The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has become an event which is hard not to see and describe as apocalyptic. Many who have looked at this present time in history as the last days or a time immediately preceding them have begun to focus close attention on the possibility of the oil spill crisis being fulfillment of Revelation chapter 8 events. It has been examined here as well as many other sources, though it is perhaps correct to say that no one yet knows a sure answer, none but He who decides when prophecy is to be fulfilled.
The information which is shared in this article is not meant to encourage a certain conclusion that the Gulf oil crisis is fulfilled prophecy or soon to be fulfilled prophecy, yet there are some possibly startling connections to pay attention to here, ones which might make future information as it comes more relevant.
The verses which believers are focusing on currently and which are dealt with here are these:
"Then the second messenger sounded and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed. Then the third messenger sounded and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood and many men died from the water because it was made bitter. " - Revelation 8: 8-11
A great mountain burning with fire and which most have probably imagined falling from the sky does not appear to be what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico, not in a literal way. Then for this reason have some attempted to understand the current event as relating to the prophecy in an entirely figurative way. I am not in favor of completely symbolic interpretations of scripture though, it is not reasonable or within what is evident of YHWH's nature to explain in riddles what is needful for people to understand. For a thing to be figurative in scripture, there must also be clear indication of it, it must be clear that analogy or metaphor is being used and what it symbolizes must have a reasonably clear interpretation or else there is freedom to make guesses. I do not conclude that an oil rig in some way resembled a mountain to John when he received the vision, or if it had that YHWH would allow John's misinterpretation to be forever struggled with by believers reading His word, but here is what we should know of the mention of a mountain in this verse:
The word which has been interpreted as "mountain" from the Greek is the word "oros". The definition of this word is given by Strong's to be a mountain, or something which is risen or rears itself above the plain. What is not evident in Strong's is that "oros" is also the word from which the English word "horizon" is derived at its root. Horizon - horizo (a dividing or separating) - oros. That which is seen as rising above the plain in one's line of sight at its most distant visual point and marking the boundary between earth and heaven is the horizon. If any need reminded, the name of the oil rig which sunk in the Gulf was named the "Deepwater Horizon".
The Deepwater Horizon was thrown into the sea and then it should follow that a third of the sea becomes blood. The word which is for sea - thalassa is not specific as to if it should mean one sea or many or all seas as a collective and so there is no predicting in a third of every ocean and sea is polluted in this way or just one specific body of water. We have seen, though, the oil slick which, unlike most cases of oil spilling into sea water, is red and looks like exactly like blood.
Since the disaster it has not been the government or the military, the local community organizers or governors, mayors or the EPA who have been in charge of cleaning up and putting right this horrible wrong. It has been left to those who carry the public blame for the disaster itself, those who supposedly are responsible for the "mistake" have been given the entire responsibility for correcting it. As a parent demanding a naughty child who has made a mess to then go clean it, Obama has put forward a show of laying the duty to correct the problem on those who caused it, but yet in such a serious situation one might ask what sense it should make to give the wrong doer all power over the very situation they caused. Not only does BP have control over the entire clean up but also, it appears, they have control over the affected area, giving orders to local officials and police officers and demanding the arrest of citizens who would film or otherwise document what is taking place there. BP has answered its "mistake" by dumping millions of gallons of a toxic and useless dispersant called Corexit into the water making a bad situation even worse and giving no warning or protection to those who are coming in contact with the substance. It is yet to be seen that any real attempt by BP has been made to stop this from getting worse.
If it is fulfillment of prophecy that is unfolding then there is an event to be expected following a Deepwater Horizon being thrown into the sea and the sea becoming blood. A star, burning like a torch which falls on a third of the rivers and springs of water. We have seen no asteroid descend from heaven yet. It has been discussed that with consideration of a possible nuclear solution to the crisis that this burning star might be a nuclear weapon. Possibly that is a fair guess, but there is other information to consider.
The star which falls is called Wormwood. Wormwood is a plant known more officially as Artemesia Absinthium. From this plant is derived absinthe, a strong, intoxicating hallucinogen. The effects of ingesting wormwood range from medicinally beneficial ( such as eradication of internal parasites) to fatal. It is strange to imagine that a heavenly body crashing to earth, or even a nuclear weapon might be named after a plant or that it should fall on many waters or that the effect on those waters is exactly as the effect of the plant wormwood itself -"they were made bitter". Wormwood is known for its very bitter flavor.
The word in Greek translated to say "burning" is "kaio" which can mean to burn and also can mean "consume". A deadly effect, then, that can be likened to consumption as fire consumes. The dispersant,Corexit that BP has used fits the description of a deadly agent of a consuming, burning destruction. A toxin that is able to destroy blood cells, kidneys, nervous systems and lungs in humans and which also has been seen to burn up the leaves of vegetation which it contacts. The connections which can be made between Corexit and Wormwood far exceed this though.
The word which translates to "star" in Greek is aster, and a star is just what it means in it's original use, but now, that same Greek word Aster is the name of a family of plants who's flowers usually resemble stars with various numbers of rays. Artemesia Absinthium, or Wormwood belongs to the Asteraceae (aster) family.
Aster Flowers
BP's logo is said to be a sunflower, a flower which is also a member of the plant family Asteraceae, as well as a tribute to the Greek deity of the sun, Helios.
It comes now into question if BP had in mind, not a sunflower, but a Wormwood blossom. The ingredients of the dispersant Corexit had not, for some time, been a publicly available list. The company claiming it wished to preserve its patent rights on the ingredients of the mixture kept it a company secret, but recently public pressure has pushed BP to offer the list of Corexit ingredients for public display. One of these ingredients, until now, kept secret is a substance listed as Butanedioic acid. The effects of butanedioic acid on lab animals are skin irritation, hemorrhage of the digestive tract, lethargy, depression and edema. Aquatic life has been seen to have a 50% higher mortality rate exposed to butanedioic acid after 4 days of exposure.
The real point of interest of butanedioic acid is this, though: BP's use of this name "butanedioic acid" has obscured the fact that this substance has other names we might be much more interested in knowing. Butanedioic acid is also known as succinic acid or "spirit of amber" because it can be derived from amber, but succinic acid is also found in Artemesia Absinthium, wormwood and yet another synonym for butanedioic acid and succinic acid is Wormwood Acid. Corexit 9500 contains Wormwood Acid. Here is a link you can check this for yourself at -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pcsubsta...[Synonym]%201110[standardizedcid
There was a "horizon" which was thrown into the sea, there is an "aster" which has polluted the waters further. The wormwood of the family asteraceae is threatening to burn vegetation and poison people.
Perhaps there is much yet to answer, such as things which are listed as coming before these events in the prophecy of Revelation, yet these things should not necessarily be put aside as just a great coincidence. Even so, come Master Yahushua.