Continuing Church of God 68
Asteroid Fears, the Wormwood Prophecy, and Revelation's Seals and Trumpets with Dr. Bob Thiel
After a recent meteor shower, Steve Dupuis asks Dr. Bob Thiel whether an asteroid impact is imminent, and Thiel walks through Matthew 24 and the Book of Revelation's seals and trumpets to explain why the biblical Wormwood prophecy cannot occur for years to come.
Meteor Shower Sparks Asteroid Question
Steve Dupuis opens the Bible News Prophecy program by telling Dr. Bob Thiel about a recent meteor shower near his home, and asks whether people should start expecting an impact from an object in outer space. Thiel answers that commentator Michael Snyder raised the same question days earlier, quoting a headline asking why scientists are suddenly so concerned about an asteroid hitting Earth and whether they know something the public does not. Thiel reads Snyder's observation that authorities insist no giant space rocks are heading toward the planet, yet the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference has built a scenario around a hypothetical large asteroid impact, and scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are studying how to destroy such an asteroid with nuclear weapons. He adds that NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission secretly retrieved a sample from an asteroid and returned it to Earth, evidence Snyder cites that a great deal of time, money, and energy is quietly being spent preparing for a potential threat.
Decades Of Denouncing Doomsday Dates
Thiel explains that scientists track enormous numbers of objects in space, know that some have struck Earth before, and recognize that asteroids and comets occasionally shift trajectory or get discovered unexpectedly, which is why researchers examine possible human responses. He then pivots to his own long-standing skepticism, telling Dupuis that over the past couple of decades he has publicly denounced various preachers, mostly Protestant ministers, who claimed an asteroid or comet was about to strike Earth within weeks or months to fulfill what they called the biblical Wormwood prophecy. Asked why he rejected those predictions, Thiel answers that the object the Bible calls Wormwood cannot arrive for a considerable time yet. He notes that the Apostle John was inspired more than nineteen hundred years ago to write about Wormwood in the Book of Revelation, and that the sequence of events scripture places before Wormwood makes clear none of those earlier predicted dates could possibly have been correct.
Matthew 24's Timeline Of Signs
Asked to describe that sequence, Thiel turns to Matthew 24, where Jesus lists signs to watch for. Starting at verse 11, Jesus warns that many false prophets will arise and deceive many, something Thiel says is already visible. Verse 12 warns that lawlessness will abound and the love of many will grow cold, which Thiel says is also underway, while verse 13 promises that whoever endures to the end will be saved, meaning the end has not yet arrived. Verse 14 says the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness before the end comes, and verse 15 points to the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel standing in the holy place, an event Thiel says has not happened. He adds that verse 21's great tribulation, worse than any before or after, and verse 29's darkened sun, dimmed moon, and falling stars, all follow those still-unfulfilled signs, meaning years remain before Wormwood can strike.
Seven Seals Must Open First
Dupuis asks how those verses connect to Wormwood specifically. Thiel answers that Jesus's warnings tie directly to the Book of Revelation's seven seals, which must open in sequence before Wormwood appears, and that at most three of those seals may have begun opening so far. He places the fifth seal's opening, described in Revelation 6:9, at least three and a half years away, since it starts what Jesus calls the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24:21. Thiel then reads Revelation 6:12, where John describes the sixth seal opening with a great earthquake, the sun turning black as sackcloth, the moon becoming like blood, and the stars falling to earth like unripe figs shaken from a tree before the sky recedes like a scroll and every mountain and island moves from its place. He stresses that these sixth-seal events match what Jesus said would follow the tribulation, and that Wormwood cannot fall until after the seventh seal opens, since the fourth, fifth, and sixth still remain unopened.
Angels Sound Trumpets Of Judgment
Thiel walks through Revelation 8, which opens with the seventh seal and roughly thirty minutes of silence in heaven before seven angels receive seven trumpets. An angel throws fire from the altar to earth amid thunder, lightning, and another earthquake, and the first angel's trumpet brings hail and fire mingled with blood that burns a third of the trees and all the green grass. The second angel's trumpet casts something like a burning mountain into the sea, turning a third of it to blood and killing a third of its living creatures. Only with the third angel's trumpet, Thiel explains, does a great burning star called Wormwood fall from heaven onto a third of the rivers and springs, turning the waters bitter and killing many who drink them. Thiel emphasizes the strict order Revelation lays out, insisting Wormwood cannot fall until the fourth, fifth, and sixth seals have opened and the 144,000 described in Revelation 7 have been sealed.
Comet, Asteroid, Or Years Away
Asked what Wormwood actually is, Thiel says it exists but cannot strike for several years since it follows the tribulation and the third trumpet. He suggests the great star that burns like a torch could be a comet or an asteroid, leaning toward comet because comets carry cyanogen gas that, mixed with water, forms bitter-tasting hydrogen cyanide lethal at low concentrations, matching Revelation's description of water turned bitter. Thiel argues this detail, recorded centuries before anyone understood comet chemistry, points to divine inspiration. He then cites the 1908 Tunguska event, which flattened two thousand square kilometers of forest, and Lawrence Livermore's simulations testing nuclear weapons against dangerous asteroids, calling such defenses a vain hope against a prophesied event. Thiel concludes Wormwood is still at least six years away and likely longer, then closes quoting Jesus in Mark 13:37 telling everyone to watch, after which Dupuis directs listeners to biblenewsprophecy.net.
