingly, it is very specific about an apocalyptic event called the "end of days".
Revelation 6:14 says, "And the heaven departed as a scroll and ... every mountain and island were moved out of their places".
Since the mid-1950's we have recognized that "every island and mountain" are actually doing just that every day. Plate Tectonics theory says that the earth's crust is continually moving, even mountains and islands. The event described above would be an expanded version of that daily event, but how did John know this 1900 years ago?
Isaiah 24:19-20 "...The earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard".
Rev. 9:8 describes a "great mountain" falling into the sea". This could be the trigger for the seismic events described above. Prophesies say 1/3 of the earth will be affected and North and South America comprise about one third of the earth's land surface. The only event that could affect that portion of the earth to that extent is the Yellowstone supervolcano.
Isaiah 24:20 describes further "The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again"
The magma chamber beneath Yellowstone is huge and growing. From past eruptions, we know what happens. Hundreds of cubic miles of magma pour into the atmosphere, releasing ash, molten rock, and gasses. After it is emptied, the walls of the caldera "fall" inward to fill the vacuum left behind, and seal it, until the next eruption, to "not rise again".
Rev. 9:2 describes a bottomless pit as opening and locusts pouring from it. The magma chamber beneath Yellowstone is fed by a "chimney" type structure that reaches deep into the earth's mantle and maybe its core. The deeper it goes the less defined its structure becomes. Because It has no “bottom”, this fits the description of a "bottomless pit".
From hundreds of miles away, the scene of the ash cloud rising on the distant horizon would look exactly like a scene in ancient Egypt of a swarm of locusts coming in the distance. The falling ash would be suffocating and causing great stress on the body.
Joel 2:2 describes the "day of the Lord" as "A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds, and of thick darkness".
Amos: 8:9 "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and will darken the earth in the clear day."
Rev. 8:12 says a third of the sun, moon, and stars were smitten and not shine. With so much ash in the atmosphere, these would be hidden except where the air is the thinnest, high in the sky. For one third of the day or night, they would not be seen.
We know that the sequence of events following a Yellowstone eruption would be as described in Revelation. There would be the polluting of rivers and water, the land would be covered with ash, no crops would grow, resulting in starvation, followed by disease and sickness, and war, all as described in the "last days".
We have only discovered how the earth's crust behaves in the last 60 years. Witnesses could have seen volcanic eruptions back then, but there's no evidence any of these men ever saw one. To say "every mountain and island would be moved out of its place", would be a stretch for anyone, until the last 100 years.
We now know that all these things are possible, and maybe even, likely.
