We’ve Never Seen Anything Like What’s Coming: Red Sky, Rogue Planets, and Cataclysmic Prophecy

On July 16, 2025, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake rattled Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Though powerful, the damage was minimal. A few shelves rattled. A tsunami warning briefly flashed across screens before being downgraded. Anchorage was untouched. Kodiak’s sirens were silenced before high tide. Life resumed.

But that quiet quake reminded me of something I’ve been thinking—and writing—about for years:
What happens when the next great catastrophe isn’t a quake beneath us, but a force above us?

We know earthquakes.

We’ve seen them level cities.

• The 1556 Shaanxi quake killed an estimated 830,000 people.

• The 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami killed 230,000 across 13 nations.

• The 2011 Japan quake created a disaster zone that cost more than $220 billion.

We know the devastation. Landslides, tsunamis, pancaked buildings, ruptured pipelines, collapsed freeways, shattered lives.
But even these—the worst natural disasters in human memory—are local, isolated, survivable.

But what if something happens that shakes the entire planet?

That’s the question asked by the late Anthony Larson, a Latter-day Saint thinker who reexamined prophecy through a cosmic lens. He believed the most vivid scriptural warnings—“the Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,” “the sea heaving itself beyond its bounds,” “fire mingled with blood falling from heaven”—were not metaphors, but descriptions of actual astronomical events witnessed by ancient civilizations.

He wasn’t the first to suggest it. Velikovsky saw it in myth. David Talbott saw it in archetype. Larson simply applied it to prophecy.

And the picture he painted is staggering.

A rogue planet—massive, electromagnetic, trailing a fiery tail of debris—enters our solar system.
It approaches Earth. Not to collide. But to pass close enough to tear at our magnetic field, tilt the planet’s axis, rip the crust, ignite the skies, and collapse global civilization in hours.

In Larson’s scenario:

• The skies turn red, then black.

• Red dust falls. Rivers turn toxic.

• Meteorites slam into cities.

• Entire fault lines erupt.

• Oceans slosh out of their basins.

• Firestorms rage as lightning arcs across the globe.

• Satellites blink out.

• GPS, internet, radio—all silent.

In minutes, we’re hurled back centuries. Not just by the destruction of cities, but by the loss of orientation. The stars change. The seasons shift. The poles realign.

Earthquakes? Yes—but not 8.0s. Thousands of them, worldwide, in chorus.
Tsunamis? Yes—but not 30-foot waves. Try 300 feet, from sloshed oceans and dropped continental shelves.
Darkness? Yes—but not from clouds. From the Earth’s own ash, smoke, and bleeding skies.

No historical disaster—no tsunami, no war, no plague—has ever touched this scope.

So why write this?

Because I’m writing fiction. But I want that fiction to feel real.

The novel I’ve been working on, Red Sky, is set in a world on the edge of such an event. A rogue planet approaches. A scientist denies it. A prophet warns. A daughter doubts. And the world divides—not by geography, but by faith, knowledge, and readiness.

The earthquake in Alaska reminded me just how limited our experience is with catastrophe. We think a 9.1 quake is the end of the world. It isn’t. Not yet.

But one day, if Anthony Larson was right, it might be.

And if it does, I hope we’re ready—not just with bunkers and batteries, but with a framework of understanding, a willingness to see the signs, and the courage to face the fire with hope.

Until then, let us study the past, prepare for the future, and tell stories that stretch our minds and souls.

Because fiction can be the truest warning of all.

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Source: The Prophecy Trilogy (Volumes I–III)
Central Agent: A rogue planet (symbolized in scripture and ancient myth as a “destroyer”) passing near Earth

Larson interprets apocalyptic prophecy not as metaphor, but as descriptions of real astronomical events—specifically, a returning rogue planet whose effects will eclipse anything in geologic or human history. The following summarizes the specific mega-destructions he describes across the trilogy:

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1. Crustal Displacement and Axial Reeling

• The Earth will “reel to and fro like a drunkard” (Isaiah 24:20) as the rogue planet’s gravitational and electromagnetic forces destabilize Earth’s axial tilt, rotation, and crust.

• Tectonic plates rupture, unleashing simultaneous earthquakes worldwide.

• The movement of the crust may resemble a “crustal slip event” on a global scale.

“The Earth’s surface will be wrenched by forces from above—outside forces, not internal tectonic motion alone.”

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2. Firestorms and Atmospheric Collapse

• The rogue planet is expected to interact with Earth’s ionosphere and magnetosphere, leading to plasma discharges, auroral storms, and global fires.

• Lightning-like plasma bolts between the two bodies will ignite city-wide firestorms, melting infrastructure and forests alike.

• The skies will turn red or black with soot and dust, fulfilling prophecies of “the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood.”

“Men’s hearts will fail them for fear… as they see heaven itself set ablaze with fire and lightning.”

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3. Worldwide Volcanism and Superquakes

• Magma chambers will rupture due to crustal torque and gravitational pull, triggering volcanic eruptions across all fault zones.

• Volcanic ash will darken the skies for months, mimicking descriptions in Joel and Revelation.

• Earthquakes will exceed any known Richter scale event, with synchronous fault ruptures, not isolated shocks.

“The earth shall quake and the mountains shall melt like wax.”

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4. Mega-Tsunamis and Inland Flooding

• Ocean displacement from Earth’s tilt and quaking causes tsunamis that reach hundreds of feet high.

• Entire coastlines are erased or redrawn, and inland seas may form from sloshed waters.

• Prophetic imagery of “the sea heaving itself beyond its bounds” (2 Nephi 8:15) is literalized.

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5. Celestial Overlap: “Two Suns” Phenomenon

• The rogue planet may be temporarily visible in the daytime sky, leading to legends of “two suns.”

• Its tail may contain debris or gases that interact electrically with Earth, heightening cosmic discharge effects.

“The planets will appear again in their ancient configuration… as Saturn, Venus, and Mars converge overhead.”

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6. Magnetic Reversal and Aurora Cataclysms

• Earth’s magnetic field may be shattered or reversed, unshielding the planet from solar and cosmic radiation.

• Auroras will stretch across equatorial skies; animals and humans may experience neurological effects.

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️ 7. Global Psychological and Spiritual Breakdown

• In Larson’s view, the cosmic disruption coincides with spiritual judgment.

• Societies collapse not only from infrastructure failure, but from mass terror, despair, and spiritual confusion.

• Survivors may be “divided” between those who understand the prophetic context and those who lose hope.

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8. Planetary Renewal Post-Cataclysm

• After devastation, Earth is remade into a paradisiacal form.

• Mountains rise or fall; deserts become fertile; and the continents shift into new alignments.

• A millennial world dawns—“a new heaven and a new earth.”

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Key Themes to Contrast with Historical Earthquakes