The Nuclear Threat

After the Cold War ended and Berlin Wall collapsed, nuclear warfare did not disappear off the radar. Countries with robust store houses of nukes, the US and Russia, and China continue to keep their nuclear arsenal intact. Countries like North Korea and Iran desire nukes, and among the militant aristocracy, there is fear they would use them. Recently, the UN Security Council voted to tighten sanctions on North Korea over their Nuclear saber rattling, with vote of 15 in favor and 0 in disfavor, the resolution passed, and North Korea propagandists and news casters are vowing revenge "thousand fold!" Probably because many of younger generations today did not grow up in Cold War era, the idea of Nuclear Holocaust is somewhat faded from their mindset. In this digital age, everyone expects war to become more cyber, as in recent hackings from HBO to the Defense Department itself in U.S.A. The Media has most people's minds on the concept of machine armies, cyborgs, and cyber warfare, making Nukes seem primitive and rather unrealistic for plot lines.

I think it is very dangerous to adopt a "there is no Nuclear threat" viewpoint. A long time ago I read a powerful book called "Hiroshima" by John Hersey, published August 5th 1964 and available in mas market paperback. The book covers the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan during WII with an atomic bomb (Nuke) and describes in detail by the eyewitnesses which includes indigenous Japanese at business and medical levels, and a priest and Protestant pastor. The sheer horror the aftermath will give you nightmares, nightmares we actually need to remind us not to tempt another nation into making Houston, Texas or Havana another Hiroshima! Despite the advancements in weapon technology, the fact we now have Star Warsesque lasers and Plasma, Nukes still have serval elements that makes them number one weapon of revanchrists and despots. Firstly, a nuke cause massive damage, the blast and shockwave alone will kill millions in metropolitan area, and the aftermath is radiation, rotting flesh, spoiled water sources, crops can't be harvested for five years, and deaths that would make anyone want to die in initial blast.

Nuclear war is prophesied in the Holy Bible and follow passages do describe nuclear like aftermath and destruction, "And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths," (Zachariah 14:12), "In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones," (Matthew 24:22), "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells," (2 Peter 3:10-13), "The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again," (Isaiah 24:19-20), "The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter," (Revelation 8:10-11), it is possible Wormwood could be a nuclear bomb, since water become undrinkable and bitter when nuclear radiation gets into it, "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places," (Matthew 24:6-7), “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!," (Luke 12:49), "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short," (Matthew 24:21-22), "For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place," (Micah 1:3-4),"Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light," (Isaiah 13:6-13), "Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them," (Joel 2:3). It is clear that Nuclear war could be in our future, and it will be devastating. While everyone is preoccupied with what the Americna President tweets and Cyberterrorism, North Korea and other nations seek to use their weapons [recently North Korea has threatened Guam with Nuclear strike]. The Book of Revelation tells us the Second Horseman is War, "And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword," (Revelation 6:4), and Nuclear War is in best interests of radicals in North Korea and in the Middle East, particularly Radical Muslims who want to destroy Dar al-Hareb (The House of Chaos, the rest of world that isn't Islamic). I am not saying we should ignore cyber threats, but to pretend no one will use nukes is nonsensical! There are regimes that are completely militaristic, and they exist to fight, and to show their dominace via force of arms. It may be hard for democratic nations to believe anyone would use nukes, even Russia is believed to never consider using their vast store of nuclear weapons due to Mutual Assured Destruction: If Russia were to fire nukes against the West, particularly America they would be struck with nukes, and the world would end up a wasteland with everyone dead. The problem is not everyone is like the Russians who consider this and safety of their nation. North Korea and other Middle Eastern countries want to fight, to assert their military prowess, and destroy their enemies. Believing nukes is off the table is wishful thinking, and the reason the UN Security Council, The United States, and Europe doesn't want to see North Korea or Iran achieve nuclear capacity (nukes) is because there people in those countries who will use them, and not bluff.

The threat of Nuclear War is very real. There are nations who are not content to stop at threats and bluffs, who will cash in their chips and open their missile silos! To believe that we are safer now than during Cold War is naïve. We are actually more at risk, because North Korea and Iran hate the West, and have ideologies that believe killing people is a good thing, even innocent civilians and families. Many nations have invested in antinuclear technology, one is called interceptor which turns off nukes as they begin their descent towards the target, and when they crash its like dud or paper airplane, with no explosion. However, such technologies are only good if its warhead or missile carrying a nuke, it doesn't account for someone detonation one remotely via a backpack or vehicle as seen in many Tom Clancy films. The threat of nuclear bomb going off is very real, because there are enemies who don't even feign to use cars, knives, and trucks to kill; what if they get a nuke?

As Christians we have hope and know that if we die we go to better place, "For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live," (Phillippians 1:20-24), and "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." (Revelation 21:4). If nuclear war breaks out, much like it seems it will in Book of Revelation, and prophecies from Old Testament Prophets like Daniel and Zachariah, we have the best protection of all, Jesus Christ who is God! If it is His will for us to die, we then will be with Author of all Life (John 1:1-18, Colossians 1:16). Still our goal is to stay alive as long as we can reason and move; God gave us a brain and we can do our most to not be nuclear toast. Our goal as Christians is to stay alive as long as we can because we are ambassadors of Christ, "So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" (2 Corinthians 5:20) and our goal is reconciling people to God the Trinity through Christ Jesus. If we perish, we don't really perish (John 3:16), and shall have new bodies when Christ returns (1 Corinthians 5:1-10, 2 Corinthians 15:35-58). Our will to live is to do God's will as long as we can, "For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day." (John 6:40, sharing this message, the Gospel), and if we should be in path of nuclear explostion we can't escape from, then we are in God's hands and will see Him soon. Christians are not fatalists, Jim Jones types who seek death in some suicidal death cult, no we desire to stay alive as long as possible to share the Good News of Christ, and to love until the end. Nuclear war doesn't scare us nearly as much because we know this world is but temporal, and the next in God's Kingdom is eternal. However, that does not mean we wish for nuclear war, on contrary we want people to live long enough to hear the Gospel and believe; we don't relish or desire that people suffer, especially from Nuclear fall out.

Albert Eistien really was in delima, he knew how to create a nuclear bomb, by splitting an atom. Interestingly, God has made all life up of atoms, "The six most common elements in living things are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Atoms of these elements combine and form thousands of large molecules. These large molecules make up the structures of cells and carry out many processes essential to life," (Google Search), and when split them it explodes into a weapon fare more terrible than anyone could conceive. It raises the question is God Himself splits atoms, and that is how Sodom was destroyed (Genesis 19:11-25), and how the LORD God often desolated armies, since the Creator of all things (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16) has the ability to pluck an Atom and split it, man only learned to do it in Einstein's days.

Nuclear War is a reality, and we need to get serious in prayer about it. There a violent men who want to push the button and unleash nuclear holocaust across the earth. Unlike the logical Russians of the Cold War who agreed to Mutual Assured Destruction [i.e. they didn't want desolation for Russia and rest of world], there are nations that want to use nukes on the West simply because they hate the West. It is time to pray for the world, and pray for the Lord Trinity's mercy! Read John Hersey's Hiroshima and pray! Pray on your knees! For before us could be Mad Max, Book of Eli, and post-apocalyptic desolation that so many visionaries of cinema believe awaits us.