Posted by Gari on March 17, 1999 at 21:15:51 {MWI6zBZ23fLxA}:
In Reply to: Biblical Inconsistency? posted by RomGabe on March 17, 1999 at 17:08:05:
RomGabe,
Just a thought.
What if it is figurative? Hail and blood cannot burn, so maybe it is an expression of the violent nature of the things foretold. Maybe a hail and electric storm that causes bloodshed and scorches all
vegetation. Some have called the book of Revelation the Book of Doom: but could it be the opposite of that? It could be the book which reveals the Father's limitation and restraint of the doom which already came when man rebelled against
his Creator.
Could the first four trumpets be working together hand in hand to produce a more hostile environment for men in the physical creation that surrounds him. Concider the forest fires, droughs, swamps, rampaging rivers, ice
storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and all such natural disasters, have indeed "burnt up" a third part of the earth, and the damage is still being done.
Think of the next verse Rev.9:4 being figurative also. First of all, locusts don't
eat grass. So a literal translation could seem difficult.*** seal of God on their foreheads***
could this mean the blessed Holy Spirit in the lives of God's people? Imagine the locust if you will to be "unscriptural teaching" able to
hurt "only such men". The "locust" doctrine of the transmigration of souls made it a sin to kill rats; and a bubonic plague wiped out half of Europe; the "locust" doctrine that land, air, water and fire are "sacred" blocked Hans Victor
Reisser's efforts to wip out malaria in the Orient. He was prohibited from treating the ponds and water courses with kerosene to kill the larvae of mosquitoes. The plague of locusts is a plague of lies, false theories,evil philosophies,
selfish proverbs elevated to the status of law.
Just a thought!