Revelation 16:8

And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given unto it to scorch men with fire.

And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun ... Can there be any doubt now, that the total physical environment of the earth is the figure here? What is the specific analogy? The sun in the physical realm is "the light of the world," even as Christ and his truth are the true spiritual light of people (John 1:9). When that which should be light is so polluted that it will only scorch and burn with fire, then the bowl of the wrath of God has been poured upon the sun. How ridiculous must be accounted any physical, literal interpretation of this. Lactantius thought that:

God will cause the sun to stand still for three days so that it (the earth) will catch on fire; whereupon the impious and hostile people of earth will suffer by excessive heat and burning.[23]

"This fourth bowl has no parallel in the Egyptian plagues,"[24] which certainly stops the writers who cannot find anything in this series except those plagues. Although there are certainly overtones and resemblances here and there to the plagues of Egypt, this vision is distinctly John's. "Strange how little commentators venture to say with regard to this bowl!"[25]

All of these bowls are represented as destroying, not merely injuring, the physical environment. Any one of them would have been sufficient to that purpose, but the absolute corruption and ruination of all of it are made overwhelming by the seven bowls. That the physical environment is not meant is made evident in the promise of Genesis 8:22, to the effect that the ordered seasons of day and night, summer and winter, seedtime and harvest shall not cease while the earth remains. We cannot believe that anything in this prophecy contradicts that promise.

And it was given unto it ... The sentence of judicial hardening is inherent in this. That the very light which should illuminate human life should be changed into scorching destruction denotes a condition mentioned by Jesus, "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness" (Matthew 6:23).

What does this mean? It means that institutions of learning, and even churches and religious organizations, are teaching: evolution, humanism, communism, libertinism, a new morality, atheism, and a host of other lies. It means that churches are preaching the philosophies of men, the commandments of men, the prejudices of men, and the traditions of men instead of the word of God. It means that the prophetic voice of the Scriptures no longer disturbs what few church-goers are left, the great worldwide mission of saving souls having been replaced by "social programs," endowing the church with her new status of carrying the bedpan for the sick society, instead of proclaiming the true light of the fire of God's word to a wicked world. Thank God, this picture is by no means true of all, but it is sufficiently true to raise the question of whether or not the angel of God has poured the bowl of heavenly wrath upon the sun. The general apostasy of Christianity is almost certainly indicated by this. Instead of being lamp-bearers of the true light, many are instead merely waving the smoking torches of human wisdom.

[23] Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, Divine Institutes, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1951), VII, 26.

[24] James D. Strauss, The Seer, the Saviour, and the Saved (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1972), p. 204.

[25] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 471.