Back at LANX News, Jill Steiner realizes what has just happened, and what is coming next. She has learned her lessons well. Somehow knowing what is coming was not comforting to her. It is now just weeks after the Midpoint of the Tribulation. Jill knows the Trumpet Judgments will soon begin in earnest. She has written down a personal outline of the Judgments so that she can follow them as they unfold.
Jill's reviews her notes on what happens after the Midpoint:
Idol statue of Antichrist put into Temple in Jerusalem (Jill checks it as "done")
Two evangelists: Moses and Elijah return to earth, preach the gospel in Jerusalem near the Temple (also "done")
Seven Trumpet Judgments begin:
Hail mixed with fire and blood
Giant flaming mountain thrown down into the ocean
All grasses, wheat and corn die
Fresh water polluted and poisoned
Sun and moon darkened
Swarms of Demons begin torturing people (giant "Locust-scorpions")
Second wave of "Horseman Demons" released, also kill many
Skin disease epidemic
Blood in the seas and rivers
All sea life dies
Remaining drinking water poisoned
Sun scorches people on earth
Babylon destroyed
The return of the Lord -- Armageddon
Jill keeps these notes with her to remind of what is coming next. But she does not know how she will deal with announcing each of them on her daily news show as they unfold. The judgments mean death to billions of people. She also knows that her show was now being sent to news rooms internationally, so her impact could be enormous. Jill had become well-known for her accurate and timely reporting on all the disasters. Jill thinks it odd that Jill Steiner's Morning News show would be the show which reported these events to the world. She thought of it as moths coming to the flame, because most would not believe her ties between these events and the Bible, but the people somehow could not avoid looking. Nevertheless, by this time Jill had become the premier reporter for breaking disaster news in the entire world.
As Jill prepares for her daily news anchor duties, she notes the weather forecast. It is ominous.
LANX Chief Weatherman Ross Hoffman looks at the data and shakes his head. He has only a few seconds remaining before he goes on air. Ross cannot explain what he sees. But he believes he must deliver the weather news as he sees it.
Jill: "And now for the weather...Ross?"
Weatherman Ross Hoffman: "Let's get straight to the data. Wind patterns are like nothing we have ever seen. Upper level winds have ceased. Nothing is moving, and that pattern is set to continue. Meaning the normal upper level flows are not moving, because there are no Highs or Lows anywhere on the earth. A stillness has settled in, and it appears to be a pattern. It is a severe drought scenario. How long this will last, I do not know. But it will not take long for massive crop damage to occur under these conditions. There is no scientific explanation here. Upper level winds never just cease all over the world. But they have now. And it is a big problem. See how the weather map has no Highs or Lows. Nothing."
As Weatherman Ross Hoffman continues to discuss the unusual weather patterns, Jill Steiner realizes what it means. The Trumpet Judgments have begun. The first will be scorching heat and a destruction of grasses and crops. The world is already in a state of mass starvation, and now it will intensify. She envisions an earth without a blade of grass, and without wheat for bread. It is time for Jill to resume coverage of the news. She wonders how she will handle what is coming. The impact will be unimaginable suffering, world-wide starvation and death on a massive scale. The last three years were bad, but now things are about to get truly awful on the earth. Jill thinks to herself that it is good to know what the Bible reveals, but difficult to know that terrible judgments are closing in very fast. There will be 14 major Judgments over 3 1/2 years. And those along with world war and also what evil dictators will do to the population of the earth. Jill tries not to think about how she missed the Rapture. She must focus on her role here and now. She proceeds to cover the daily news, awful as it is on a daily basis, while knowing that the real horror is just around the corner.
Within weeks the earth is a tinder box of dried vegetation with no rain having fallen, and none is in sight. Jill reviews her notes on what she has learned about the timeline of the Tribulation. She knows what is coming next. It is Revelation 8:7 “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”
The next day her Weatherman airs the news of a devastating worldwide weather event. Hail and fire, mixed with a red substance resembling blood. Tests would later show it actually was blood. It occurred suddenly, as people watched in horror, fire from the skies fell on the earth. The parched vegetation was burned worldwide as wildfires were fanned by strong winds created by the fires themselves, not by weather. Within 24 hours the assessment was that 1/3 of all vegetation worldwide was gone, burned by the fire from the skies. Stock Markets again plummet worldwide. There is no doubt that a deep and irreversible global depression is at hand, and that many millions will starve. Possibly billions. The shock of this event leads to mass suicides. The world knows there is not enough food to feed even 1/4 of the people now alive on earth. Billions of people must leave the planet one way or another.
Several weeks later Jill is preparing her news report on the results of the devastation caused by the changes in weather including the fiery red hail event. Trumpet 1 has occurred, and 1/3 of all vegetation has been destroyed, and 100% of all grasses are gone. An entire season of crops wiped out. Worldwide mass starvation is inevitable. She thinks to herself what she had read from her book about his event:
"Trumpet Judgment #1 is wind shear velocity (“hurled”) fiery hail mixed with blood rain. Remember, this is literal, not an allegory. The angels are given authority to destroy 100% of all grasses and a third of all non-grass vegetation on the earth. God takes away the majority of the world's food supply by killing off all grasses, including wheat, rice, and other grains which are the world's chief sources of food. And since the world's livestock depends on what has been destroyed in the judgment, the meat supply will also be largely taken away as a source of food. The resulting worldwide famine will be severe. The oxygen and carbon dioxide cycle mediated by trees and other vegetation will be disrupted resulting in reduced oxygen supply. There will be little timber left for building. The earth will become scarred and ugly, and little beauty will remain. This is truly a “scorched earth” as described in Joel:
Joel 1:10 “The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails. 11 Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.”
Jill files her grim report realizing most will not truly understand the full impact until they themselves are actually starving. And that would come soon.
Within weeks, relief workers in Africa are desperate. The situation is dire. The food shipments from donating countries have ceased. There is no food coming in, and very little was available on the entire African continent before the fiery red hail. In the best of times Africa has continually been near starvation. Now the starvation is reaching everyone there. Even the relief workers are without food. Reports of game reserves being poached for food spread, which only causes more people to realize how desperate the times are. Roads become filled with food refugees fleeing Africa heading for Europe. Boats full of people fill the Mediterranean Sea. They are pushed back by a fleet of European ships. They cannot accept these refugees when their own citizens are starving.
An emergency meeting of the African States Council convenes to discuss the crisis. But they are powerless to do anything. The food shortage is catastrophic. The next growing season is a year away. A food supply chain expert presents his data, and it is worse than thought. Essentially, there is no longer any food supply chain into Africa. He predicts that 1/3 of all Africans will die within the next 12 months. The mass migration will fail as Europe and Asia have already sealed their borders. The attendees depart dejected and in shock.
The scene is repeated in countries around the world. Just 2 months after the fiery red hail occurred, food shortages are already at critical levels world-wide. And there is no food coming in. Death sinks in among the poorest of nations. The rest are desperately hungry.
The following day Jill comes back on the air to report the news. She covers the most recent several earthquakes and resulting tsunamis which occurred overnight, more large hail, numerous tornadoes, attacks by normally placid animals on their owners, the sudden appearance of a new skin-eating bacteria, and the arrest of Christians in numerous locations around the world. Jill is weary of it all. But she knows she must continue. At this point her reading of the news has become a sort of ministry to the lost souls who live in constant fear and desperation. She thinks that if she can just instill some hope in her audience of something beyond all of this, she just might make a difference. What sort of difference, she does not yet know. But one thing she does know -- things are about to get even worse. She does not sleep much knowing that fact. But she now knows she will come out the other end of this in the hands of the Lord. She thinks mainly about the Millennium which will follow the current seven year period of Tribulation. Maybe she will live another 1000 years. Would she marry? Would she have children...she does some quick math in her head...maybe a hundred children, one every ten years? That thought freaks her out. And what about being married to the same person for 1000 years? How would that work? Maybe I will not think so much. She goes to sleep thinking about the Millennium, but wakes up thinking about the harsh reality of a new set of judgments. And they have only just begun.
Then the thought of a 1000 year marriage recurs in her head. She says to herself "I must be content with the terrible things at hand -- enough already, Jill!" Then she laughs. Just a little.