12  And the fourth angel sounded, and the THIRD PART of the sun was smitten, and the THIRD PART of the moon, and the THIRD PART of the stars;  so as the THIRD PART of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a THIRD PART of it, and the night likewise.

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     What John is here describing results in the devastation of a "third part" of the earth's land and water masses and the diminishing of day and nighttime light by as much.  Interesting to contemplate is that what he describes as being like "a great mountain" (vs. 8) could be what we refer to in our day as a mountain range, such as the Rockies or the Himalayas.  The "casting" into the "sea" (or ocean) of a great mountain large enough to wreck havoc on a scale of what John here describes would be devastating for the continent as well.  Also, for the "great star" (or asteroid) impact of verse 10 to adversely affect one-third of the earth's rivers and drinkable water sources would involve the disturbing of an enormous amount of land mass or masses.

     Decades ago, when reading John's account of this, I (just like everyone else) only envisioned cataclysms occurring all around the earth, resulting in a cumulative destruction of one-third of it, and this may be what he is describing.  But, one day it occurred to me that there is another equally as valid possibility.  What if he is describing a cataclysm occurring TO ONE SIDE of the earth, resulting in a concentrated destruction of one-third of it?  The thing of a great mountain being hurled into the sea certainly fits a concentrated destruction, and an asteroid impact even more so.  The possibility and implications of such a concentrated destruction has engaged me ever since.

     In the previous proposition I mentioned that the land area in Israel's hemisphere represents two-thirds of the land area of the earth.  This means that one-third of the earth's land area is not in Israel's hemisphere.  If this happens to be the third part destroyed with the sounding of the first four trumpets, it concerns us what this third part is.  This is the subject of my next proposition.

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NOTES:

1. Concerning what John wrote about "hail and fire mingled with blood" (Rev. 8:7), we find no similar phenomena happening in the Bible days where that something "mingled with blood" was observed to fall out of the sky.  But, in our day, there is an average of well over a gallon of blood in every adult flying in a plane.  It is amazing that the largest jet airliners today can carry over 800 passengers!  Easy Goggle searches reveal that there are some 7,500-15,000 planes in the sky at any given time.  Images of maps depicting this over the United States make these planes look like grains of sand that have been poured all over the map.  Needless to say, explosions and/or collisions of these would result in tons of debris raining down, "mingled with blood."

2. Another modern day possibility lending to what John saw has to do with the satellites that are presently in space around the earth.  Also an easy Goggle, images of this make the satellites resemble grains of sand as well, sprinkled all around the earth.  It's not hard to imagine what the result would be of something happening that would disturb the orbits of these, causing them to re-enter the earth's atmosphere.  With all that is around our earth and in the skies these days, the circumstances seem ripe for something to happen that would exactly fit what John tried to describe.  I'm reminded of what he wrote of what he beheld when the 6th Seal was opened:  "And the stars (meteors, satellites?) of heaven (the sky) fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" (Rev. 6:13).

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