Op-ed as submitted to: The Christian Post
By James Harden, Op-ed Contributor
Has Revelation’s plague of death already happened?
When the Apostle John penned the Book of Revelation, he recorded visions so terrifying that even the most hardened hearts tremble at their implications. Among them are prophecies of global catastrophe—judgments so vast that they defy comprehension leaving no one untouched. Revelation 6:8 warns that “a fourth of the earth” would be killed by sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts. Later, in Revelation 8:8–9, a “great mountain burning with fire” is cast into the sea, turning “a third of the sea into blood” and destroying “a third of the living creatures in the sea.” These numbers—one-fourth and one-third—symbolize death and devastation on a global scale.
For centuries, theologians and scholars have debated whether these plagues refer to literal global events or something more metaphorical. But what if one of these cataclysmic judgments has already been unfolding—quietly, efficiently, and horrifically—right under our noses?
Since the legalization of abortion in the mid-20th century, the World Health Organization estimates approximately one-third of all pregnancies end in abortion. Their most recent annual data suggests 73 million per year! This means that one quarter to one third of the human population conceived in the womb has been intentionally destroyed. That’s not a metaphor—it’s math. Assuming abortion numbers have been steadily increasing over the last 50 years, a conservative annual global abortion stat could be more like 40 million. Multiplied by 50 years and that is more than two billion children worldwide aborted since 1970. The number grows every second. It’s as though one-third of the world’s population has already perished—not through a visible plague of disease, but through a hidden plague of convenience, fear, and deception sterilized with medical terminology like ‘induced pregnancy termination’ and justified with political rhetoric like ‘choice,’ ‘women’s rights,’ or ‘access to medical care.’
The womb, designed by God to be the safest place on earth, is now the most dangerous. Think about it. Is there a single city on earth where your odds of dying just by crossing the street are 30%? Because that’s what they are inside a mother’s womb. Such a city does not exist. Not even in wartime do we have battlefields that dangerous.
Could it be that the “pale horse” of Revelation has already ridden through our generation with something so beyond the pale as to be unthinkable in other generations–like the systematic destruction of innocents called abortion?
Revelation 6:8 says, “And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.” Surgical abortion kills with the proverbial sword we call a curette and with famine, starving the baby through a progesterone blocker called Mifepristone. Perhaps the “wild beasts” are a metaphor for abortionists—those who, with hardened hearts, have learned to profit from death itself. And maybe the “pestilence” refers to the most common method of abortion: the abortion pill. Nothing kills humanity so quickly as the destruction of the next generation. We need look no further than the aging population trends in nations the world over, many of which, like China, have catastrophically high abortion rates.
When one-third of the sea life dies in Revelation 8, perhaps the oceans are symbols of creation’s groaning under the weight of human sin. Today, our “oceans” of humanity—our family lines, our nations, our collective conscience—are poisoned by the blood of the innocent. Chilling.
Yet there is hope. Revelation’s judgments are not the end of the story—they are God’s call to repentance before final judgment when God wraps up this age and ushers in a new one. If abortion has indeed been the greatest plague of our time, then revival must begin with repentance for it. We must stand for life not only as a political issue but awaken to see abortion as a symptom of our spiritual sickness—a recognition that every person reflects the image of God, no matter where they are or how young they are.
A true plague of death has already swept across our world. The question is whether we will continue to participate in it—or finally rise up like Nehemiah after hearing reports of how the remnant of his people and the wall of their capital city were torn down and burned with fire. “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God…let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, …confessing the sins… which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments….” (Neh. 1:5-7).
