What does the Bible say about the sun scorching?

Will it be sudden, or as Ellen White states, building in intensity, along with other factors, into The Time of Trouble?

Revelation 16: 8And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

Isaiah 49: 10They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.


Revelation 7:16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

Ellen White PK 124
A year passes, and yet there is no rain. The earth is parched as if with fire. The scorching heat of the sun destroys what little vegetation has survived. Streams dry up, and lowing herds and bleating flocks wander hither and thither in distress. Once-flourishing fields have become like burning desert sands, a desolate waste. The groves dedicated to idol worship are leafless; the forest trees, gaunt skeletons of nature, afford no shade. The air is dry and suffocating; dust storms blind the eyes and nearly stop the breath. Once-prosperous cities and villages have become places of mourning. Hunger and thirst are telling upon man and beast with fearful mortality. Famine, with all its horror, comes closer and still closer.

Ellen White GC 628 629
In the plague that follows, power is given to the sun ?to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat.? Verses 8, 9. The prophets thus describe the condition of the earth at this fearful time: ?The land mourneth; ... because the harvest of the field is perished.... All the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.? ?The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate.... How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture.... The rivers of water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.? ?The songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.? Joel 1:10-12, 17-20; Amos 8:3.

These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off. Yet they will be the most awful scourges that have ever been known to mortals. All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy.

The people of God will not be free from suffering; but while persecuted and distressed, while they endure privation and suffer for want of food they will not be left to perish. That God who cared for Elijah will not pass by one of His self-sacrificing children. He who numbers the hairs of their head will care for them, and in time of famine they shall be satisfied. While the wicked are dying from hunger and pestilence, angels will shield the righteous and supply their wants. To him that ?walketh righteously? is the promise: ?Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.? ?When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.? Isaiah 33:15, 16; 41:17.

?Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls;? yet shall they that fear Him ?rejoice in the Lord? and joy in the God of their salvation. Habakkuk 3:17, 18.

?The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul.? ?He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.?Psalm 121:5-7; 91:3-10.

I came across this last night and thought I would share it.

This is from 1865 and printed in our paper on the interrelationship of various phenomena, tho I would assert that war precedes violent disasters.

Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, vol. 27 December 5, 1865, page 2
The Recent Wonderful Phenomena in Heaven and Earth

The following selection, sent us by a brother, appeared recently in the columns of a secular paper in New York city, but is more valuable than if it originated with the Advent press. We think its author shows a degree of sagacity amounting almost to prescience, which verifies the Saviour?s words that ?the children of the world are wiser in their generations than the children of light.? Doubtless an All-controlling Power is speaking to the wayward sons of men in the multiplied and singular phenomena of the present time. All who read with care the Book of God, may learn that war, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, fearful sights, etc., are but the dread precursors of the judgment of the great day, and the ushering in of the reign of peace. As if in mercy to cause the inhabitants of earth to stop and think, while it may do them some good, God sends these portentous heralds among the people.

Reader, are you learning the lesson? g.

?Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and similar violent operations of nature are not uncommon in this uneasy hemisphere. The whole western slope of the continent is a region of ?violence, fracture and fire.? Two or three movements of the earth are felt every year on the Pacific side-now at St. Louis, and again, at San Francisco. And as a volcano is an almost necessary result of an earthquake of any consequence, we may say that we have also our two or three volcanic eruptions, either on the land or thousands of miles out under the sea. Four earthquakes were felt on the continent in 1864-ranging from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and from Canada to Panama. In the present year we have had already an even larger number. Hurricanes also are almost a feature of life in the tropical region of America-progressive whirlwind storms of the most terrific power. Sometimes these invade the temperate zone also, and last year one made a swathe all across the northern section of the United States.

But recently a great number of these wonders of nature have occurred within a short period of each other-so short a period as naturally to suggest some relation of cause and effect. On the 6th of September there was a terrible hurricane at Guadaloupe, in the West Indies, and on the 22nd, an earthquake at Porto Rico. On the 23rd of the same month Mt. Hood, in Oregon, began to discharge volcanic matter, and the internal disturbance thus indicated was also seen in a very considerable earthquake that on the 8th instant rocked the houses of San Francisco to and fro in a very free and easy manner. Several celestial wonders have also come in this same period. Some accident of a stupendous nature evidently occurred in the sun in September; perhaps a fiery crust caved in over an immense space, making visible nine thousand miles of a darken central substance. That is the magnitude of the darker part of a spot now visible on the luminary-the length of the whole spot darker and lighter together, being twenty-nine thousand miles. In the same eventful September a new planet was discovered in the heavens; and only the other day we had that ever fresh wonder, an eclipse of the sun.

We do not assert the relationship of these phenomena, but no man having full regard to the history of science will venture to deny that such relationship exists. We cannot see, perhaps, that a great wind storm in the West Indies has anything to do with the agitation of the molten masses beneath the crust of the earth on the Pacific shore of our continent; nor can we say how a volcanic demonstration of nature?s gigantic chemical processes may be associated with shadows seen on the sun. But it is known that the disturbances in the sun directly influence the electrical conditions of the earth, and to the influence of those electrical disturbances no one can assign a limit. They cannot be without their influence on such a purely atmospheric phenomenon as the hurricane. Between the disturbed electrical conditions of the earth and the central fires there is also an evident connection. Tremblings of the earth-shocks, volcanoes-are always preceded by changed electrical conditions; and when considerable, this changed condition has even a remarkable influence upon animal life. And it should be remembered, in connection with all these phenomena, that only so long ago as when the attempt was made to lay the Atlantic cable, the earth was swept by a remarkable electric storm.

This period of remarkable phenomena comes just at the close of another sort of a storm. It follows a great war, and with us, perhaps, precedes a pestilence. Perhaps it is one of the ancient errors of the human race that earthquakes and eclipses accompany pestilence and war. Wars certainly come oftener than eclipses or even comets, and earthquakes shake countries that are otherwise in the most positive peace. It may be convenient to assume this connection when we cannot explain war in any other way, and there is some use for such an assumption in our war. Reflecting that Southern men made it, it would seem almost as if their action must have been influenced by some incontrollable madness, as wide spread and general as the air. But in the case of pestilence, and especially such a pestilence as the cholera, science has made the connection obvious. Certain states of the atmosphere unquestionably favor the spread of that disease, and these states may possibly result from the same electrical conditions that associate the natural wonders with each other. Undoubtedly the physical life of man is thus ?subject to all the skyey influences.? Medical science can see very well that the influence of an eclipse, a comet or an electrical storm, if it changes the condition of the atmosphere, will enable an epidemic to sweep off a whole section of the human race; and it acknowledges as true, this ancient notion, so often denounced as a superstitious error. But now we denounce as superstitious error the other ancient notion, that the eclipse and kindled phenomena affect also our intellectual life. May not the next hundred years of science prove that also to be a truth?


If a man be not interested in Christ, he may perish with, ?Our Father? in his mouth.

Ellen White
The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecy of the eleventh chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place.?Testimonies for the Church 9:14.

I was shown the inhabitants of the earth in the utmost confusion. War, bloodshed, privation, want, famine, and pestilence were abroad in the land.... My attention was then called from the scene. There seemed to be a little time of peace. Once more the inhabitants of the earth were presented before me; and again everything was in the utmost confusion. Strife, war, and bloodshed, with famine and pestilence, raged everywhere. Other nations were engaged in this war and confusion. War caused famine. Want and bloodshed caused pestilence. And then men's hearts failed them for fear, ?and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.??Testimonies for the Church 1:268.