Perilous Times
Does The Bible Predict A Nuclear Holocaust?
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who
sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him . . . (Revelation
6:8)
On August 6, 1945, when the Enola Gay's bombardier Tom Ferebee
sighted Hiroshima's Aioi Bridge, he knew the moment had arrived.
Squeezing the trigger on his Norden bombsight, he became the first
man in history to drop a nuclear weapon upon a populated city.
Tail gunner Bob Caron, after being temporarily blinded, described
what he saw on the ground below: "It's like bubbling molasses down
there . . . the mushroom is spreading out . . . fires are
springing up everywhere . . . it's like a peep into hell."
The people of Hiroshima within half a mile of the explosion were
seared to bundles of smoking char in a fraction of a second.
Thousands of these small black bundles could be seen stuck to
streets, bridges, and sidewalks. Birds ignited in midair, and
70,000 buildings were obliterated. Mankind had entered the atomic
age, the end of which was too terrifying to contemplate.
The Nature of Armageddon
Since the beginning of the atomic age, nuclear weap-ons and the
term "Armageddon" have been frequently linked together. Billy
Graham rose to prominence in the 1950's proclaiming that the
nuclear "sword of Damocles" was hanging over all the nations, and
that only Christ was a sure foundation in such perilous days. Hal
Lindsey"s mega best seller, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970),
made a strong case for a nuclear holocaust scenario in the days of
tribulation predicted in the book of Revelation.
Even secular sources took up the theme. The June 12, 1981 Toronto
Globe and Mail noted that the decision to go ahead with the
neutron bomb was the biggest step taken toward Armageddon since
1961. In San Francisco today you can call a number and get a
recorded message by the Doom Society for Secular Armageddonism,
who, in melodramatic tones, tell you that we are living in the end
times and that the coming end of the world is a fait accompli.
They are quick to deny that God might have anything to do with
this, however, and insist that the coming end of the world will be
strictly do-it-yourself, as a result of such things as nuclear
proliferation, racism, ultra nationalism, and (you might have
guessed) relig-ious fundamentalism.
The First Bombs
Many Americans associate nuclear weapons with Armageddon, because,
of all man's discoveries and inventions, they alone contain the
capacity to wipe out all human life on the earth within a few
short hours. Let us consider the awesome power in the first
primitive atomic bombs.
The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, called "Little Boy," was flown
there in a B-29 bomber and aimed with a bombsight. It weighed
nearly ten thousand pounds and had the explosive power of 12,500
tons of TNT. At ground zero, the point immediately beneath the
weapon, the temperature reached above 3,000 degrees centigrade.
Within seconds, what had been a thriving city became a wasteland.
No part of the city was left untouched. Eighty thousand people
died instantly, many burning into black bundles while in mid step.
A six hour firestorm began. An eyewitness -- a college professor
-- -described it thus:
>
> I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima
had disappeared . . . I was shocked by the sight . . . I saw many
dreadful scenes after that -- but that experience, looking down
and finding nothing left of Hiroshima was so shocking that I
simply can't express what I felt . . . Hiroshima didn't exist --
that was mainly what I saw -- Hiroshima just didn't exist.
50 Years Later
After the end of World War II, Robert Oppenheimer, the director of
the Los Alamos project which had given birth to this terrible
weapon, was asked whether there were any significant limitations
in the future of nuclear weapons. He replied, "If you are asking,
'Can we make them more terrible?' the answer is yes. If you are
asking, 'Can we make lots more of them?' the answer is yes. If you
are asking, 'Can we make them terribly more terrible?' the answer
is, probably." Today, some fifty years later, that probably has
turned into a certainty. We have made them terribly more terrible.
Considering the horrific devastation caused by those first bombs
dropped upon Japan, it would be reasonable to suggest that if we
merely doubled their destructive power we would have created a
monster of mind boggling dimensions. To triple or quadruple such a
bomb would be worse still. If one such bomb can create such total
destruction to a major city, what could a bomb four times that
size do? But we have not merely created weapons three or four
times as deadly. While the "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" bombs were
measured in kilotons, today's bombs are measured in megatons. A
one megaton bomb contains the explosive power of eighty
Hiroshimas. Bombs have been tested which are 4,000 times as
powerful as those dropped upon Japan. The only thing merciful
about these bombs is that you wouldn't have to worry so much about
horrible injuries to survivors -- there wouldn't be any survivors!
Is This What John Saw?
Nearly two thousand years ago, an elderly Christian leader was
banished to an island as a punishment for sharing his faith in
Christ. There, as he communed with the Lord on the island, he had
a series of visions which described things which would take place
in the last days. The man's name was John and the visions he saw
were recorded and are now known as the book of Revelation.
Many have tried to defuse the book by turning it into a giant
parable in which nothing can be definitely known except that in
the end Christ will triumph and all will be well. But such an
interpretation makes all the details of the visions meaningless.
Some have dared to suggest that John's visions may have been more
literal than most have supposed. This more literalistic
interpretation just might make sense if John was seeing the
terrible results of a nuclear holocaust just before Christ's
coming to claim planet earth.
In his book There's A New World Coming (1973), Hal Lindsey writes:
>
> Although it is possible for God to supernaturally pull off
every miracle in the Book of Revelation and use totally unheard of
means to do it, I personally believe that all the enormous
ecological catastrophes described in this chapter (Revelation 8)
are the direct result of nuclear weapons. In actuality, man
inflicts these judgments on himself. God simply steps back and
removes His restraining influence from man, allowing him to do
what comes naturally out of his sinful nature. In fact, if the
Book of Revelation had never been written, we might well predict
these very catastrophes within fifty years or less!
End Time Prophecies
Throughout the Scriptures, terrible times are forecast for the end
of this present age. Isaiah describes the earth "empty and wasted"
(Isaiah 24:1). In the book of Revelation we read of an "hour of
trial" which shall come upon the whole world to test those who
dwell on the earth (Revelation 3:10). The Lord Jesus, in the
gospel of Matthew, warns us of a "great tribulation" which shall
threaten the survival of all life on earth (Matthew 24:21,22). The
apostle Paul speaks of sudden destruction that shall come just
when men are saying "peace and safety" (1 Thessalonians 5:3).
As these verses indicate, the Scriptures (along with current
events) make it plain that world conditions will be characterized
by chaos, destruction, and death just before our Lord returns to
take control of planet earth. In the book of Revelation we read of
the poisoning of the oceans, the burning up of the grass and the
trees, and the sun scorching people with great heat. The book also
tells us that horrible plagues will afflict mankind, that there
will be widespread wars and famines, and that the atmosphere will
become so polluted as to reduce visibility by one third. In the
midst of all this devastation, the earth's population will flee to
the caves, as people cry to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us
and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from
the wrath of the Lamb!" (Revelation 6:16).
What will bring about such universal carnage on the earth? Is the
Bible describing a nuclear holocaust?
Possible Explanations
Actually there are three possible sources of the death and
devastation so pointedly predicted by Scripture. First, it could
be that the great and terrible destructions predicted will be
brought about supernaturally by God Himself without any other
possible explanation. Until the nuclear age this was the primary
view, as it was hard to see how such a scenario could be brought
about by natural human means. In the Old Testament we find God
killing 185,000 of Israel's enemies by one angel, without any
natural explanation. If one angel can wipe out that many people,
it should not be too much trouble for all the hosts of God's
angelic armies to destroy three quarters of the earth's
population.
Secondly, some of the judgments predicted could possibly come from
the cosmic disturbances created by a comet whose path leads it
uncomfortably close to the earth. Global earthquakes and tidal
waves, resulting in famines on an unprecedented scale would almost
certainly be the result. Some, but probably not all, of these
judgments could be brought about this way.
The third, and in my mind, the most likely explanation for the
terrible judgments which will empty the earth, has to do with
nuclear weapons. Since the end of World War II, nuclear weapons
have been proliferating all over the globe. At first limited to
the United States, then produced by the Soviet Union, they are now
in the hands of all sorts of second and third rate powers. It
seems almost every year that new nations are added to the list of
those countries with nuclear capabilities. Our capacity to destroy
all life on earth has multiplied many times over. The fact that we
have not yet seen a nuclear war since 1945 can be attributed only
to the restraining hand of Almighty God! Surely it is His hand
that has prevented us from destroying one another up until this
point. How long that hand will continue to restrain us, only God
knows.
Quaint Terms for Modern Weapons
It was Hal Lindsey who first popularized the theory that the
terrible plagues and judgments seen and described by John in the
book of Revelation might be a First Century man's description of a
thermonuclear war. In his book There's A New World Coming (1973),
Lindsey refers to the fractional orbital bomb, and then goes on to
cite nuclear passages in the book of Revelation:
It [the bomb] consists of a dozen or so nuclear tipped missiles
which can be fired simultaneously from an orbiting space platform.
Because the missiles come straight down from the sky, they can
strike several cities simultaneously and with virtually no
warning. When these missiles streak through the air they'll look
like meteors showering the atmosphere! (Possibly fulfilling
Revelation 6:13: "the stars of heaven fell to the earth.")
The Apostle John's description of the sun becoming black as sack
cloth and the moon becoming like blood perfectly describes the
phenomena that would result from massive amounts of dust and
debris blown into the sky by multiple nuclear bursts.
"And the atmosphere was pushed apart like a scroll when it is
rolled together" (Revelation 6:14). Do you know what happens in a
nuclear explosion? The atmosphere rolls back on itself! It's this
tremendous rush of air back into the vacuum that causes much of
the destruction of a nuclear explosion. John's words in this verse
are a perfect picture of an all out nuclear exchange . . . The
whole world will be literally shaken apart!
As we read the book of Revelation, we find John did not use terms
like "nuclear weapons, ICBM's, or fractional orbital bombs."
Instead we find him describing things like "hail and fire," "a
great mountain burning with fire," and "a great star . . . burning
like a torch." This is what we would expect of a First Century
man, describing things he had no knowledge of in the only terms he
knew to use. Could it be that what John was really witnessing in
the Spirit, was an end of the age nuclear holocaust? The effects
he describes certainly seem to bear this out.
The Nature of the Bomb
Let us consider the nature of a nuclear explosion. Nicholas Wade,
in his book World Beyond Healing (1987), gives us a graphic
picture:
* The explosion of a nuclear weapon is an event of immense power .
. . Within a fraction of a millionth of a second, the nuclear
materials and casing of a one megaton weapon are transformed into
a packet of energy five times hotter than the center of the sun.
* Out of this mini-sun bursts a flash of Xrays so intense that the
air for several feet around the weapon is heated into an
incandescent ball.
* This little fireball, only a few millionths of a second old,
contains the vaporized contents of the weapon, and a vast flux of
energy created by the fission and fusion reactions of the nuclear
explosion. So immense an amount of energy packed into a tiny space
creates temperatures of 100 million degrees centigrade and
pressures of millions of pounds per square inch.
A violent expansion begins.
* In less than a thousandth of a second, the fireball of a
one-megaton weapon has grown to 440 feet across. In ten seconds,
the fireball is more than a mile in diameter.
It should be evident that what we are talking about is a weapon
unparalleled in human history; a weapon with the capacity to
obliterate huge cities in seconds. This is a scenario that
perfectly fits with the kind of swift, mass destruction spoken of
in the book of Revelation. Indeed, considering the widespread
death predicted by John, it would be hard for us to imagine
anything other than a nuclear holocaust which could come close to
producing such carnage.
The poisoning of the waters (Revelation 8:11), the severe
reduction in visibility (Revelation 8:12), the death of much of
the earth's vegetation (Revelation 8:7), malignant sores
(Revelation 16:2), the end of ocean life (Revelation 16:3), and
the inability of the atmosphere to block out harmful ultraviolet
rays, resulting in severe burns (Revelation 16:8) are all expected
results of nuclear war. The implications of these prophecies is
not pretty -- this earth has an appointment with a devastation
which shall be horrible beyond imagination.
Secular Confirmation
Amazingly, predictions by secular writers parallel the horrific
visions of John in nearly every major detail. Contrast the words
(in regular print) of secular writer Jonathan Schell author of the
book The Fate of the Earth (1970), with what the Bible says (in
italics) as he describes the consequences of a nuclear war:
Bearing in mind that the possible conse-quences of the detonations
of thousands of megatons of nuclear explosives include . . . the
extinction of many ocean species, among them some at the base of
the food chain . . . (And every living creature in the sea died
-- Revelation 16:3)
* . . . the pollution of the whole ecosphere with oxides of
nitrogen. (And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon,
and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A
third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night --
Revelation 8:12)
* . . . a significant decrease in photosynthesis in plants around
the world; the scalding and killing of many crops . . . (And a
third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned
up -- Revelation 8:7)
* . . . the increase in rates of cancer and mutation around the
world . . .
*. . . and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the
mark of the beast -- Revelation 16:2)
* . . . the atten-dant risk of global epidemics . . (And there
will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and
pestilences -- Luke 21:11)
* . . . the possible poisoning of all vertebrates by sharply
increased levels of vitamin D in their skin as a result of
increased ultraviolet light. (the fourth angel poured out his bowl
on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire.
And men were scorched with great heat -- Revelation 16:8)
* . . . and the outright slaughter on all targeted continents of
most human beings and other living things by the initial nuclear
radiation, the fireballs, the thermal pulses, the blast waves, the
mass fires, and the fall-out from the explosions. (By these three
plagues a third of mankind was killed -- by the fire and the smoke
and the brimstone -- Revelation 9:18).
* Considering that these consequences will all interact with one
another in unguessable ways and, furthermore, are in all
likelihood an incomplete list . . . one must conclude that a
full-scale nuclear holocaust could lead to the extinction of
mankind. (And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be
saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened --
Matthew 24:22).
The Nature of God's Wrath
Why would God allow such a terrible devastation upon the earth? Is
He not the God of love and compassion? The God of all mercy?
Certainly the Bible makes plain that God is all of that. Yet we
also learn from the Bible that "Our God is a consuming fire,"
(Hebrews 12:29) and that He will not leave the guilty unpun-ished
(Exodus 34:7).
It is interesting to note the way God judges sin in individuals
and nations. We find that He almost never seems to bring immediate
judgment for sin. He allows people to lead cruel and wicked lives
for years while enjoying prosperity. This is the great stumbling
block that has caused many to question either God's love or His
involvement in human affairs. Job cried out, "The tents of robbers
prosper, and those who provoke God are secure -- in what God
provides by His hand" (Job 12:6).
We find that sin has an accumulating effect. In the book of
Revelation we read about Babylon: "Her sins have reached up unto
heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities" (Revelation 18:5).
In Genesis, Abraham was told that his descendants would have to
wait 400 years before they could take possession of the promised
land, for "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete"
(Genesis 15:16). It appears that God lets sin "pile up" for years,
or even generations before it provokes Him to act in swift
decisive judgment and destruction. In Romans, Paul writes that
sinners are "storing up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Romans 2:5).
If that is true for nations and individuals, could it not also be
true for the entire planet? What if God has been restraining His
judgment for thousands of years, while men have filled the earth
with blood, hatred, war and immorality? Could it be that the
terrible plagues and judgments in the book of Revelation are the
accumulation of God's wrath over the history of mankind, stored up
for that season of time which would immediately precede the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ? This certainly appears to be the thought
given in the sixth chapter of Revelation where the world's
leaders, along with the rich and the poor of the earth cry out,
"The great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
(Revelation 6:17).
Is There Any Hope?
Up to this point the picture seems grim and hopeless. And in a
certain way it is. There is no hope for this present evil age. It
is under a death sentence from Almighty God. The flood of hatred,
violence, immorality, abortion, homosexuality, and the mockery of
all that is good and holy will finally produce a response from
heaven. God has decreed that this present evil age shall pass away
in a flame of fire, death, and judgment. No amount of peace talks,
goodwill conferences, or think tanks will be able to change that.
Likewise those who refuse to repent and turn to Christ are in a
hopeless situation. There is no peace or security for those who
determine to live life by their own rules. When God's wrath begins
to fall, it will overtake the rich and the poor, the celebrities
along with the unknown, the sophisticates with the simpletons. No
hiding place on earth, no amount of wealth or prestige, no measure
of cleverness or ingenuity will be able to spare people from the
wrath to come.
The good news in all of this is that God has always provided a
hiding place whenever He poured out His wrath. In Noah's flood,
that safety was found in the ark. In the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah, Lot was told to flee to the mountains. Rahab found
safety from the destruction of her city by staying in her house
with a scarlet cord tied to the window.
In these last days God's hiding place will be found, not in a cave
in the mountains, not in a mammoth ark, but in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was on His Cross that Jesus took the wrath
of God upon Himself, in order that those who would put their trust
in Him might be spared. The Scriptures tell us, "For God did not
appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ" (1 Thes-salonians 5:9). For those whose godly lives
reveal that they have truly placed their faith in Jesus, He will
come and take them unto Himself.