The name of the star is Wormwood
I found an interesting little theory about the Bible and what it predicts for us in the Apocylapse. This theory involves both the Book of Revelations and a plant.
And let’s be honest: many Christians have problems believing what is written in the Book of Revelation, or the Book of the Apocalypse. If (like me) you believe what is written in it the Book of Revelation you’ll find that it’s pretty disturbing book. It tells us about how God will destroy the earth and the universe and sort out the sinners from the blessed. He punishes the sinners by a number of different wraths that he unleashes upon the earth.
For me this passage here is the most disturbing of all:
The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water – the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
-- Revelation, Chapter 8 verse 10-11
That might be much, you say? You say that there are much worse things lined out in the Book of Revelations? Yes, that’s certainly true. But what I find most disturbing about it isn’t the fact that all the water is going to turn bitter or a star is going to come crashing into the earth. What I find disturbing is that it’s not a whimsical fiction or something that is to come far into the future. It has already happened.
Now you’re all looking at me as if I’m mad. When did a star crash into the earth? Well, 1986. And it wasn’t a star that fell to the earth, it was something else. Something that happened in 1986. Half of you all know what incident I’m talking about, but for the other half I’ll explain it.
And anyway, it’s not what happened that’s important, it’s this:
– the name of the star is Wormwood.
Wormwood. What is wormwood? It’s a plant whose leaves and petals contain a bitter, poisonous substance. It’s also the name of a place. When “wormwood” is translated into Russian, it becomes Чорнобиль. It’s pronounced as chor-no-beeyl. Sound familiar?
Yes, it’s Chernobyl, where the worst nuclear disaster in history happened in 1986.
However, the theory that the Book of Revelations predicted the Chernobyl disaster is not true. Wormwood is not Чорнобиль in Russian. The name Чорнобиль comes from the Ukranian word for mugworth. It's a mixture of chornyi - чорний and byllia - билля, which means black grass, not wormwood.
In fact the whole theory was an urban legend that started in a New York Times article by Serge Schmemann called Chernobyl Fallout: Apocalyptic Tale and it was first published on July 25, 1986.
There are some people to this day that believe that it's true. But for me, it's just another red herring.
