And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
—Rev. 8:5
3121 Most Destructive Of Natural Disasters
Lightning is by far the most destructive of nature’s violent acts. The annual number of fatalities from lightning is well over 100—more casualties than any other natural disasters. Each year, it destroys property worth over 100 million dollars in the U. S., mostly from fires in homes and forests.
3122 Its Frequency
It is estimated that in any one year throughout the world, there are 16 million thunderstorms, 1800 taking place at any given moment.
Few areas in the United States are free of lightning storms, and the average square mile is hit by as many as 20 to 30 bolts per year.
3123 360,000 Flashes Per Hour
Scientists have estimated that throughout the earth 360,000 lightning flashes per hour occur. It is computed by General Electric officials that the average bolt has a voltage of 100 million, a current of 100 thousand amperes, and an energy of four kilowatt hours.
Thus, one flash of lightning would keep any house lit for 35 years. And a large bolt of lightning has enough energy to lift the 51,821-ton ocean liner United States six feet into the air.
3124 Fertilizer Producer
Moreover, by combining nitrogen and oxygen, lightning creates 100 million tons of plant food a year, raining down far more than is produced by all the commercial fertilizer plants.
—Associated Press
3125 Tragedies From Lightnings
One of the worst tragedies caused by lightning was at Brescia in Italy, in 1769. A flash hit the state arsenal, exploding more than 100 tons of gunpowder and killing 3,000 people. Perhaps the most disastrous fire created by lightning was at San Luis Obispo in California, on April 7, 1926. It raged for five days, spread over 900 acres, burnt nearly 6 million barrels of oil and destroyed $15 million worth of property. Amazingly, only two people died.
3126 Tidbits On Lightning
Sometimes a stroke of lightning consists of as many as 22 discharges which follow the same path and strike the same spot in such quick succession that they appear to be a single flash. … Flashes of lightning from a cloud to the earth have been less than 3,000 feet in length, while flashes from one cloud to another have been more than 20 miles in length. … Not more than one lightning flash in a hundred ever strikes the earth. On the other hand, lightning has been known to strike one object many times during an intense electrical storm. Not long ago, the Empire State Building in New York was struck 15 times within 15 minutes.
Animals seem to be more susceptible to death by lightning than human beings. In many cases on record, a flash has killed only one man in a crowd, while other flashes have killed all the animals in a large group. As examples, 288 sheep perished from a single flash in an open field in Germany in 1822,150 pigs met their deaths in Belgium in 1859 and 340 sheep were killed in France in 1890. … The rarest and least understood form of lightning is ball lightning, a slow-moving globe of fire which varies in diameter between two and 20 inches. Occurring during heavy thunderstorms, it is usually dis covered traveling horizontally a few feet from the ground as if held by an invisible support. One of the most remarkable of these balls, which appeared in Milan, Italy, not long ago, floated so slowly down the middle of a street that a crowd of boys were able to walk beside it for half a mile before it struck an obstacle and exploded harmlessly.
—Freling Foster
3127 Some Legends
The most approved classical preservatives against lightning were the eagle, the sea-calf, and the laurel. Jupiter chose the first, Augustus Caesar the second, and Tiberius the third. Bodies scathed and persons struck dead by lightning were said to be incorruptible; and anyone so distinguished was held by the ancients in great honour.
—J. C. Bullenger
3128 Church Celebrates Bolt From The Blue
The Swamp United Church of Christ in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, celebrated the appearance of a strange lightning bolt 18 years ago. According to Evangelical Press news service, it seems that when circuit-riding preacher John Waldschmidt died in 1786, his wife became a demented deaf mute. During a church service six years later, lightning struck the cemetery outside. Upon investigation, say church records, the shocked congregation discovered that the bolt had split Waldschmidt’s tombstone in two—and that the widow was healed the same instant.
—Christianity Today
3129 Remembering His Experience
Over the desk of Dr. E. C. Norton, for many years professor of Greek at Pomona College, California, there hung a curious decoration. Framed under glass were the burned fragments of a cuff, carefully pasted together upon a piece of cardboard. During his senior year at college Norton was hitching a team to a tree when lightning struck the tree and killed both horses, felling him to the ground and burning his arm and hand so that for a time they were paralyzed. Commenting on the narrow escape, he said, “I guess the Lord must have had something for me to do.”
The framed fragments of the cuff on the wall of his office were a constant reminder that God had something for him to do.
—Ministers Research Service
3130 A Man Is Born Again
St. Ambrose says that a Christian wife was on a journey with her heathen husband, when a terrific thunderstorm arose, which overwhelmed the man with terror. His wife asked the cause. He replied, “Are you not afraid?” She answered, “No, not at all: for I know that it is the voice of my heavenly Father; and shall a child be afraid of a father’s voice?” The husband saw that his wife had what he had not; and this led him to the adoption of Christianity.
—Foster
3131 Lincoln Wanted More Light Less Noise
To people who kept criticizing his administration, President Lincoln once told the following story:
“A traveler on the frontier found himself, as night came on, in a wild region. A terrible thunderstorm added to his trouble. He floundered along until his horse gave out and then had to get out to lead him. Occasional flashes of lightning afforded the only clue to the path, and the crashes of thunder were frightful. One bolt, which seemed to crush the earth beneath him, made him stagger and brought him to his knees. Being by no means a praying man, his petition was short and to the point: “Oh Lord! If it’s all the same to you, give us a little more light and a little less noise!””
3132 For Real
At Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, poet-playwright W. B. Yeats was looking for realism in creating the lightning effects for a glorious sunset. Hour after hour he had the electricians try every conceivable combination of colors and rheostats. At last he saw exactly the effect he wanted. “That’s it!” he cried. “Hold it, hold it!”
“We can’t hold it, sir,” came a stagehand’s apologetic voice. “The bloody theater’s on fire.”
—Sir Cedric Hardwicke
3133 Miracle On Easter
An African told how God worked Easter Sunday at the Ibuga Church of Western Tanzania. The Ibuga Christians had to meet outdoors because the buildings could not accommodate the 800 who attended. While they sang and worshipped, they had no idea of the calamity that was striking their neighborhood.
About the time they started their service, a huge lioness came from the forest wild and mad. Normally a lion would kill and eat, but she was only bent on killing. She dashed from house to house attacking everything in her path. She killed three goats, a cow, and then a woman and her child! As the cry of anguish arose, the lioness ran off in the direction of the Ibuga Church meeting. The villagers said that now the “Mungu Mwena” (“God is good”) people will get it, for that lioness is headed directly for them.
The congregation suddenly saw the creature only a few yards away. She stopped and growled furiously. The people quivered with shock! The preacher shouted, “Folks, don’t be afraid, the God who saved Daniel from the lions is here. The Risen Christ of Easter is here.” Then with a God-given faith and authority he turned to the lioness and said, “You lion, I curse you in the Name of Jesus Christ!”
Then the most amazing thing happened. From the scattered clouds, though there had been no rain—nor was there any later—a bolt of lightning struck the lioness and she dropped dead in her tracks. The preacher ran and jumped up and down on the carcass and then used it as a platform to preach!
Seventeen people were instantly saved. The community was stirred and agreed with the local policeman who muttered as they carried the carcass to the police station, “The God of these “Mungu Mwena” people surely is a God of miracles!”
—Convention Herald
3134 God Closed The Switch
A remarkable incident occurred some years ago when a Christian called upon God in a time of great danger. A 12-car passenger train was speeding along in eastern Missouri. On board were hundreds of happy children on their way to Sunday school picnic. The sky was cloudless when the excursion began, but it wasn’t long before they ran into a severe thunderstorm. The heavy downpour caused the concerned engineer to slow down to about 35 miles an hour. As the train rounded a curve, the man saw that the switch just ahead had been left wide open. He jammed on the brakes, but he was sure they faced certain disaster.
“Stick with it!” he shouted to the fireman. “Hundreds of children are on board.” “I intend to!” came the reply. Then the fireman, who was a Christian, cried, “O God, help us!” His words were drowned out by a thunderclap as a bolt of lightning struck right in front of the engine.
The next thing they knew, they were safely past the danger point. After stopping the train, the men hurried back to find out what had happened. To their amazement they discovered that the lightning had struck the rails and closed the switch. This in turn kept them from being shunted onto a spur which would have caused certain derailment.
—Henry Bosch
See also: Storms ; Matt. 24:27; Rev. 11:19; 16:18.