The Coming Holocaust

You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind or living in a cave not to be aware of the overhanging threat of nuclear war that has been present like the sword of Damocles. The standard strategic warhead yields twenty megatons or sixteen hundred and sixty seven times the power of Hiroshima's twelve kilotons. Russia tested a sixty-megaton bomb. Four of these detonated at one time would alter the axis of the earth.

Despite all the rhetoric about the "cold war" being over, Russian nuclear powered 941 Typhoon class ballistic missile submarines slip silently through our offshore waters like monstrous grey sharks, unseen, unheard and undetected.

Out of sight, out of mind as they say, at least for most Americans. Each ship carries two hundred nuclear warheads and the ballistic missiles to deliver them to our cities with pinpoint accuracy, as if that would be necessary. China can vaporize our west coast too, thanks to America selling them the latest supercomputers which have been modified for targeting their ICBM's. That's called giving our opponents enough rope to hang us. Each Russian Typhoon carries enough destructive power to incinerate the North American continent. And thanks to American funding, an even deadlier submarine threat has been developed by Russia, the Severodvinsk, which out performs America's best. Russia spent an estimated $12.8 billion in 1997 for R&D in this area, including the fourth generation nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine which Anatoly Chubais hailed as "a submarine for the next century," the Yuri Dolgoruki. Once in service, the main targets of this submarine's nuclear missile compliment will be American cities. Yury Maslyukov recently revealed plans to modernize their program, bringing into service "several" new Yury Dolgoruky class nuclear submarines.

"We shouldn't be seduced by talk of strategic partnerships with one or other great power. Today's world is complex and military force still plays a not insignificant role in it" said Maslyukov, former head of Soviet central planning.

I won't bore you with a litany of all the Middle East, African and Asian countries that hate the "Great Satan" and are obsessed with developing massive stores of deadly nerve gas or new genetically altered "designer" bacteria or viral weapons that could spread out of control and wipe out mankind. Many of these third world powers thirst for nuclear weapons and have the oil resources to buy them from Mother Russia or China, for example.

You know about all these things. But are we really going to have thermonuclear destruction of our planet? Is it inevitable? Are these silent grey nuclear sharks just off our shores going to launch their ballistic missiles? We would have only ten minutes to prepare for the holocaust. Prepare what? Run where? Do you think our massive military-governmental behemoth could decide anything in ten minutes? And how would our launching massive ICBM's toward our enemies protect us from being vaporized or worse, not being vaporized and suffering a slow death from radiation exposure? I don't know about you, but I don't look forward to the prospect of vomiting myself into oblivion. I would prefer the former. Hiding in a home bomb shelter would be like a pig roasted in the oven, so to speak; not much to look forward to, but will it happen?

Georgie Anne Geyer, in her excellent column for Universal Press Syndicate, wrote on 26 Sept, 1998 "Unless all of this evidence plus human nature is mistaken, and unless we do something fast, we Americans are in a serious danger that we have never before experienced: The target is us."

The Bible does not use the words "thermonuclear holocaust" or "hydrogen bomb" because these words are of recent origin. It all began July 16,1945 at the Trinity Test Site at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The first bomb was used three weeks later, dropped from the Enola Gay. The Biblical Prophets, on the other hand, wrote twenty-seven hundred years ago and expressed their visions in language of that time. But it's there, if you read it with an open mind. And once you see it, it is obvious. The prophets are full of description of what is shortly coming upon the world of modern man.

Don McAlvany describes what he calls a "rogue wave" which is like a massive tidal wave made up of several disasters coming upon us at the same time, a symbiotic synergistic relationship (my words) where the sum is much greater than all of the parts individually. A Sunnami, composed of Y2K software and embedded chip malfunction, global depression and meltdown, introduction of the complex Euro currency, Middle East and Asian wars which may become nuclear, hair trigger issues such as Taiwan, North Korea, Japan, Cyprus, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Even one of these is bad enough, but with all of them hitting at about the same time, the entire world becomes very unstable, even violent. There are many more issues involved, such as the breakdown of society and infrastructure, rioting, looting, burning, and killing by desperate, hungry people roaming the darkened streets of the major cities, totally out of control.

The Bible tells us what conditions will be like in the End Times:

2 Tim. 3:1 "But realize this that in the last days difficult times will come."
"Difficult" (Gk.: chalepos) means dangerous, violent, hard to bear, grievous, painful, perilous, troublesome. In other words, conditions in society will be like Noah's day. How does scripture describe the time of Noah?

Gen. 6:11 "Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence."

Gen. 6:13 "Then God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.'" Remember what Lord Jesus said about the timing of His return:

Luke 17:26 "And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man..."

And in regard to the violence and sexual depravity of the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah and their sudden fiery total destruction:

Luke 17:30 "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed."
(all scripture quotes are from the NASB Update, The Lockman Foundation )

Does the Bible speak about sudden fiery destruction in the End Times? Can we recognize the use of the hydrogen and neutron bomb in ancient scripture passages? To be able to recognize the effects, we must first be familiar with what happens when nuclear weapons detonate. There are eleven specific effects of a hydrogen bomb explosion:

(This information was abstracted from the classic work by Jonathan Schell, "The Fate of the Earth, "New York, Knopf, 1988)

An immediate intense gamma irradiation by neutrons and gamma rays.

A coherent electromagnetic pulse lasting seven seconds which produces a huge surge of energy that knocks out all communication equipment.

An expanding central fireball of extremely intense heat which vaporizes and rises.

A thermal pulse which produces flash burn and blinding light for 20 seconds. One third of the total energy is released in the thermal pulse, vaporizing instantly and starting multiple fires. A 20-megaton bomb will burn victims to death 23 miles away and produce retinal burns 350 miles away!

One half the total energy is present in the blast wave which produces extreme pressure, flattening objects 22 miles away. A ground burst would produce tons of dust fused with radioactive fission products sucked up into the mushroom cloud and returned to the earth as local radioactive fallout distributed downwind, emitting deadly gamma rays for 24 hours.

Firestorms and superfires: Columns of hot gases rising create an updraft with hurricane force like a blast furnace, producing an all consuming conflagration.

Intermediate fallout primarily in the troposphere with rapid global circulation probably in the entire one-third of the Northern Hemisphere. Deadly gamma radiation would last for weeks.

Late global fallout located in the stratosphere, lasts for years. It produces nuclear winter with no sunlight, no rainfall, and a drop in temperature. Millions of tons of soot are present. Large quantities of oxides of nitrogen deplete the ozone. Beta emitting radioactive fallout ulcerates the skin. Radioactive Iodine 131,Strontium 90 and Cesium 137 have a long half-life and are taken internally when they enter into our water-plant-food chain. Food and water would be contaminated and deadly.

Nuclear winter would blacken the atmosphere and obscure the sun, moon and stars.

Ozone depletion will allow full hard ultraviolet radiation producing retinal and corneal damage and blindness, skin cancer, and immunosuppression.

What would you actually experience if you were so unfortunate as to be near a nuclear explosion? First, there would be a dazzling white light for 30 seconds and a searing heat. Five seconds later, a blast wave full of about 400-mile-per-hour winds. During an actual nuclear attack, three-fourths of the United States would be burned up in 10 seconds. Sixty percent of the population would be dead with only 300,1-megaton bombs. It is assumed that with an all-out first strike on America, 10,000 megatons would be used initially and several 25 megaton bombs. After the hurricane-force winds, there would be vertical updraft. A large mushroom cloud would rise, containing dust and smoke, and firestorms would begin. The day would darken to night as the atmosphere was obscured. A lethal fallout would occur 150 miles downwind, producing nausea and vomiting. Two weeks later there would be hair loss. Your bone marrow would be depressed and the platelets depressed, producing secondary hemorrhage from your mouth, nose, lungs and bladder, and bloody diarrhea. Of course, if you were within a 23-mile radius of the explosion you would be burned to death and incinerated instantly. If you were closer than that, your body would be vaporized by the initial thermal pulse. (taken from "The Fate of the Earth", Jonathan Schell)

Richard Rhodes in his book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986) in chapter 19 entitled "Tongues of Fire" vividly describes the effects of flash-burn: "Extremely intense thermal energy leads not only to carbonization but also to evaporation of the viscera"

"...were seared to bundles of smoking black char in a fraction of a second as their internal organs boiled away."

"Accompanying the flash of light was an instantaneous flash of heat-its duration was probably less than 1/10th of a second but its intensity was sufficient to cause nearby flammable objects . . . to burst into flame and to char poles . . . " (End of quotes)

A grapefruit sized fission-free neutron bomb, in contrast, would kill everything within a 600-yard radius without damaging buildings and with no lingering residual radiation. The initial release of high-energy neutron radiation would cause flesh to instantly melt away with shocking suddenness, an instantaneous living death. There has never been a weapon that could produce these effects until now, but the prophet Zechariah wrote about it 2515 years ago.

Zech. 14:12 "Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth." Heb.: Maqaq -to rot, melt, decay, flow away

This is a description by a young doctor in Nagasaki as quoted by a WHO report: "The sky was dark as pitch, covered with dense clouds and smoke; under that blackness over the earth hung a yellow brown fog. Gradually the veiled ground became visible, and the view beyond rooted me to the spot with horror. All the buildings I could see were on fire. Electricity poles were wrapped in flame like so many pieces of kindling. Trees on the nearby hills were smoking, as were the leaves of sweet potatoes in the fields. The sky was dark. The ground was scarlet, and in between hung clouds of yellowish smoke. Three kinds of color-black, yellow and scarlet loomed ominously over the people, who ran about like so many ants seeking to escape. What had happened? With that ocean of fire, the sky of smoke, it seemed like the end of the world." (Akizuki, 1981)

The prophet Zephaniah, who devotes his entire book to 'The Day of the Lord" sees many years into the future:

Zeph. 1:14 "Near is the great day of the Lord, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the Lord! In it the warrior cries out bitterly.

Zeph. 1:15 A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness,

Zeph. 1:16 A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers.

Zeph. 1:17 I will bring distress on men So that they will walk like the blind, Because they have sinned against the Lord; And their blood will be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung.

Zeph. 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to deliver them On the day of the Lord's wrath; And all the earth will be devoured In the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a terrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth."

(Heb.:'iwwer -a skin or film over the sight.)

Radiation and thermal pulses will produce cataracts and retinal burns. Excess UV B radiation produces snow blindness and corneal scars.

In Jeremiah chapter 4,the prophet has a vision of the End Times. One can almost visualize the incoming Topol-M2 (SS-27) ICBMs, the RSM-52 SS-N-20 Sturgeons from the Typhoons, and the SS-NX-28s from the Yury Dolgoruky.

David Wilkerson comments on this passage, "We are on the brink; the party is over."

Jer. 4:19 "My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent, Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.

Jer. 4:20 Disaster on disaster is proclaimed, For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents are devastated, My curtains in an instant.

Jer. 4:23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and they had no light.

Jer. 4:24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills moved to and fro.

Jer. 4:25 I looked, and behold, there was no man, And all the birds of the heavens had fled.

Jer. 4:26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.

Jer. 4:27 For thus says the Lord, "The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

Jer. 4:28 For this the earth shall mourn And the heavens above be dark, Because I have spoken, I have purposed, And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it.

Jer. 4:29 At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees; They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks; Every city is forsaken, And no man dwells in them."

John, the prophet on the island of Patmos, sees a vision far into the future. Could this be a description of a thermonuclear holocaust?

Rev. 8:6 "And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.

Rev. 8:7 The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

Rev. 8:8 The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,

Rev. 8:9 and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Rev. 8:10 The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters.

Rev. 8:11 The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

Rev. 8:12 The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way."

Since one third of the earth was repeatedly mentioned with the destruction of the earth, trees, grass and contamination of the waters making all of them poisonous, and darkening of one third of the atmosphere, a nuclear holocaust seems most reasonable.

Listen to Jeremiah again:

Jer. 25:31 "A clamor has come to the end of the earth, Because the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He is entering into judgment with all flesh; As for the wicked, He has given them to the sword,' declares the Lord.

Jer. 25:32 Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Behold, evil is going forth From nation to nation, And a great storm is being stirred up From the remotest parts of the earth.

Jer. 25:33 Those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered or buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground."

The meaning of the vision will be obvious in the "latter days", Jeremiah says:

Jer. 30:23 "Behold, the tempest of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, A sweeping tempest; It will burst on the head of the wicked.

Jer. 30:24 The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has performed and until He has accomplished The intent of His heart; In the latter days you will understand this."

The prophet Isaiah also is given a vision by the Lord of the End Times and the Day of the Lord:

Is. 13:5 "They are coming from a far country, From the farthest horizons, The Lord, and His instruments of indignation, To destroy the whole land.

Is. 13:6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Is. 13:7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man's heart will melt.

Is. 13:8 They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. Lit.Heb.trans. "faces of flames ( flashing; brightness )[will be] their faces.

Is. 13:9 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

Is. 13:10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light.

Is. 13:11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

Is. 13:12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

Is. 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the Lord of hosts In the day of His burning anger."

Did you hear that? "...the earth will be shaken from its place . . . " Four 60 Megaton bombs could do that-change the axis of the earth, and only heaven knows what else!

"So I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of its place." Jay P.Green, Sr. "A Literal Translation of the Bible" Hendrickson Publ., 1985

Isaiah continues with another vision:

Is. 24:5 "The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.

Is. 24:6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left."

The Noahic covenant, which is an everlasting covenant concerning 'the sanctity of human life' (Gen. 9: 1-17) was broken. The curse of Deut. 28: 15 is then activated.

Deut. 28:15 "But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:"

The inhabitants of the earth will be burned and only a few men left. All the oceans are polluted and life is gone from them. The water is radioactive and undrinkable. The grass and trees are dead. The atmosphere is so dusty from fallout debris and soot that the sun, moon and starts are obscured. It is dark, cold, empty, and desolate.

Listen and feel the terror of John's vision recorded in chapter 6:

Rev. 6:12 "I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; Rev. 6:13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.

Rev. 6:14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

Rev. 6:15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;

Rev. 6:16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;

Rev. 6:17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

Verse 12 might be describing the blast wave and nuclear debris and soot that obscure the atmosphere. In verse 13, this could represent ICBM's with multiple warheads. If a real star hit the earth, we would be completely destroyed. Verse 14 is the mushroom cloud caused by the tremendous updraft.

Dennis Pollock in his paper "Does the Bible Predict a Nuclear Holocaust" (The Lamplighter Vol.XIX N.9 Oct.1998, page 5) states: "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." (End of quote)

"The basic power of the universe has been harnessed. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed." (President Truman, July 1945).

"I am death, the shatterer of worlds. "J.Robert Oppenheimer quoting from the ancient Indian poem, Bhagavad-Gita.

Matt. 24:21
"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

Matt. 24:22 "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."

Does the Bible describe a thermonuclear holocaust? I think it really does. Only a selection of scripture passages have been given here to make the point. There are dozens and dozens more that were not quoted. In fact, I believe now you will recognize these passages yourself, especially when you read the prophets of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. You will see them everywhere in the Bible, but don't despair. Read also the many scriptures that tell of the Lord's love for you. He wants you to fully trust Him. He will hold your hand and be your protector.

The prophet Habakkuk gives us the answer to all our problems and worries: The Lord God has everything under control, trust Him.

HAB 3:17 "Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, HAB 3:18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

HAB 3:19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk on my high places.."

When we fear the threat of attack by terrorists or ABC warfare,this psalm gives us reassurance:

PSA 91:1 "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

PSA 91:2 I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!"

PSA 91:3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence.

PSA 91:4 He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

PSA 91:5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day;

PSA 91:6 Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.

PSA 91:7 A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you.

PSA 91:8 You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked.

PSA 91:9 For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place.

PSA 91:10 No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. PSA 91:11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.

PSA 91:12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone.

PSA 91:13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

PSA 91:14 Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.

PSA 91:15 He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.

PSA 91:16 With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation."

PSA 34:7 "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them."

PSA 34:17 "The righteous cry, and the Lord hears And delivers them out of all their troubles.

PSA 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

PSA 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all."

PSA 50:15 "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."

PSA 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

PSA 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;

PSA 46:3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride."

PSA 23:1 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

PSA 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

PSA 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.

PSA 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

And from the words of Jesus:

MAT 10:29 "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

MAT 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

MAT 10:31 So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows."

God sees, knows and cares about you. He is in control;don't be afraid.

PHI 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

PHI 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

PHI 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

And finally, our blessed hope:

1TH 4:16 "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

1TH 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

1TH 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words."