By Dean Smith

UPDATE: Over the past week the chances of the asteroid hitting earth has been upgraded from 2.1% to 2.6% to 3.1%.

There are markers in the Book of Revelation which serve as key indicators that we have clearly entered the end times.

Though many things that will occur in the apocalypse, only a handful are distinctive enough that we can point to a verse in Revelation and say that’s it, when it takes place. For example, the end times warns about plagues, but these have been around for centuries, so to suggest one particular plague is fulfilling end times prophecy is nearly impossible.

But there are distinct markers. One of the clearest is found in chapter 8 during the sounding of the seven trumpets. John warns of “something like a great mountain burning with fire was hurled into the sea” (Revelation 8:8).

When the angel sounds the second trumpet a massive asteroid will slam into one of the earth’s oceans resulting in the destruction of a third of the fish and a third of the ships.

This leads to a warning recently issued by NASA that it has upgraded the chances of an asteroid known as 2024 YR4 hitting earth in 2032 to one in 48 or 2.1%, the Daily Mail reports.

Is this same asteroid that John saw in his vision?

It is difficult to say, but probably not.

At about 300 feet (90 meters) in length, 2024 YR4 is roughly the size the Statue of Liberty.

Since John is from Judea, I suspect he is using the hills that surround Jerusalem and Bethlehem as his frame of reference. These average about 900 meters (2,953 ft) in size, suggesting that 2024 YRA may not fit the bill.

But even with its smaller size, it’s considered a city-destroying asteroid..

If 2024 YR4 hit the earth, it would impact with the equivalent of eight megatons, which is 500 times the size of the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima during World War II.

Would it cause enough destruction and tsunamis to wipe of a third of the ships in the particular ocean it smashed into? Probably not.

Astronomer have even predicted when and where it would hit. According to their calculations, if 2024 YR4 does hit earth, the impact would take place on December 22, 2032. This is oddly close to a major Christian holiday.

As to where, astronomers determined the impact would be along a corridor in the Southern hemisphere. This vulnerable swath stretches from Venezuela, Ecuador and Columbia in South America, across the Atlantic ocean to African countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Asian countries, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and even parts of China are also in the potential impact zone.

2024 YR4 is only the second asteroid to be given a rating of three or higher on the Torino Scale which rates asteroids according to their risk of hitting earth.

It joins Apophis, ‘God of Chaos’, technically referred to as 99942 which in 2004 was given a 2.7% chance of hitting earth on April 13, 2029.

However, it has since been discounted and there is little chance Apophis will hit earth, resulting in it being significantly downgraded on the Torino Scale. But there is one tiny footnote. If Apophis passes through Earth’s small gravitational well in 2029, this would alter the asteroid’s trajectory. Though the chances of this happening are extremely low, it could put it on a course to hit earth seven years later, on Easter Sunday, April 13, 2036.

At 450 meters (1,480 ft) long, four times the length of a football field, Apophis is certainly closer to being classified as mountain-sized. But, I suspect that neither of these asteroids fit John’s description.

But these only involve asteroids that we know about. Asteroids heading towards earth on a path from the sun are very difficult to see. In fact, astronomers were actually tracking another asteroid, when an 18 meter asteroid on such a trajectory exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013.

When John’s asteroid does hit, we will know without a doubt that the end times is upon us.