21. What happens when the second angel blows his trumpet?

²¹ “And the second angel blew his trumpet. And something like a great mountain burning with fire was hurled into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood;

Revelation 8:8,

24. What is pictured by the burning mountainous mass that was hurled into the sea?

²⁴ A great mountainlike mass burning with fire is hurled into this “sea.” In the Bible, mountains very often symbolize governments. For example, God’s Kingdom is portrayed as a mountain. (Daniel 2:35, 44) Ruinous Babylon became a “burnt-out mountain.” (Jeremiah 51:25) But the mountainous mass that John sees is still burning. Its being hurled into the sea well represents how, during and after the first world war, the question of government became a burning issue among mankind, especially in the lands of Christendom. In Italy, Mussolini introduced Fascism. Germany embraced Hitler’s Nazism, while other countries tried different forms of socialism. A radical change occurred in Russia, where the Bolshevik revolution produced the first Communist state, with the result that religious leaders of Christendom lost power and influence in what was formerly one of their strongholds.

25. How did government continue to be a burning issue after World War II?

²⁵ The Fascist and Nazi experiments were snuffed out by the second world war, but government continued to be a fiery issue, and the human sea continued to churn and throw up new revolutionary governments. In the decades following 1945, these were installed in many places, such as China, Vietnam, Cuba, and Nicaragua. In Greece an experiment in military dictatorship failed. In Kampuchea (Cambodia) an excursion into fundamentalist Communism resulted in a reported two million and more deaths.

26. How has the “mountain burning with fire” continued to make waves in the sea of mankind?

²⁶ That “mountain burning with fire” continued to make waves in the sea of mankind. Struggles over government have been reported in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific islands. Many of these struggles have taken place in lands of Christendom or where Christendom’s missionaries have become activists. Roman Catholic priests even joined up with and fought as members of Communist guerrilla bands. At the same time, Protestant evangelical groups worked in Central America to counter what they called the Communists’ “vicious and relentless thirst for power.” But none of these convulsions in the sea of mankind have brought peace and security.​—Compare Isaiah 25:10-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

27. (a) How has “a third of the sea” become as blood? (b) How have ‘a third of the creatures in the sea’ died and how are “a third of the boats” to fare?

²⁷ The second trumpet blast reveals that those of mankind who got involved in revolutionary conflicts over government rather than submit to God’s Kingdom are bloodguilty.