“Apocalyptic”
The recent L.A. wildfires and the subsequent hellish destruction, equivalent to date to 37,000 acres burned, 12,000 structures charred, 153 evacuated and 16 people killed, have made headlines in several media outlets, both in the U.S (ABC News) as in other countries (BBC) with the word “Apocalyptic” to describe the scenes left behind by the fire that broke out in Pacific Palisades, located 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles on January 7 of this year.
In the recent past, this word has also been used to describe the destruction of northern Gaza (Times of Israel), the Israeli army’s bombardment of southern Lebanon during its ongoing war against the Hezbollah terrorist group (Aljazeera), and the floods that occurred in the city of Valencia (Daily Mail), Spain, last October.
Except for the people of the most isolated tribes in the world, such as the Sentinelese (North Sentinel Island, India), the Awá (Brazil), the Mashco Piro (Peru) or the Ayoreo (Paraguay), everyone is familiar with the the word “Apocalyptic”, which comes from the Greek “ἀποκάλυψις” (apokálypsis), meaning ‘revelation’ or “discovery” and taking relevance from 95 AD. C., when the Apostle John, while imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos because of his Christian faith, wrote the last book of the New Testament entitled “Revelation”.
The earliest record of the word “Apocalyptic” dates back to the early 17th century by John Lightfoot, a Hebraist and biblical scholar.
Since then, it is the word used to describe any kind of catastrophe of great magnitude in both Christian and non-Christian literature in general.
Why is this word so widely used to describe bloody wars, natural disasters, economic collapse or severe humanitarian crises?
To answer this question, it is necessary to analyze the content of the book of Revelation, the book with the most symbolism in the entire Bible and probably the most difficult to study and interpret.
Although numerous volumes have been written trying to interpret and explain these rare and complex symbols, several of their verses are easily understandable.
The term “Apocalyptic” has become associated with any type of catastrophe, whether human, economical, environmental, or even astronomical.
It is undeniable that reading the term “Apocalyptic” in any newspaper article or any other kind of article generates curiosity. Otherwise the reader would not have been interested in reading the present article.
However, it is important to first highlight the structure or “skeleton” of the book before going into some of its more easily interpreted passages.
The book of Revelation can easily be divided into the following sections: Introduction, the 7 letters to the 7 churches, the vision of God, the Lamb and the scroll with 7 seals, the opening of the 6 seals, interlude 1 (The sealing of God’s people and a vision of the people of the New Jerusalem), the 7th seal and the first 6 trumpets, interlude 2 (John’s call to prophesy and the 2 prophetic witnesses), the first part of the 7th trumpet, interlude 3 (The unholy trinity, the 144. 000 on Mount Zion and the coming judgment), the 7th trumpet and the 7 bowls, Babylon the harlot and her judgment, the coming of the Lamb for judgment and salvation, the millennium and the final judgment of the peoples of the Devil’s kingdom, the new Jerusalem and the epilogue.
As for the places where the events take place, one can easily identify the land of Israel in Revelation 11:1, where the Temple of God is mentioned, considered by some New Testament scholars, as the third Temple of Jerusalem that would have to be rebuilt in the near or distant future.
In this article, we will focus on the catastrophic events of global character described throughout the book, which represent the judgments of God (expressed by the Apostle John as 7 seals, 7 trumpets and 7 bowls) upon a humanity that in spite of witnessing and suffering first hand the wrath of God, does not repent of its sins (Revelation 9:20).
It should be noted that the intensity of these judgments goes “in crescendo” from its beginning in chapter 6 of the book.
In chapter 6, the first seal opens in verse 1 while verse 2 describes a white horse mounted by a rider who had a bow, he was given a crown and “went out to conquer and conquered”.
This first judgment of the saga does not refer to a type of catastrophe as we all know, but some New Testament scholars interpret it as the manifestation of a world leader (the Antichrist) who will first deceive the whole world, then reign over the entire planet and, at some point in John’s account, fiercely persecute both Jews and Christians and that finally in chapter 19, he is sent by Jesus Christ in his second coming to the lake of fire
Verses 3 and 4 of chapter mentions a red horse (second seal), ridden by a rider with power to take peace from the earth and to whom was given a great sword to slay one another.
If this seal were to be opened today, this passage would undoubtedly describe a full-scale world war (and quite possibly nuclear), since the judgments are global in nature.
The third horse (third seal) is described in the following 2 verses, it is black in color and implies that 2 pounds of wheat or 6 pounds of barley will equal one denarius.
A denarius was a silver coin in the ancient Roman Empire equivalent to a day’s work for a day laborer. John observes people working a full day to get the equivalent of a single plate of food. This denotes a global food shortage as never seen before to the point that on any given day, a single provider in a household would have to share that single plate of food with the other members of his or her household .
It must be considered that a world war in this day, especially if nuclear weapons are used, would produce an economic collapse in all countries of the world and a hypothetical nuclear winter that would wipe out basic grain crops globally. Protein sources would also become scarce as livestock would also be affected by the lack of staple grains.
The end of verse 6 mentions that “neither wine nor oil will be harmed”, may reflect, according to some authors, a great hyperinflation in the cost of carbohydrate sources, essential for survival, an aspect that both oil and wine or the rest of alcoholic beverages do not possess.
Verses 7 and 8 describe a yellow horse (fourth seal) ridden by Death, followed by Hades, which was given the power to kill with sword, famine, mortality and the wild beasts of the earth one fourth of the world’s population.
Some believe that this is the result of the world war brought about by the red horse. At present, a quarter of the world’s population is equivalent to 2 billion people around the world, so it is very unlikely that a world war using only conventional weapons would produce such a large death toll. On the other hand, a nuclear winter would also damage the vegetation on which herbivorous animals feed. These would die, but carnivorous animals would also be left without food, and in desperation, human flesh would be the alternative to continue surviving in such conditions.
The fifth seal, as to its nature, is not related to the second, third and fourth seals, and according to some authors, it refers to the cry for divine vengeance by the Christian martyrs throughout history.
In 2024, some 5000 Christians were killed exclusively for their faith around the world, being countries with radical communism such as North Korea or some Islamic countries such as Iran, where Christians are constantly persecuted.
The opening of the sixth seal brings a worldwide earthquake, the falling of “stars” (meteors) and mountains and islands moving out of place, as if all the tectonic plates were suddenly activated at the same time, just like in the movie “2012”.
When the seventh seal opens in Revelation 8:1, angelic events occur in the sky followed by thunder, lightning and another global earthquake.
As previously mentioned, the next judgments of God described in the book as the 7 trumpets and the 7 bowls of God’s wrath are increasing in intensity.
In general terms, since there is not much to analyze, events related to a direct intervention of God begin to occur and for which He uses catastrophic natural phenomena such as apparent volcanic eruptions at a global level, since one third of the world’s vegetation burns at some point (Revelation 8:7-9). An apparent gaseous comet called “Wormwood”, described as a “burning star” pollutes one third of the world’s fresh water sources (Revelation 8:10-11).
Stellar events occur in the next verses, where a third of the sun goes out and thus a third of the moon ceases to give its light, darkening the days (Revelation 8:12).
“Malignant ulcers” apear in men produced by the “heat of the sun”, as if for some reason, there is no longer an ozone layer capable of blocking ultraviolet rays (Revelation 16:2), and reddish colored rivers due to water pollution as is the case with the Río Tinto (river) in the province of Hueva Spain, due to a process known as acid mine drainage that produces extremely acidic pH and a high concentration of toxic elements such as iron, arsenic, cadmium and lead and where neither fish, mollusks or higher plants live.
The seventh and last bowl of God’s wrath is poured out on mankind with a great and final great earthquake, greater than those of the previous judgments, which ends up destroying everything. In this case, the islands “flee” and the mountains are simply “not found” after the earthquake. It is a scene difficult to imagine and explain (Revelation 16:17-20).
The spirit of this article is merely descriptive, (without pretending to enter into any eschatological or theological current), and whose purpose is to better understand where the qualifier “apocalyptic” comes.
We can first conclude that the content of the book of Revelation perfectly supports the term “Apocalyptic”, so deeply rooted in the consciousness of those who understand it.
Finally, this article does not intend to predict or assume that what we read in the book of Revelation will or will not happen in the near or distant future. Each reader must make his or her own judgment on the matter, but regardless of what he or she thinks or not, in the end we could all perfectly conclude that the Apostle John, at least, left us an important linguistic legacy that we will continue to use in this 2025, and in the years to come.