How can most Christians believe this can literally happen and people will still be alive afterwards?

Question

Rev 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

If we were literal here like most fundamentalists are it would be like our sun swallowing up the earth.

Answer 1

It is scriptures like these that make me question the Bible. We know now that stars do not "drop out of the sky", they are trillions and trillions of miles away. Even if God moved them to the Earth, they would engulf the Earth in a ball of material undergoing nuclear fusion.

This is obviously meant to be figurative, or maybe just bad astronomy on the ancient's part. Maybe they were talking about meteorites, which can look like bright stars when breaking up in the atmosphere?

Answer 2

Whether the stars are referring to meteors or the great hail that will take place during the tribulation period, or whether they represent fallen angels, or something else entirely, we can't know for certain. The Word of God is authoritative and trustworthy, and it also contains symbolism e.g. "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," and metaphor e.g. John the Baptist referring to Jesus as "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of world." This last reference is from John 1:29, and clearly pictures Christ as our Passover lamb who would die in our place, and of course later be resurrected. If you were to discover that some athlete your mother had described as "being able to run like a deer," were unable to run 40 miles per hour and leap eight foot high fences, you would not think she had lied to you. Likewise, just because we don't understand a certain Bible verse that may have been meant to describe something symbolically, doesn't mean we should think the Bible is unreliable.
Contrary to what some may say, the Bible is not a book filled with "cunningly devised fables" that may have seemed reasonable to primitive peoples, but which have been disproven by modern science. For example, the Bible does not describe the world as sitting on the back of a giant turtle-- an idea that may have seemed reasonable to people at one time, but which has pretty much been empirically demonstrated not to be the case. Considering what some people think about the intellectual capabilities of Christians, it almost seems necessary to point out that the last part of the previous sentence was a feeble attempt at humor. Anyhow, the Bible contains many stories that the hearers would understand to be humanly impossible; for instance, the parting of the Red Sea, the virgin birth, the resurrection, etc, but which were to be regarded as literal, miraculous events as a matter of faith. There's a story (I believe it's true, and wish I knew the source) that fairly well sums up my feelings about your question. Someone was once asked if he were troubled by the things that he didn't understand in the Bible. He responded, "No! I'm troubled by the things I do understand."
Rather than focusing on difficult passages of Scripture, wouldn't it make more sense to begin with the more easily understood parts such as, "... Thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God With All Thy Heart, And With All Thy Mind, And With All Thy Strength..." and, "... Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself. ..." Mark 12:30,31 and also from the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. In closing, I hope you seek after God with an open mind and a sincere heart, and that you come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can be assured that trusting Christ is the best decision you could ever make-- He won't turn you away. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
John 6:37

Answer 3

This particular verse is paralell with Matt 24:29. For the skeptics, I'll need to say the one in Revelation was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70ad.

If it is literal as some choose to believe, and it could be,
the true christians will be protected just like Daniel's three friends that Nebuchadnezzar had thrown into the furnace.

No harm will come to the true believers when that time comes.

Answer 4

Already happened.

1833 Leonid Meteor Shower
The great meteor storm of 1833 is said to have kick-started the modern study of meteors . At the storm's peak, between 2 a.m. and dawn on November 12 and 13, roughly 100,000 meteors per hour rained from the night sky. There was a constant succession of fireballs, resembling rockets, radiating in all directions from a point in the heavens. It led scientists to research past storms and may have been responsible for a wave of religious revivals, started by viewers convinced they had experienced the precursor to Armageddon.

Answer 5

They thought that the sky is a solid structure (the 'firmament'), dividing heaven from earth, and the stars were tiny lights affixed to the firmament by God to provide for omens and portents.

As scientific knowledge has increased, theologians keep changing their interpretation of scripture to conform with reality... but as they did so, the explanations kept getting whackier and whackier.

Read the first part of Genesis, about creation, without your 'modern science' goggles on. It will be clear that it is meant to be interpreted literally... but it is not describing earth and the universe the way it IS... it describes it the way they THOUGHT it is. Remember, we're not talking about scientists here... we're talking about an ignorant bunch of Bronze Age fishermen and wandering goat herders who were trying to make sense out of the world in which they found themselves. Their most advanced scientific instrument was their eyeballs, and their most advanced intellectual tool was their imagination. No math... no logic... no knowledge base... just folk tales of oral tradition and imagination.

So, where Revelations 6:13 speaks of the 'stars of heaven' falling to earth, they meant it literally... the little lights that were attached to the firmament (sky) that seperated heaven from earth would come unglued and fall to earth... kerplunk.

This is part of the reasons that there are atheists... atheists are the people whose bullsh*t alarms are operational.

Christians do not seem to come equipped with bullsh*t alarms.

Answer 6

meteor showers. Should still be some alive afterwards. That isn't the worst ones you know..
Rev 16:3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

After everything there will still be a few left alive to repopulate the earth, God knows what he is doing.

Answer 7

This occurs shortly after the 6th seal, the 6th vial, and 6th trump, when the man of sin is revealed (the beast/anti-christ) and 1/3 of the angels (those who are fallen) and who are the "stars of heaven" are cast down to earth, for the final tribulation.

Michael the Archangel is the mighty force that casts them down from the heavens to the earth. They have no more choice in the matter than those falling figs.

6th seal, 6th vial, 6th trump - 666 - The mark of the beast. Get it?

Answer 8

Believers of the Bible can believe whatever they wish, because they can take any impossible, horrific or stupid statement from the Bible, twist and distort it, then interpret it to say what they wish everyone to believe. Maybe it was just a fireworks display before a bread, fish and wine BBQ.

Everything in the Bible is fantasy, but lots of people seem to enjoy the tale.

Answer 9

Because the Bible tells us it will and the Bible is God Almightys inspired Word, God does not lie.

Secondly everything else in the Bible has come true.

Thirdly i expect you'll see it or hear about it when it happens..we all live forever some in the basement some on the first floor so to speak

Answer 10

Hey lets not for get the 7 headed dragon which by all accounts is only a creature known in Mythology!