What is the Torino Scale?

Asteroid “Wormwood”

Might seem like a strange question and maybe you, like me, until a couple of days ago, have never heard of the Torino Scale.  But chances are in the next 10 years or so that you will become very familiar with this when the earth will be struck by a huge asteroid.  This asteroid is even named in the Bible — it is called “Wormwood” which means “bitter.”¹  The name of the star derives from its effect on the water; it will turn the water sour and bitter so that it will kill many of those who drink it. Wormwood itself is a bitter drug, made from an aromatic plant and is highly toxic. Insecticides were made from it but it derives its name from the practice of brewing the leaves in a tea and as a worming medicine.

Near Earth Objects (NEOs)

The Torino Scale² is a method for categorizing the hazard associated with near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets. It is a way of assessing the seriousness of collision predictions, by combining probability statistics and known kinetic damage potentials into a single threat value.  The scale uses an integer scale from 0 to 10.  A 0 indicates an object has a negligibly small chance of collision with the Earth or is too small to penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere intact. A 10 indicates that a collision is certain, and the impacting object is large enough to precipitate a global disaster. The Torino Scale is defined only for potential impacts less than 100 years in the future.

So you can see that this scale will come into its own when the huge asteroid “Wormwood” will hit the earth during the first half of the Tribulation period. In fact, this asteroid impact upon one of the earth’s oceans covers the first four trumpet judgments. See my timeline.  One-third of the earth will be affected by this catastrophic event. Drinking water will be affected and many people will die from the contaminated waters.  The light from the sun, moon, and stars will also be affected. This is often referred to as the “judgment of the thirds.” The asteroid in fact breaks up in the earth’s atmosphere and also causes great environmental damage also likely causing a hit to the earth’s food supplies because of the sunlight problem in the earth’s atmosphere.

Apophis 99942

The Torino Scale was invented by Professor Richard P. Binzel in 1995.  The 10 levels are split up into five colour groups ranging from white to green to yellow, orange, and finally red.  White indicates that the likelihood of collision is deemed to be zero and red indicates that a collision is certain with a value of 10.  There has only been one asteroid that has gone above 0 and that is the asteroid known as 99942 Apophis.³  It reached a level 1 on the scale but has since been downgraded.

Christians need to spiritually and mentally prepare

This is a scale to keep an eye out for in the coming years.  It will be interesting to see how far out we will know when Wormwood will hit.  Perhaps we will have years or it could be very sudden.  No doubt it will cause great concern and panic on earth among humankind and every effort will be made to divert an impact.  But one thing we know for certain.  The impact will happen and is assured because we know that the Bible does not lie.  And that gives us time to be spiritually and mentally prepared ahead of time.

After the first four trumpet judgments, in between the 4th and 5th trumpets, the church will be allowed to escape any further troubles when we will be directed to head to the safe place in Jordan.  That might seem totally inconceivable when all international travel is at the moment prohibited or very difficult to say the least.  Covid-19 has changed everything!  Many of us might have border anxiety and be very reticent to leave our homes.  This is when we will have to be brave and allow the Lord to lead us and be willing, like Abraham, to up and leave when it is time.