On August 6, 1945, the Book of Revelation grew dramatically more vivid to its readers. At 8:15 am local time (11:15 pm in Washington) the United States dropped an atomic bomb called “Little Boy” on a Japanese city. While still aboard ship returning from the Allied conference at Potsdam, President Truman released this statement. “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima…. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T…. It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.”
According to the National WWII Museum, “The temperature at ground level reached 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit in less than a second. The bomb vaporized people half a mile away from ground zero. Bronze statues melted, roof tiles fused together, and the exposed skin of people miles away burned from the intense infrared energy unleashed. At least 80,000 people died instantly.”
When students of scripture heard about the level of destruction imposed on Hiroshima, the descriptions reminded many of them of things they had read before — prophetic passages from the Bible. The difference was that the Bible describes such events as more widespread on the earth than one or two cities. Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not fulfill the prophecies, but they gave a chilling picture of how such prophecies might be fulfilled.
The book of Zechariah was written more than 2,500 years ago. In chapter 14, verse 12 it vividly describes what happened to thousands at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.” We know it happens instantly because it happens while they are still standing. The word translated “dissolve” literally means “to melt.” A better reading of the verse would say, “Their flesh will melt while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will melt in their sockets, and their tongues will melt in their mouths.”
In giving a timeline of the bombings, the Atomic Heritage Foundation says that within a second of detonation, the superheated air above the ground glowed. “A woman sitting on steps on the bank of the Ota river, a half a mile away from ground zero, instantly vaporizes.”
Many of the Bible’s “nuclear war” prophecies take place during what we usually call the tribulation — the final seven years before Christ’s return. Jesus promises to catch away the Church before the tribulation begins. That’s good news for His followers. But the Bible does not say that all nuclear war must take place in those seven years. It has already happened outside those years, and it can happen again at any point.
A month ago, the threat of nuclear weapons being used on a modern battlefield had risen to a simmer. It’s now beginning to boil. Russian television is working hard to prepare the Russian people for the use of what are called battlefield nuclear weapons. We’re not talking about the bombs attached to intercontinental ballistic missiles hitting New York or London. We’re talking about smaller and more portable nukes used against cities like Kyiv. Here’s the conundrum. The United States cannot allow Russia to get away with such attacks. But if it responds with direct military intervention, it will have just unleashed World War III.
Exactly 60 years ago, we were in the middle of what is now known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was the closest the world has yet come to a nuclear cataclysm. On October 6th of this year, the President of the United States said this is the worst it has been since then.
We have already entered the period known in the Bible as “perilous times.” They are perilous because unthinkable bombs are aimed at our great cities by people who seem just mad enough to use them. They are perilous because lawlessness has already taken over some of those same cities. And they are perilous because humanity’s war with its Creator is now being fought among the smallest of children.
It is not our job to figure out the day or hour of the Lord’s coming. But Jesus did tell us to understand the times and the seasons in which we live. Whatever we hope to accomplish for Christ and His Kingdom in this life, we must do with urgency.
