100-Pound Hailstones

Dr. Thomas Ice

And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each,came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague ofthe hail, because its plague was extremely severe. -Revelation 16:21

Theplagues, judgments, and disasters in the Book of Revelation and in otherbiblically prophetic passages are not understood by some as literallydescriptive of miraculous events that God will bring one day upon mankind. Instead, non-literal interpreters of these passages say that these descriptionsare either symbolic for a non-historical event or they insist on a naturalisticinterpretation. Such approaches have a difficult time accepting the fact thatGod will actually throw 100 pound hailstones at mankind during a futuretribulation judgment. What are passages like Revelation 16:21 saying? Is thisto be seen as a future supernatural event or is it best understoodnaturalistically as a past event?

Preterist Sophistry

"Itis quite impossible that such gargantuan hailstones can be accounted for underthe most aggravated of meteorological conditions," declares Dr. Kenneth Gentry."Yet Josephus records for us an event so visually and effectually similar thatwhat he records must be the fulfillment of the Revelational prophecy."[1]Dr. Gentry's belief that Revelation 16:21 was fulfilled in the first century,as recorded by Josephus, is further explained in the following:

Notonly is the size mentioned the same (one talent, . . .), but the boulders thrownby the Roman catapults were white colored, as are hailstones. Would not theeffect of the catapulting stones be virtually that of a hailstorm of suchproportions?

.. . Revelation's prophecies find an impressive fulfillment in almost literalfashion in the Jewish War.[2]

Dr.Gentry believes, at least in theory, that, "Scripture interprets Scripture."[3]Yet when it comes to dealing with this particular item, Dr. Gentry prefersJosephus to God's Word. This is true, in spite of the fact that Scripture hasa fair amount to say about this subject. However, when one takes into accountwhat Scripture actually says on this matter, it does not support preterism. This is likely the reason why Josephus is to be preferred by Dr. Gentry and somany preterists.

Itis interesting to note that Dr. Gentry chops his quote of Josephus and does notinclude the part where Josephus says that when the Romans left their stoneswhite, the Jews saw them coming and were able to dodge them. It was only afterthe Romans blackened the stones that they were able to inflict damage on theJews.[4] Thus, in the later and effective useof the stones by the Romans, they did not actually resemble white hailstones asDr. Gentry contends. Is this what Dr. Gentry means when he says the propheciesof Revelation were fulfilled "in almost literal fashion in the Jewish War?" Hardly! When biblical prophecy is fulfilled, it is always clearly andevidently fulfilled.

Whatdoes the Bible have to say about the Lord fighting with hailstones? First ofall, the oldest book in the canon of Scripture says, "Have you entered thestorehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which Ihave reserved for the time of distress, for the day of war and battle?" (Job38:22-23) This passage clearly teaches that God has a storehouse of hail,specifically for "the time of distress," and "for the day of war and battle." Is this just metaphor or "almost literal" language?

Whenyou start looking at instances in the Bible where God uses hail againstIsrael's enemies they start to add up. God used hail against Egypt during theseventh plague (Exod. 9:22-26). In this instance it was clearly literal hailand not just a metaphor for bad weather. This plague was not a result of humanagency. Only God was involved in fighting for Israel against Egypt. There area number of Old Testament passages that refer to God's use of hail in a battlecontext (Psa. 18:12-13; 78:47-48; 105:32; 148:8; Isa. 28:17; 30:30; 32:19;Ezek. 13:11-13; 38:22).

Meteorologistand Bible teacher Charles Clough says, "The proper way to understand propheciesof catastrophes is to follow the apostle Peter's approach and look at the truerecord of God's past historical judgments (2 Pet. 3:5-7)."[5] Themost significant passage for our study is the hailstone incident in Joshua 10. The passage says, "And it came about as they fled from before Israel, whilethey were at the descent of Beth-horon, that the Lord threw large stones from heaven on them as far asAzekah, and they died; there were more who died from the hailstones than thosewhom the sons of Israel killed with the sword." (Joshua 10:11) This is a clearexample of the implementation of the purpose stated in Job, that the Lord has astorehouse of hail for the very purpose of "the time of distress" and "for theday of war and battle." Here God fights with divinely directed hailstonesduring a time of distress and on the day of war and battle on behalf of Israel.John Calvin notes:

Inthe second slaughter the hand of God appeared more clearly, when the enemy weredestroyed by hail. And it is distinctly stated that more were destroyed byhail than were slain by the sword, that there might be no doubt of the victoryhaving been obtained from heaven. Hence again it is gathered that this was notcommon hail, such as is wont to fall during storms. For, in the first place,more would have been wounded or scattered and dispersed than suddenly destroyed;and secondly, had not God darted it directly, part would have fallen on theheads of the Israelites. Now, when the one army is attacked separately, andthe other, kept free from injury, comes forward as it were to join auxiliarytroops, it becomes perfectly clear that God is fighting from heaven. To thesame effect it is said that God threw down great stones of hail from heaven:for the meaning is that they fell with extraordinary force, and were far abovethe ordinary size.[6]

Apoint of similarity between Joshua 10:11 and Revelation 16:21 is found in thefact that both passages describe the hailstones as large in size. They aresaid to be "large" in Joshua and "huge" in Revelation. Clearly Joshua 10:11 isa supernatural event and I believe that Revelation 8:7 and 16:21 will prove toalso be direct miracles from the hand of God.

Preteristslike Dr. Gentry, not only mistake what will be in the future to be a pastevent. They also make what will be supernatural to be the result of anaturalistic cause. When it comes to interpreting the details of Revelation,preterists, more often then not, pull out the equivalence of theirfirst-century newspapers-Josephus-and start reading the headlines to find acorrespondence which they say has already fulfilled this passage. Inevitably,such an interpretation is a naturalistic one that does not require God to doanything. In this instance they say that it was the Romans who fulfilled whatthe Bible says God did.

Suchfirst-century newspaper exegesis is similar in approach to that whichpreterists criticize some futurists in our own day who attempt to correlateBible prophecy with current events. Yet they do the very same thing. The onlydifference between preterists and those they criticize is about 2,000 years intime.

Theonly similarity between Revelation 16:21 and an event recorded by Josephus inhis Wars of the Jews is thephrase "one talent." Yet preterists latch onto that similarity, in spite ofthe fact that there is no contextual correspondence between Josephus and theother words and phrases in the passage. E. W. Bullinger notes that, "Josephussays that stones of a talent's weight were thrown by the Romans againstJerusalem (Wars iii. vii. 9).Surely God can send from heaven what man could send on earth."[7] Infact, earlier in Revelation God used hail and fire as a judgment upon mankind. "And the first sounded, and there came hail and fire,mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth wasburned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass wasburned up." (Rev. 8:7) Was this also recorded somehow as fulfilled by an eventfrom Josephus?

Both Revelation 8:7 and 16:21 willbe real, supernatural events since both correspond to the regional plague ofhail in Exodus 9:22-26. As Bullinger reasons, "The plague of hail in Egypt wasreal (Ex. ix. 18-21). So is this. Why not?"[8] Apparently the reasonwhy this event would not be a future supernatural event is because of thepreterist assumption.

Revelation 16:21, labels this eventa "plague," just like in Exodus. How could the use of catapults by the Romansin a.d. 70 be viewed as a plaguefrom God? Every plague that God sends, either in Exodus or Revelation issomething that God does himself. Not one plague in either Exodus or Revelationis said to be mediated through human agency. All are direct, miracles wroughtby God Himself. The preterist, naturalist interpretation shifts the glory fromGod to man. Not a good thing for anyone to do!

Dr. Gentry's naturalism is evidentwhen he said, "It is quiteimpossible that such gargantuan hailstones can be accounted for under the mostaggravated of meteorological conditions."[9] Quite right! Theseare specially prepared hailstones from the heavenly storehouse in heaven as Job38:22-23 tells us. Scientist Dr. Henry Morris says of Revelation 16:21, "Thishail will not be the usual form of hail-that is, ice produced by violentupdrafts in atmospheric storm cells."[10] If anyone has a problem with such aview, then they would likely have a problem with the other miraculous events ofthe Bible, both past and future.

Dr.Gentry's naturalistic, and thus symbolic interpretation is questionable becauseof another textual factor. Dr. Robert Thomas notes, "it is doubtful that menwould blaspheme God because of something symbolic only. The Egyptian plague ofhail was literal, so this one must be too."[11] Preterism totallyfails in their interpretation of this text to explain more than one aspect ofthe passage, let alone the entire verse.

We have seen thatRevelation 16:21 is an interesting test case of the naturalistic interpretativeapproach of preterism, verses the supernatural understanding of the text byfuturists. By letting Scripture interpret Scripture we must conclude with Dr.Thomas who says, "The Egyptian plague of hail was literal, so this one must betoo."[12] That's right! Because the Lordthrew down great hailstones from heaven hitting only the Amorites in the daysof Joshua provides a precedent that He does such things. The fact that thesegreat hailstones in the battle of Joshua only hit the enemy and not theIsraelites is further proof of God's divine intervention. It would also be theenvy of modern smart weapons technology.

Charles Clough concludes, "Thesame fire, smoke, hail, thunder, plague, and earthquake of the Old Testamentjudgments once again appear in Revelation 6-18. These terms are not exaggerationsand metaphors. They point to a final culmination in God's program ofseparating good from evil throughout all creation. God's past judgments thusmodel His future judgments."[13]

Even if we did not havethe Old Testament precedent of Job, the Exodus, Joshua, etc., I believe thepassage in Revelation 16:21 is clear enough to take it as a literal, future,supernatural event. With the Old Testament support, it is mere sophistry toattempt any other interpretation. Maranatha!

[1] Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Before Jerusalem Fell:Dating the Book of Revelation(Atlanta: American Vision, 1998), p. 246.

[2] Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell, p.246.

[3] Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., He Shall HaveDominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1992), p. 160.

[4] Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, book V, chapter VI, paragraph 3.

[5] Charles Clough, "God's Pattern of Judgment," in theTim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible,NKJV (Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 2001), p. 1470.

[6] John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries, 22 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), vol. iv,p. 151-52.

[7] E. W. Bullinger, Commentary on Revelation (Grand Rapids: Kregel, [1935] 1984), p. 493.

[8] Bullinger, Revelation, p. 492.

[9] Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell, p.246.

[10] Henry M. Morris, The Revelation Record: Ascientific and devotional commentary on the prophetic book of the end times (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1983), p. 322.

[11] Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22: AnExegetical Commentary (Chicago:Moody Press, 1995), p. 277.

[12] Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 277.

[13] Clough, "God's Pattern of Judgment," p. 1470.