It is often stated that the idea of unleashing atomic weapons is unthinkable. This line of reasoning must be recognized as only wishful thinking. The hard, cold facts tell us otherwise. Atomic weapons were used in the past, have been considered for use during the present and are being planned for use in the future.

Quoting from the Colorado Springs Gazette article of Mar. 16, ’02 which headlined, "Powell promises U.S. won’t nuke unarmed nations" we read, "As the bush administration weighs confrontation with Iran and Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday the United States will stand by a 24-year pledge not to use nuclear weapons against states that don’t have them…A Pentagon policy review that surfaced last weekend raised the prospect of the United States using its powerful nuclear stockpile in a wide range of conflicts. President Bush said Wednesday he is leaving "all options on the table" as the Pentagon reworks its nuclear weapons policy to deter attacks on the United States, including from non-nuclear states such as Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria…[Powell] offered assurances the United States does not have nuclear missiles targeted on Russia or any other nation. But, he said, to be "perfectly honest," a missile can be directed quickly and "we have nuclear weapons obviously that are capable of being targeted." By contrast, Powell said as many as 13,000 of the 28,000 long-range nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile during the Cold War were targeted on the Soviet Union and its allies, even at specific streets. Reports of the new policy review named Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea and Libya as potential targets of a U.S. nuclear strike."

The frightening truth of just how close the world came to having an atomic war in 1962 was revealed in 1989 at a two-day conference in Moscow. Quoting from the Gazette Telegraph article of Jan. 29th (1989) which headlined, "62 nuclear threat is admitted" we read the following: "Soviet officials said Saturday for the first time that in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Soviet nuclear warheads had already been deployed in Cuba and could have been launched at American cities within a few hours…Participants in the conference said the Soviets confirmed that the missiles were aimed at major U.S. cities, not merely military installations as had previously been maintained…Soviet delegates said their country had only 62 nuclear missiles targeted for the United States at that time...The October 1962 showdown between President Kennedy and Khrushchev over the Soviet attempt to install a nuclear missile force in Cuba is widely regarded as the closest the world has come to nuclear war."

In a related article of the Jan. 30th, 1989 [Cuba was set to fight with 270,000 soldiers] edition of the Gazette Telegraph we have this additional information, "Also, Cuban leader Fidel Castro urged Moscow to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, ABC News reported…Oct. 27, 1962, Castro urged Khrushchev to immediately fire the missiles at the United States to head off an invasion."

We live in an unstable time in an unstable world. There are few men who can say they have been an eyewitness to an above ground nuclear test. One such man is physics professor Jim Burkhart. Here is his testimony as it was printed in the Jan. 22nd 1989 edition of the Gazette Telegraph, "It was July 1962…In three months, the world would sweat out the chilling standoff between then-President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev over Soviet missile stockpiling in Cuba…But 800 miles off the cost of Hawaii, on a spit of land called Johnston Island, 1,000 servicemen were witnessing some of the last exotic displays of above-ground explosions from hydrogen warheads in the atmosphere…"It was incredible," said Jim Burkhart, a physics professor at the University of Colorado…That night, portions of Hawaii lost electrical power as a result of the bomb…Wearing black-tinted goggles, he and hundreds of other servicemen huddled on the deck of a ship anchored offshore, waiting for the moment when they could stare straight into the fury of 2.2 megatons of "immense power." After "a snap, sort of like the click you hear when a spark jumps across the gap in a science experiment," Burkhart said, a light "brighter than the sun" became "a white hot gas ball that grew and grew, too bright to look at." Nearly 10 minutes after the launch, Burkhart said, the servicemen removed their goggles and saw what looked like the fourth of July and the end of the world all rolled into one. "The sky was bright blue like you went into a nightclub with all blue lights. Then, weird colors…all the colors of the rainbow. I really remember the red," he said. "Suddenly, the sky overhead had green lines racing across it like a zipper to the two horizons. They were racing away from each other like somebody was opening a zipper starting at the middle." The ground shook. The noise was deafening. And smaller measurement rockets spiraled from the sky into the ocean. "It was scary," he said, "It was literally overpowering the senses. The sky was cracking in half. There were all these colors. And bright things were falling like stars out of the sky. "It struck me that this was similar to ST. John’s description to the way the world ends (in Revelation of the Bible)." Reading the biblical passages as a scroll when it is rolled together," Burkhart added: "If St. John had seen what I saw, he would have described it the same way, using his knowledge and culture 2,000 years ago."

The passage of Bible Scripture that Mr. Burkhart was referring to can be found in the Book of Revelation Ch. 6:12-17. Whether this passage refers to atomic warfare or supernatural judgment from God is up for debate by many Bible students, but is without question that the end time prophecies give clear indications of the use of nuclear weapons and of the massive contamination which will follow.

There is a sound which is going out to this world and it is the warning sound of approaching disaster. These are the last days. If your eyes are open you will see a world set on a course of madness.

There is a perspective for a nuclear war which is known in the Defense Dept. as M.A.D. which stands for "Mutual Assured Destruction."

This is the real world of danger we live in obscured by our luxuries and entertainment. Jesus Christ warned that in the last days few will neither listen to the warnings nor heed the signs. Quoting the Lord Jesus in Matt. 24:37-39 we read, "But as in the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."

Where will you be the day that the very heaven above rips apart? For those who can hear and believe God’s warnings that that day is very close at hand, today is the day to ask for the forgiveness and guidance of God in the name of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.

Before the final 7 years of sorrow and tribulation are poured out on this Christ-rejecting world the heavens will experience an infinitely more spectacular event than any nuclear blast. According to I Thess. 4:15-18, Jesus Christ will appear in the lower heaven to receive all the dead and living believers of the Church to Himself. By the Word of God found in verses 2-3 of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus will at that time then take every believer to His Father’s house in the highest heaven.

Although this too may seem unthinkable to an unbelieving world, the unfailing foreknowledge of God will surely bring it to pass. Don’t be left behind on earth or in the grave awaiting judgment. This very moment ask for the mercy of forgiveness bought with Christ’s own blood upon the cross and you will be washed clean of every sin and will receive eternal life. Jesus rose victorious from the grave so that all that remains of death’s power over believers is a temporary sting. One day very soon those believers alive at His coming will escape even this passing pain of death. You don’t want to miss out.