The Third Woe: The Scorching Sun

What Woe next, O Lord, will you wreak on earth?
With two-thirds dead, and under Muslim rule,
There is little left that has any worth,
Save Israel, remnant of your own tool!
Brace yourself, O world---seven times hotter!
Your friendly sun, so gentle through the years,
Gone nova*, drawn up all the drinking water;
Men dying, cursing the Lord, as death nears!
All would have died, but God reduced the days,
Because of the believers that were there;
Few could find shelter from the scorching rays
Until darkness came for the clouds in the air!
Fahrenheit constant one hundred degrees,
Night and day, over the land and the seas!

*nova = small-scale helium sun flare

At last the Wrath of God at the wickedness of the people in the world will be spent. The Third Great Woe, the sun going nova, brought the tattered and battered depopulated earth to its knees physically, but not spiritually. Many more died. In a short time of blazing sunlight the ice-caps melted, and the sun drew up all the fresh water, to form a cloud cover around the world so dense that darkness covered the earth. Drinking water became scarce. Had God not reduced the number of days, everyone would have died. The sun cooled, and the water fell in a massive rain and thunderstorm that flooded cities; 100-lb. pellets of hail fell over all the earth.

Our sun is a star. All stars are born, exist and die in a sequence of events that include novas and supernovas. Had God flung a supernova on the sun, it would have destroyed the earth. Novas are caused when helium accumulates in the star until it ignites, causing the 'sun spots" that are fairly common. They cause havoc among electronic applications. In 1859 there was a large sun spot in which people could read the newspaper at night by the light of the Aurora Borealis in Minneapolis.

Had this Woe been the first one, imagine the devastating effect it would have had on the earth's highly-developed nations with advanced technological cultures. There would have been no computers, no electricity, no radion transmission. As it will be with the asteroid collision, the developed nations will be much more damaged; not so with Islamic nations. When the Mongols defeated them in 1259 A.D., they took it as a sign from Allah that he disapproved of their cultural and technological advances, which at the time were magnificent, and deliberately adopted primitive and agrarian culture, somewhat like the Amish people. Hence, they escaped the Woes as the strongest culture in the world; in fact, they ruled the whole earth under the Antichrist.

"The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over their plagues, but they refused to repent and glority him." (Revelation 16:8)