What does the fire symbolize? (Revelation 8:7)


REP/Hail-feu-sang


The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Revelation 8:7 - King James

 

 

⚪ Destructive judgments upon the papacy

8:7. And the first [angel] sounded.—The movement began, [...]
And Fire.Destructive judgments upon the papacy. Luther sized up the Papal system of "Heads, [...]

Source : 🇺🇸 1917 - Studies in the Scriptures, Vol 7, The finished mystery, page 146 + Cover

 

⚫ God's indignation

It is stated (Rev. 8: 7) that the first trumpet was followed by "hail and fire mingled with blood" being "cast upon the earth". The symbols used are deeply significant. [...] "Fire" expresses God's indignation, and is destructive, and devours before God's army. (Ps. 50:3; 97:3; 79:5; Joel 2:3; Luke 12:49)

Source : 🇺🇸 1930 - Light, vol 1, page 111 + Cover

 

⚫ The message preached by the Jehovah's Witnesses

according to the religious sensibilities of Christendom, the membership of which is about a third of the world. What Jehovah’s witnesses began proclaiming by word of mouth and by printed publications of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society after World War I was like “hail and fire mingled with blood” hurled down from on high to the earth.—Rev. 8:2, 6, 7. [...] To the high ones, like “ trees,” and to the low ones, like the “green vegetation” or grass, the message preached was inflammatory and consuming, hard-hitting and death-dealing.
The message preached contained the heavenly truth of God’s written Word, all right, but these truths were not like refreshing drops of rain. They were, rather, like hard cold hail that beat down upon both clergy and their church members, stunning them with Bible truth forcefully presented, unsparingly. They were fiery, consuming the sham of Christianity that the treelike clergy and the vegetation-like laity wore, burning them up as Christians, as it were, proving that Christendom was not Christian, either in doctrine or in practice.

Source : 🇺🇸 The Watchtower, December 1 1969, page 714, page 715 + Cover