Daily Devotional For June 7, 2025
And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth. And there were thunders and noises and lightnings and an earthquake. And the seven angels who have the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.Rev 8:5-6.
At 8 PM on October 30, 1938, most American families gathered around their radios to listen to the number one program in the country, Edgar Bergen and his dummy sidekick Charlie McCarthy. But on another network, others settled in to hear the Mercury Theatre on the Air. Orson Welles began the program with a fake weather forecast followed by music from a dance band. He interrupted the music with a series of news flashes about explosions on the planet Mars followed by the arrival of a strange cylinder just outside Trenton, NJ.
Ten minutes into his program, Edgar Bergen needed a drink of water so they took a break in the live broadcast. While a vocalist sang, many listeners turned their dials to see what else was on. Stumbling onto Mercury Theatre on the Air, the seemingly live news flashes drew them in. There were fake interviews with crowd noise and police sirens in the background. Fearful creatures were reported trashing New Jersey neighborhoods and fields. Deaths of police and civilians were reported as if they were actually happening. The aliens from Mars were attacking everything and everyone. Nothing seemed able to stop them.
The imagination of the listeners began running wild. There was mass panic across the nation. Church services were interrupted and then dismissed. People contemplated suicide rather than fall into the “hands” of the invading monsters. Even highly educated scientists were duped.
In Fayetteville, Indiana, the Nickless family became concerned for their lives. They collected the children and drove the mile and a half over to grandfather’s house. Grandpa Nickless was a solid man with solid values. He would know what to do. By the time they arrived at Grandpa’s they were almost hysterical. They shouted, “Turn on the radio!” Grandpa listened for a bit and then began to laugh. He told them it was a hoax. It was just a radio program.
“How do you know?” they shouted.
He picked up his Bible and said, “According to this, the world won’t end like that.” He reminded them of Revelation and its outcome. In a while the Nickless family calmed down and returned home to put the children to bed. Grandpa was right.1
Strange things have occurred and will occur in this world. The trumpets of Revelation don’thide the premonition of disaster. But Revelation was not written to terrify us. Instead it assures us that, no matter how bad things get, it will turn out all right in the end.
Lord, calm my worries and my fears with assurance from your Word.
1 Based on Michael Nickless, The Night America Panicked,” Michigan Memo, vol. 16, no. 9, October/November, 2004, 2.