8:7–12 The first four trumpet plagues strike the four major regions of creation: land, sea, fresh water, and sky. The first four bowls affect the same four regions (16:1–9). Within the period of the early church, these visions were fulfilled both through natural calamities and through analogous spiritual calamities afflicting the souls of the wicked. In such apocalyptic imagery, the one type of calamity can represent the other. The general principles can be applied more broadly. Both human beings and the natural world undergo stress until the time of final renewal (Rom. 8:18–25). Final destruction of the natural universe, as well as the judgment of human beings, accompanies the Second Coming (2 Pet. 3:10, 12).