It hasn’t reached Biblical proportions yet, but when the Russia’s Molchanka River recently turned blood-red over night citizens, media and even scientists were perplexed and a bit shocked.

Many saw a Biblical connection with the plagues of Egypt when God caused the Nile to turn to blood as one of the judgements of God (Exodus 7: 14-24).

But there are also three other Biblical references to waters turning blood-red found in the Book of Revelation and similar to what happened in Exodus are considered judgements of God.

In his first mention, John says when an angel sounded a trumpet, he saw a large burning mountain crashing into the ocean and a third of the sea turned red:

⁸ The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, (Revelation 8:8 NASV)

Most suspect a large burning mountain as a reference to a massive asteroid hitting the ocean. John also mentioned in the following verse that a third of the ships of the sea were destroyed, undoubtedly due  to the massive tsunamis that would spin-off such an impact.

Over the past couple of years, there have been several reports of near misses by asteroids. Asteroids are larger than meteors and because of their size and speed could wipe out a city if they ever hit earth.

The second mention of blood-red water is found eight chapters later and refers again to a sea, but also adds rivers and streams:

³ The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living ^[a]thing in the sea died.

⁴ Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. (Revelation 16:3-4 NASV)

Now it is natural for us to think that this is happening all at the same time, but is that necessarily the case?

In recent years, there have been several reports of rivers and waters turning red around the world:

• Lake in France turns blood-red: Huffington Post
• Why did this river in China turn blood-red: Washington Post
• Crimson Tide: Residents stunned as Russian river turns red (Note this is a different Russian river that turned red in 2016): CNN.com
• End Times? Texas Lake Turns Blood-Red: Foxnews
• Dutch water turns blood-red: Wnd
• Ghana River Turns Blood-Red Preceding Local Exodus Festival: Breaking Israel News
• Terrifying Biblical scene in Indonesia as river turns blood-red, killing all the fish: Breaking Israel News

But there is a third reference to rivers turning red in the Book of Revelation found in Revelation 11:6, that says the two end times prophets have the ability to turn rivers red and bring on plagues. It is uncertain who these two prophets are, but I suspect similar to what happened in the Book of Exodus, this is tied to God’s judgement on nations due to their treatment of believers.

As for the Molchanka River’s sudden turn, the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources has taken samples of the water to find a possible cause and to find out if the water is toxic.

Sources:

• the Book River turns blood-red in ‘Biblical bombshell’: WND

• Russian Media Reports ‘Biblical Bombshell’ as Siberian River Turns to Crimson: Breaking Israel News