Scripture for Today, 8-4-18: Burning Mountain & Sea

“And the second angel sounded the trumpet, and, as it were, a great mountain burning with fire, was cast into the sea;  and the third part of the sea became blood, and the third part of the creatures in the sea, which have life, died, and the third part of the ships was destroyed.” 

Revelation 8:8

8-3-18, As we study God’s Word we see some cannot be literal; many are figurative or ‘similes.’ They are easily identified as anything is likened to another and the comparison is stated by the words "as" or "like." [1] An example is 1Peter 1:24, "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass." Jesus used a striking simile in describing hypocrites in Matthew 23:27, "Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." In Revelation 16:3 it says the water turned as blood.
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Mohammedanism

1953, * --  In Revelation 8:8 the Apostle John, in the spirit (of prophecy), continues recording what he is seeing in heavenly visions.  The great prophets of the Old Testament had received only glimpses of these and similar visions; however since St. John was spiritually and morally far superior to the ancient prophets, his qualifications made him worthy of receiving the complete revelations which the prophets received only in fragments.
 
At the sound of the second trumpet (Revelation 8:8) a mountain is hurled into the sea and turns the water turns to blood.  So much “blood” one third of the creatures who have life (souls) in the sea die [In Revelation 17:15 we see 'waters' are people]. 
 
If the sea were actually changed into blood, all living creatures in the sea would die, this is an allusion as in the first plague of Egypt.  However, the figurative concept of the whole chapter makes us seek an allegorical interpretation. In prophetical imagery it is nothing new to predict a menacing and plundering world power as a burning mountain. In the Old Testament the Prophet Jeremiah used the same figure to denominate Babylon at the time of the captivity.  After its’ destruction Babylon was called a “burnt mountain”.  God said: “Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.” Jeremiah 51:25
 
In Revelation 8:8 the huge mass of the burning mountain tumbled into the sea throws it into such convulsions as to sink a third of the ships. Two thirds of the ships and two thirds of the living creature escape.  This peculiar grammatical construction gives a quasi personal character to the ships that are “destroyed” as if they had life and to the creatures “that have souls.”
 
In the history of Christianity, these allegorical figures describe nothing with truer precision than Mohammedanism [aka Islam and its Prophet Mohammed]. He preached an unceasing and holy war against all non Muslims who would not believe his religion of crude materialism reducing the moral standards of its adherents to animalism.  Its’ oriental fanaticism upholds thievery, slavery, rape, beheadings and murder against all unbelievers, and, it promises a heavenly reward of sensual delights [2]. 
 
Mohammed inaugurated a world movement and established a world power by the edge of the sword, which turned a part of the world into blood.  The motive for that bloodshed was a false religion of hatred for all who do not accept it.  With fire and sword he devastated the earth.
 
As his followers are attempting to do today.

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[1] Explanation of literal and figurative phrases in God’s word here:

[2] In Islam's book, the Koran, it promises virgins and their physical attributes are described:

• large eyes (Q 56:22)
• big, firm, round "swelling breasts" (Q 78:33)
• that are not inclined to sagging (Q 78:33)
• The Qur'an refers to companions of equal age, but the highly-flavored emphasis of their bodily characteristics
• including their virginity
• Hadith 2687 is where the number 72 is mentioned More here from WikiIslam

*Excerpted and adapted full original message from Rev Bernard H. Kramer here: 
After thirty years of research and study, The Book of Revelation, after learning seven languages, was interpreted in 1953. -- Rev. Bernard Haring Kramer