Where is Wormwood now? Does NASA know about it? If Wormwood is a rogue planet coming as early as 2026, how do I explain zero verifiable sightings? Is NASA hiding it, is it unusually dark, supernaturally cloaked or something else entirely? In this article I tackle the unanswerable question that has dogged me for over a decade with my new insight to finally provide a satisfying explanation based on Biblical precedents. Also why Judea definitely won't be overrun with faithless Wormwood survivalists and why even the rich won't be prepared for Wormwood.
Wormwood vs. Earth = Pretrib "Sorrows" & Great Tribulation
If you're new to my site and want to understand what I'm about or what makes me different from the rest of the prophecy field, you could sum it up with one word:
"Wormwood"
That's the name given to the cosmic body in Revelation (Rev 8:10-11) which will nearly tear Earth apart as it passes. Although it is not identified or named until Revelation 8, it is responsible for the global disruptions of Revelation 6 and 7, too. This includes a global earthquake, asteroid and meteorite impacts, global fires, tsunamis, contaminated water and darkened skies (by 33%). In other words, it brings the end of the world as we know it ("TEOTWAWKI"). It's so important that more of the seven seals, and seven trumpets and seven bowls are dedicated to it than any other end time event outside the wrath of God which is all seven bowls [1]. It occupies the 6th seal, 7th seal, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th trumpets. All of it is pretrib, or before the Great Tribulation (5th - 7th trumpet) or any chance of a rapture including the fanciful, pretrib rapture [2].
Did you know Jesus also prophesied about Wormwood? He called its effects the "beginning of sorrows/birth pains" [3] or the kick off to the end time events (after the Good News of the Kingdom goes out first [4] - Mt 24:14). You have to put Matthew, Mark and Luke's "Olivet Discourse" accounts together along with Revelation in hand to see that Jesus' "earthquakes in diverse places" is the same "great earthquake" of Revelation (Rev 6:12). You then can see that Jesus' global famine, pestilence is right there in the first four trumpets since famine and pestilence will follow all the death, destruction and blockage of sunlight needed for crops.
Revelation shows that what follows Wormwood's cataclysm is the Great Tribulation. That's when Satan is cast down from Heaven to open the abyss up and release the nephilim [5] monster "locusts" so they can torture humanity into taking the Mark of the Beast [6]. Yes, obviously, Satan takes advantage of the "end of the world" to compel humanity when they desperately need a savior, to receive his: the Antichrist. You just have to worship him, not as Christ, but as God himself [7] (2Th 2:4) by accepting his mark (demons included).
I explain all of this on this site and my book Know the Future [8]. However, my peers almost universally ignore Wormwood. If they don't they tend to interpret it allegorically (e.g., as Chernobyl [9]). It's simply too hard to make sense of literally unless you specialize in it like I did many years ago.
"Tim, Is NASA Lying To Us?"
Not only is this pivotal prophetic object conspicuously missing from the end time timeline of my peers, it's also missing in another significant way. There are no reliable observations by reputable astronomers. (I hope we can quickly agree that "reputable" excludes sightings that are only found in the YouTube video universe and not reproducible in the real universe.)
Related to this, I had an interesting conversation on Facebook with a supporter that started with the following question:
Tim, do you think NASA can see Wormwood coming but is not saying anything?
This is a "frequently asked question" which I have been hearing for years (but sadly not yet in my FAQ!). The question has kind of a conspiratorial slant to it, supposing that a government organization like NASA would cover-up information about a threat to earth. The movie Deep Impact imagined exactly such a scenario. In the movie, the government did not release information about an incoming comet to "prevent crashing the economy" through the public panic that it would cause.
Forget NASA: Amateur Astronomers Should Already See It
Yet, worrying about NASA and what they know and when they knew it distracts us from a better question.
That question comes to light when you understand Wormwood is not some small comet which we need depend upon a national space agency like NASA to spot for us. When you take into account all the details about Wormwood in Revelation including:
- Causes a global earthquake (Rev 6:12)
- Eclipses both the sun / moon (Rev 6:12)
- Rains enough meteorites and asteroids to impact and burn the entire earth's surface (Rev 8:7-8)
- Changes earth's orbit and therefore calendar from 365-day year/29-day month to a 360/30 calendar [10].
It all points to a planetary-sized object capable of tug-boating the earth. The only object that fits this profile is the recently coined "dwarf planet" class of body. That's a planet generally smaller than Mars. Wormwood would need enough mass to drastically perturb Earth's orbit while remaining small enough for Earth's gravity to rip it apart and rain its pieces down to Earth in "safer-sized" chunks just as the 3rd trumpet describes so accurately (Rev 8:10).
Such a large body would be seen "decades out." Since I believe God has confirmed to me that Wormwood is due in 2026 [11], that means even amateur astronomers should already have spotted Wormwood years ago; NASA over a decade ago. This timetable of sighting is confirmed by esteemed Caltech astronomer, Mike Brown, the man who "killed Pluto." In an email exchange with him in 2015, I described the Wormwood scenario and asked him if there is any way known to astronomers how a dwarf planet could sneak up on earth undetected. Here's his responses:
Tim -- While it'd make a fun movie, the chances of this ever happening and us not knowing decades in advance are absolutely zero (the chances of it happening are also quite close to zero, but if it DID we would definitely know long before). Something that big -- Mars-sized, I think -- would be bright enough to see with even amateur telescopes for years, and would be detected with all of the surveys we have decades before it got close...the problem is that things orbit the sun, so even if it hits us at the south pole in the end, it's not like it is straight south for the years before. So your only chance is that it is so small that it is not seen until ~weeks (~months; insert favorite time here) before it hits. Which makes it big enough to make sort of an Arizona meteor crater type of crater, but nothing globally catastrophic.
If I were writing the movie, I'd have it discovered decades early, with a small but always increasing probability of impact but then by the time anyone finally wakes up enough to take the threat early it is too late and we all die.
Mike Brown, Caltech
The "Wormwood Dilemma" Defined
Whether you think my conclusion about Wormwood coming in 2026 is right or not, if Wormwood must be a "Mars-sized" object to fulfill what Revelation describes then you have two choices:
The End In 2026? It's Now Possible
Since learning in 2001 that Yeshua must return in a Sabbath year, I've had to rule out three Sabbath year cycle windows for the final 7 years (2003-2009, 2010-2016, 2017-2023). With the next window (2024-2030) less than 7 years away, I'm ready to share why I believe, based on the real end time sign of Mt 24:14, that this can be the one. If it is, the "birth pains" (WW3 + Wormwood, Lk 21:10-11) would hit near its middle in 2026 with Yeshua returning in 2030. Find out what's changed to convince me about 2026 and what you can do about it... [11]
- Either the end is still at least two decades away. (I have a hard time believing this for many reasons [12] even before we get into my dreams [13].)
- The end is sooner, but Wormwood is somehow invisible. Because of its size, a supposed NASA conspiracy (sorry, flat-earthers [14]) does not stop amateur telescopes from detecting it.
This has been my dilemma for many years now. I have had no good explanation for how Wormwood can be coming but not visible, although I've played with several theories.
One of my previous, tenuous theories was that Wormwood is an unusually dark object. It would have to be so dark (even darker than charcoal) that it reflects too little light to be spotted early enough like Mike Brown described above. The problem with this is there are a growing number of infrared telescopes such as those used in the survey for NEOs (near earth objects) that can spot even dark objects. Also, whenever Wormwood is in transit in front of a distant star, it becomes detectable as well.
In other words, there is no realistic, reasonable, natural way I can see that Wormwood can be out there and not be seen already.
It Gets Worse: The New "Judea Overrun" Element
Based on much reading and consideration of Revelation 6:12-19, I have always felt that the panicked exodus of humanity to the caves in the mountains described there demanded that Wormwood must be undetected until nearly the last minute. We're talking hours of warning, not even days (more on why below). With no preparation, all humans seek protection simultaneously from both the falling meteorites and from the rising tsunami flood waters. Caves in high elevation is the only option.
If people had some substantial warning, not every class of society would be so panicked. Certainly, given enough notice, rich and mighty people would be able to build bunkers on high ground to prepare for Wormwood. In contrast to this, Revelation says that even the kings/nobles, rich and powerful men were panicking along with the poor and common (Rev 6:15). That leads me to conclude Wormwood completely blindsides the Earth with no useful warning for any practical serious "prepping." [15]
There is a new twist to this conclusion when you consider God's escape plan in Judea [16] for his people who he calls to safety there (Joel 2:32). Remember that Elijah the prophet [17] will probably warn people about the need to flee to Judea before Wormwood (Joel 2:32=Mal 4:6). But very few will listen for many reasons I cover in my article on the Judea escape plan, [16] including Christian leaders denouncing Elijah as a heretic and the fact that a post-nuclear-war Israel [18] is the last place anyone would want to move to. (Even when I decided to tour Israel in 2002 during the Second Intifada, many loved ones expressed confusion over why I would want to go there!)
Now imagine that Wormwood were sighted and confirmed even days before it hits. You would have tons of people who did not believe Elijah's warning that are now suddenly thinking after seeing pictures of Wormwood inbound that it's a good idea to start heading to Judea. Judea would be overrun and, worse, the people who come would not really fit the group of faithful there [19]. They would be mostly faithless people who do not love God and his Word but only want to take a chance on something that might save their skin.
Why Going to Judea Will Take Radical Faith and Discernment: Astronomers?
Unless God does some kind of dome-like force-field to prevent that (earlier than I thought he would to protect us from the falling meteorites [20]), Wormwood being confirmed by astronomers early presents a major problem.
This leads me to my next, recent conclusion: I'm convinced that astronomers, not ministers, will be the biggest obstacle to even sincere believers obeying the command to flee their countries (Rev 18:4) and go to safety in Judea.
- "Heretic" Elijah will be saying that a major planet-sized unknown cosmic body is going to bring catastrophe.
- Trusted scientists will be saying that this is impossible, just as Mike Brown did in the quote above. They will point to the world's NEO survey program that has already found 90% of tens of thousands of objects 1km sized and larger that are close enough to threaten earth. In response to Elijah's warning of Wormwood coming scientists will say, "If Wormwood is as major as this Elijah/prophet guy is saying, our surveys would have found it long ago and we could certainly find it now that we know what to look for."
In this way, it won't matter that what Elijah says is confirmable in a prophetic book trusted by billions of Christians. They may believe that Revelation says an object is coming, but they won't agree that it is coming in their lifetime—or that they need to do anything at all anyway because of the "pretrib rapture before anything bad happens."
The Wormwood Dilemma: Solved?
After covering all the above points with my Facebook correspondent, I was left with the conclusion that there really is no natural way to explain how Wormwood would sneak up on earth with only hours of warning. Yet I still saw this scenario as required by my reading of Scripture. If it was not naturally possible, the only possibility left was that it was supernatural. In other words, God had to be doing something miraculous with Wormwood to keep it as a matter of faith, not sight (2Co 5:7).
This in turn would keep the numbers of those fleeing to Judea relatively small, perhaps under a million. That's less than 1 in 10,000 people based on the expected world population of 8 billion people in 2026. This amounts to only one person per town as having the radical faith and discernment needed to go where Elijah says to when it looks just all wrong.
When I discussed this conclusion with Katrina, she immediately seemed to get a word or inspiration from God. (She has a gift in this area that I stopped doubting long ago.) She immediately blurted out:
"What if Wormwood is in another dimension now until it hits?"
Wow! Immediately the idea appealed to me as I remembered this passage in the Wormwood Revelation 6-8 passage:
Revelation 8:5-6 — 5 The angel took the incense burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; there were rumblings of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. 6 And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them...
I had often wondered if that passage indicated that Wormwood was not already out there but something sent from Heaven just on time to do what Revelation 6-8 described (if these two verses are slightly out of order chronologically, which is OK speaking of Heaven vs. Earth chronology in different dimensions).
Katrina's comment about "another dimension" was apropos given how the "incense burner" that the angel throws fire from is not in some other part of time-space but rather up in Heaven (Rev 8:1). Heaven is in another dimension where only spirits can go, the so-called spiritual plane beyond the physical plane. For an angel to throw something from Heaven at the Earth requires the object to pass from one dimension (God's) to another (ours). Neat insight!
Past Precedents of Supernatural Causation
I was extremely pleased with this answer and still am upon further consideration. I considered how God has done supernatural things to bring disasters on Earth before in the Bible. For example, Noah's Flood, or the parting and then collapsing of the Red Sea to drown the Egyptians was supernatural. Joshua's long day and Hezekiah's Sundial miracles both required God to intervene supernaturally in our solar system, too. Even if these phenomenon have partly or mostly natural dimensions to them, God clearly intervened supernaturally to some extent to make the rest happen.
Probably the best precedent of all in this regard is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sulfur brimstone rained down out of the sky onto the city right on schedule as Lot and his family fled. I collected some of that brimstone when I visited Gomorrah on Michael Rood's first Israel tour in 2002. They say the sulfur is unlike any other sulfur formation on earth. This fits it being a special creation for that time and purpose out of thin air above the four cities marked for destruction. The sulfur burning was natural, but the sulfur ball creation was a supernatural event.
Brimstone from my trip to Gomorrah. Was the creation of this in the sky to judge Gomorrah the prototype for Wormwood's creation by the Earth to start the end time?
Similarly, most of Wormwood's effects can be explained naturally by a dwarf planet of the right size passing by earth at the right angle and right velocity. Getting all three of those vectors exactly right already points towards divine intervention rather than a random, chance object that started in motion during creation week. The idea that Wormwood is instead created by divine power just when it is needed only extends that thinking behind the divine calibration of the three vectors. At the same time, I think it solves the Wormwood dilemma I've been facing and have been unable to answer by any other, natural means.
Yes, I'm saying the reason no one sees Wormwood yet nor will see it in time to do anything is because it does not exist yet in our physical universe. It's not "created" yet. It may exist in heaven in the embers of the altar, but that's it. Just like the brimstone that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah did not exist until the time of judgment.
Of course, hearing all this may be a buzzkill for some. I just shared my contention that God is shooting Wormwood at the earth on purpose; it's no accident. That's a little uncomfortable for me, too. On the other hand, as mentioned above, do we really think anything differently about Noah's Flood that God sent killing all but eight?)
Finally: How To Save Your Family
If you want to be safe from Wormwood, of course your best bet will be to go to Judea where even the falling meteorites won't touch us [20]—although of course there will be survivors outside Judea, you know, the ones who later get marked by the Beast [6]. Personally, I want to obey God (Rev 18:4) and go to Judea (Mt 24:16), and do so as early as possible. There is no place I would rather be than a part of the camp of the faithful saints that will be forming there [19]. As I have shared with supporters, my exhaustive prophecy research, along with a few divine dreams, have led me to conclude that Judea will open up to workers in 2022 [13].
If you want to save yourself, then in the time we have left I recommend you do as Jesus said and pray daily for the strength to escape (Lk 21:36 - the very verse that inspired the domain name of this website). Work on your faith and your repentance and draw closer to God in prayer and his Word. Slow down so you may learn to hear God, repurposing time currently devoted to modern distractions. You're not likely to leave home for an unpleasant land if God does not direct your steps and you do not know how to tell where and when God is leading.
You may say today reading this that you definitely want to be in Judea. Just wait until you see what Judea becomes post-war and what people say about Elijah and his theory. To put it bluntly, it will be like deciding to move to a radioactive leper colony in the desert. You better have big, radical faith and know for sure God is telling you to go there or you won't go as easily as you think.
Developing Radical Faith
The biggest obstacle to this generation's development of faith like that is in how we're too busy and too distracted. Our minds are constantly occupied with audio, video, text and endless worries. We always have a screen or other electronic device with stimulating information and amusement beckoning us. For example, just the other day I saw someone wearing an Apple Watch, proof of how the disruptive, mind-captivating input knows no bounds. God cannot get through to us past all that. Hence we are "naked" (lacking good works of the saints - Rev 19:8) and "blind" (lacking spiritual discernment) just as was prophesied about our Laodicean church age (Rev 3:17).
You need to change radically. This is possible by focusing on becoming like Jesus, just as he tasked believers with doing (Mt 5-7). Being like Jesus may sound unattainable, ridiculous or insulting to Jesus. Yet, the first church in Jerusalem accomplished exactly this as the Book of Acts records. The first church had "favor with all the people" (Acts 2:47) who "esteemed them" (Acts 5:13). How did the first church pull off what no Christian church since has been able to do? Simple: "They continued in the apostle's doctrine" (Acts 2:42) which of course the apostles learned from Jesus. When's the last time you focused on studying Jesus' words until you understood them? (I did exactly that to understand finally what the Good News of the Kingdom he taught was about [4].)
If you want your family to come with you, all your convincing, pleading and normal "Christian witnessing" won't cut it. They need to respect you as someone Godly and esteem you as better than them in this area before they will ever listen to you on a decision of this magnitude.
How Did Noah and Lot Save Their Families? Do That
How do you think Noah and Lot were able to convince their immediate family to come with them? It began years before. Their family knew them well enough to recognize them as righteous men who had God working with them in their lives. Those outside their house didn't have enough respect or trust in Noah and Lot to upset their life on the unlikely chance they were right about an unprecedented destruction about to rain down. Like those times, I don't expect anyone to come to Judea who does not have rare radical faith themselves or they live with someone who does who they respect because of their loving, peaceful walk (Luke 1:79; Rom 3:17; Isaiah 59:8).
We don't listen to people we don't respect. If you focus on repenting and changing to have God's light and love flow through your words and actions to your family, they will notice the radical changes. They will listen to you like never before. That's the secret from the playbook Jesus taught the apostles, and that the apostles in turn taught the Jerusalem church. They proved it was possible to actually do what Jesus said and be like him.
Christianity has lost this playbook, but you can rediscover it, just as we are doing. The support team [21] on this site is dedicated to teaching from this playbook today. Much like a Kickstarter project, your support now as a "funder" gets you benefits from my special supporter content. But it also helps us to produce something even better to get out to many more down the road. The concept is to create a workbook teaching how to repent and change to become like Jesus like the Jerusalem church did. A novel to teach this same information packaged as entertainment will follow...
