Revelation’s Geology. Falling stars, mountains burning, tsunami warnings, polluted water, are prophesied in Scripture. The author’s aim is to have geoscience in one hand and the Bible in the other
By Ryan Thompson, Leviathan, 168 pages
With a book title of ‘Revelation’s Geology’, I thought I needed to check the meaning of geology. According to the Oxford dictionary, the word means ‘the scientific study of the earth’s physical structure, including the history and origin of its rocks and soil’. Before I read this book, I had the opportunity of watching an interview by one of my colleagues, Tim Vince, with the author. I sat with mouth wide open at the knowledge Ryan Thompson has of his subject
This book has much to help us understand so many of the issues we hear about concerning our world, such as climate warming, oil supplies running out, earthquakes, floods and much more. What makes it an important book for Christians to read is that the author’s aim is to have ‘geoscience in one hand and the Bible in the other’. Ryan Thompson does not consider himself a theologian. He describes himself a ‘believing geoscientist’. He has a Master of Science degree in geoscience. For many years he worked in the oil industry, finding oil to enable companies to spend millions drilling new oil and gas wells. He has also spent time living in the mountains east of the Jordan river.
His specialist subject in this book is a study of the last book of the Bible, Revelation. He aims to show how the things we read there relate to the everyday happenings in our world today. It is fascinating to read how he, as a geoscientist, understands the connection between Scripture and world events. Early on, talking about the flood in Genesis he writes: “A single event where the mountains rose, and the valley sank, is consistent with the record of a global flood during time of Noah”. He explains how, as a geoscientist, he could see it happening.
All my studies of the book of Revelation in the Bible have been theological. Here is a geoscientist explaining Scripture. One chapter, headed ‘Famine, pestilence and persecution’, is about the opening of the seals in Revelation 6. He takes an example of the opening of the fourth seal in Revelation 6:7-8. He then explains why pestilence so often follows wars, using the example of the Spanish flu after World War 1 which killed double the number of those who died fighting in the war.
Immediately after this is a chapter on trumpets and bowls as geological signs. This chapter references Revelation 8:2 through to 16:21. The author suggests that so much of what we are seeing today – falling stars, mountains burning, tsunami warnings, polluted water, are prophesied in Scripture and he explains why he says that.
I could go on. The next chapter is entitled ‘Extreme Global Warning; so much so that the Euphrates River dries up’ (Rev 16:12), and he explains why it could happen. This book won’t be for everyone. Readers will have to work out for themselves whether they accept all that Ryan Thompson has written, and Ryan would welcome that. If you want to be stretched in your reading and thinking, this book would give you that challenge.
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