Suppose I could hold in my hand today a tiny golf ball composed of atomic material, U235. A piece of atomic material this size can drive a submarine 60,000 nautical miles, a distance around the earth three times. This is not a guess. It is happening. It is being done in the case of our atomic submarines. If they were to use oil as their source of power, it would require 99 railway tank cars of oil to equal the power potential that comes to the submarine from nuclear material equivalent to the size of this golf ball.
Isn't this amazing? Atomic material the size of this golf ball has an energy potential of an entire freight train of oil or coal. But there is another side to this. This same amount of atomic material in a bomb can demolish a city of a hundred thousand people in three minutes. Atomic power can be harnessed to run all the washing machines, sweepers, frigidaires, air conditioners, electric lights, and heaters in a city. Or it can be triggered in a bomb to demolish the same city in a few minutes. It all depends on how it is used, for constructive purposes, or destructive purposes. In experiments with the atom, men have already developed rabbits three feet long, weighing one hundred pounds. That is some rabbit, isn't it?
One of the topmost issues before the entire world is atomic outcome. What will be the outcome of atomic development? Will it bring in a cheap source of power for a golden age of prosperity? Or will it bring indescribable destruction?
There is a remarkable prophecy in Revelation 11:18 concerning the final movements that will usher in the end of this present world order at the second coming of Christ. The last clause in this text has a most striking significance in view of the atomic destruction potential of our day. It indicates that the time is ripe for God to "destroy them which destroy the earth." This suggests that immediately before Christ comes back to this earth, to slay all the disobedient, and to gather all the obedient to His prepared place in heaven, men will have the potential for destroying the earth. Is this the case today? For the first time in the long history of mankind, man has by atomic development gained the potential for destroying the earth. See how this makes our day as the time when the end will come according to Revelation 11:18.
Spread out the facts and take a look. Both Russia and the United States have sufficient nuclear explosives to destroy every city in the world in a few minutes of time. There is no spot on earth more than one hour from destruction by giant rockets with nuclear warheads. One megaton bomb exploded at an altitude of 25,000 feet can burn out the eyes of all persons watching it from 150 miles distant. The United States has atomic explosives that can inflict 35,000 times as great destruction as all the explosives used in World War II. One plane carrying hydrogen bombs can deliver a destructive blow equal to five times all the explosives used by all the nations in the second world war.
We live in such a dangerous world that the slightest miscue by one country might result in a holocaust that destroys all mankind. Under the surface of the ocean, nuclear-powered submarines are moving silently, ready to fire sixteen Polaris missiles. This number of these missiles carries more destructive power than all the bombs dropped by all the nations in World War II. And the bombs can come from under the water entirely unexpectedly where none can see or know beforehand from where they will come.
A Former Defense secretary of the United States made this statement: "If man is to have a future at all it will have to be a future overshadowed with the permanent possibility of thermonuclear holocaust." What a terrific indication of the swiftly approaching end of time! Did you know that one of six men could press a button and bring the destruction of civilization? Oh, how near we must be to the time when Jesus Christ will intervene in the affairs of nations by His second coming and destroy them that destroy the earth. This prophecy of Revelation 11:18 will be completely fulfilled soon by Christ's second advent.
No words can describe the horror of an atomic war. We do have a sample in what happened when an atomic bomb was exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima near the close of world War II. In addition to the destruction of hundreds of buildings, and the killing of thousands of people, other thousands were seared and mutilated to die the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year.
Here is how one man who was on the street of this city describes it: "Hundreds of strange-looking beings surged through the streets. Raw, oozing shreds of burnt flesh hung from their arms and faces like rags on a scarecrow. . . . Some faces had the appearance of having been melted by the intense heat. They had no eyes, no nose, no mouth, only gaping holes surrounded by ragged flesh." Youth's Instructor, May 29, 1962.
If an atomic war comes, millions will be killed in thirty minutes. Other millions will be burned and mutilated like those in Hiroshima. There will be a total blackout from power failures. Trains, buses, trucks will stop. Planes will be grounded. Food distribution will stop. There will be no groceries at the supermarket. No water coming out of the water spigot. No gas at the gas stations. All banks will be closed. Chaos everywhere. Civilization destroyed.
We have been on the verge of World War III a half dozen times in the last few years. There have been a number of provocative incidents sufficient to have started a global war between the United States and Russia. Why have these not exploded into a hot war? Bible prophecy gives the answer in Revelation 7:1-3. We learn there that the four winds of universal destruction are being held in check by agencies until the seal of God has been placed upon God's followers in all lands for their protection.
No one can tell how far God will permit men to go in destroying certain cities or countries in atomic warfare. But this we do know from Bible prophecy: No atomic devices of men will ever bring the end of the world, or the end of this present order of things. God Himself will bring the end by His own atomic power in connection with the premillenial phases of the return of Christ to this earth. Let us look at some of the Scriptures where this is set forth. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3:10, 13.
This tells how the Lord will use His atomic power to melt the entire earth, preparatory to reconstructing it into a new earth, perfect and sinless, at the end of the millennium. It says, "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise." This explosion of the gases composing the atmospheric heaven will be the greatest explosion of all time. God's atomic power will turn the earth into a vast lake of fire, a burning hell 25,000 miles in circumference. Sin and sinners will be destroyed forever in this lake of fire. Then God will reconstruct the earth into a perfect, sinless earth, as the eternal home of those who have chosen to obey Him. It says, "According to God's promise," there will be a new earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness", or the righteous. In this new earth there will never be a tear shed. No sorrow. No trouble of any kind. No war. No sickness. No pain. No old age. No death. Only complete and everlasting happiness will reign there.
In view of this coming destruction and glorious reconstruction, what do you think we ought to do about it? There is really only one thing to choose to do. Give your heart now to the Lord Jesus Christ in full surrender to obey Him to the end and be among those who will have an eternal happy home in this coming new earth as per the plan and purpose of God. The Bible tells us that world-wide destruction is coming in connection with the impending second coming of Jesus Christ. Revelation 16:18-20 declares that there will be the greatest earthquake that ever has been, or ever will be. Every city will be laid in ruins. New York falls. Los Angeles falls. London falls, Rome falls. Every city will be leveled to the ground.
Isaiah 24:20 shows that the shock will be so great that this entire globe will reel to and fro like a drunkard. This is how Jeremiah describes it: "Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled. . . I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end." Jeremiah 4:20, 26, 27.
All who disobey God in every land on earth will be struck dead when Jesus comes again, as though a mighty bolt of lightning had struck them, or a live wire of 500,000 wolts had fallen on them. Here it is set forth in Jeremiah 25:33: "And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground."
This destruction will come suddenly when men least expect it. For it is written, "For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." 1 Thessalonians 5:3. The Bible says, "In the last days perilous times shall come." These perilous times are here in the nth degree. It is impossible for anyone to live with a sense of security outside of having the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee."
If you live in daily, hourly surrender to Jesus Christ, then you can be in the fortress of the ninety-first Psalm: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust. . . . A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. . . . Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh they dwelling." Psalm 91:1, 2, 7, 9, 10.
Make no mistake about this. The only safe way is to be ready in the morning, ready at noon, and ready every night. It is good for a man to say, "I am going to get ready." But there is something better than getting ready, and that is being ready. Jesus says, "Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." Matthew 24:44.
Destruction is coming in connection with the second advent of Christ, like it came at the flood in the days of Noah. Jesus Christ declared that as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be in these last days. (Matthew 24:37). There was only one way of survival when the flood came, not three ways or two ways, but only one. You know what this one way was: heed God's message for that hour and to go into the ark before it was too late. So it is now. The only way of survival is to heed God's special message for our day and enter the ark of His truth before it is too late.