The Third Trumpet and the Environment
In Brother Paiva's preaching broadcast on June 28, 2025, during the 50th International Forum of the Ecumenical Youth of God's Good Will, he urged us to courageously march in Christ's name in today's world. It is in this spirit that I have written:
It is undeniable that our environment is very different from what it was a year, three, five, or twenty years ago, and so on. Although it is a fairly modern topic, in the sense that it is now a more common and recurrent topic. This matter was already a prophetic topic brought by Isaiah in the 8th century BC (Isaiah 24:3-5,12-13,20-22):
3 The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth.
5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.
12 The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces.
13 So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.
20 The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.
21 In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.
22 They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.
And more detailed in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus, when the third trumpet announces (Revelation 8:10-11):
The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
Our responsibility and God's Prophecies
There is a natural tendency to think that what is brought by God's Prophecies as agents of His Laws comes through an external aspect of the human being. But of course, if the Prophecy comes from God and it says that a star is coming down to the rivers, there is no doubt that the Machiavellian god sent it to torment us, poor human beings, victims of every godly whim.
A victimised perspective on the actions of God towards humanity is not only spread, but emphasized. Which is ironic, nonetheless, for a Judeo-Christian perspective. This is very common and could be argued as being one of the central points of Ancient Mythology. Where humanity is at the mercy of the whims of god-like humans who have a desired leisure life.
Contrary to that is the Judeo-Christian perspective, where humanity is not only created by God, but it is also imbued with the characteristic of being participants in His Creation. That said, any consequence revealed by prophecy is not external to us, but rather our actions are the cause. The Mercy Christ is showing to us is by revealing our sentence before the verdict of the trial.
The Third Trumpet and the corrupted intelligence
Concerning what is narrated in the Third Trumpet, and according to Brother Paiva's study of these symbols. Stars represent the bright light of a given talent to us from God: Intelligence. We can then analyse this passage and understand it as the manifestation of the corrupted intelligence. It is not only a symbolic representation of a mysterious vision. It is perceived that the sentence presented is a direct consequence of our misuse of the talent God gave us.
The corruption of it generates the diminishing of natural and necessary resources for our survival. It is not arrogance to observe the mistakes of the past and strive to fix them, but it is an immeasurable stupidity to deny and repeat them. It shows the chosen ignorance.
Another point is that the struggling acceptance of the humanities' participation in its own future brings alienation to current effects. In reality, what is narrated in this passage is happening. The plague on the rivers and the springs of water has already affected. You just have to see in the news how many environmental problems we are facing because of pollution. The star called Wormwood not only represents a possible body out in the universe that can “randomly” come (depending on your perspective) to judge or reprimand all of our actions, because of the “Wrath” of God, which is an illustrative representation of the sentence of the Divine Laws. But it is also the manifestation of ignorance through reason. How many years have we already been discussing the shortening of drinkable water? And for how long will we justify the poisoning, the bitterness of those waters, caused by our corrupted intelligence, as an external sentence towards wannabe “innocents”?
Humanity can no longer use the excuse of insufficient knowledge to understand what pollutes the waters. It still needs to perceive what is happening internally to take responsibility for its actions.
Internal Waters
In addition to the pollution of the rivers and the springs of water, it is also necessary to realise the pollution of our internal waters. That is, our emotions, our reasoning, our psyche, and our spirit.
That’s not something new; it’s just not brought to our consciousness yet. We all have examples in our lives of corrupted intelligence, that is, Wormwood stars, that every time they speak, it feels as if they are polluting our intimacy, bringing us to malevolent ideas and actions. That in the end will only produce bitterness in our lives, be it as reincarnated beings or spiritual ones.
The same happens, spiritually speaking. We can attract to our lives spiritual bodies, that is, Eternal Spirits, that will corrupt us or pollute our minds and emotions. Those are beings that still manifest their malevolent personality and influence those who connect themselves to them.
Cleaning of the Waters
“Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish. But inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give alms from what is within, and behold, all things are clean to you.”
Jesus (Luke 11:39-41)
An internal spiritual cleanse is necessary so that the external environmental challenges can be tackled without hassle. The only one who can promote it in us is Jesus Christ. He puts our lives through processes where, at each stage, spiritual debris is filtered.
It is a constant process that needs to be conquered every day. Persistence and consistency are keys to making the spiritual processes into natural habits.
Once that phase is reached, what used to take long can now take half the time, and then, when it is least perceived, no time at all.
“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.’ [The Samaritan woman asked Jesus where He would get and how great the Water of Eternal Life was] The Divine Master then answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water [from the well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to Eternal Life.’”
(John 4:10,13-14)
Now is not the time to doubt whether to accept or not what Christ has to offer. It is time for repentance and prayer so that Jesus' Merciful offer can lead humanity to redemption.
