Perspective

By L. Jim Tuck

November 21, 2024

The Road to Destruction or Life?

    In April, 1986, thirty-eight years ago, the world experienced the worst nuclear catastrophe in history when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant ejected a cloud of radiation into the air above northern Ukraine. This deadly disaster exposed hundreds of thousands of people to large amounts of radiation in Pripyat and beyond; this led to a massive evacuation in the plant's surrounding area. Life goes on in certain areas near the site of the nuclear accident, but the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone remains—a designation that covers an almost 20-mile radius around the nuclear power plant, a massive area of about 1,000 square miles. It is estimated it could take at least a few hundred years, and up to 20,000 years for the land around the affected reactor in Chernobyl to be livable again.

    The use of nuclear weapons is now on the table in the 1000-day Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will use them if need be. Wednesday, US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) spokesman, Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan, implied the U.S. is ready to use nuclear weapons if necessary.

The destroyer of worlds

Christopher Nolan’s drama film about J. Robert Oppenheimer revived a macabre curiosity in the destructive power of nuclear weapons. There are now an estimated 12,512 nuclear warheads. The quote, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" is famously attributed to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the atomic bomb. However, it was taken from the Hindu “Bhagavad Gita,” and it was said by Oppenheimer when the first atomic bomb was exploded at the Trinity test site in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

    The big question is, will mankind unleash the destructive power of nuclear weapons and blot all life off this planet? Would man take that final step to destroy all life? We would think not, but even arrogant scientists have taken bold steps in executing their own experiments and made decisions which could have jeopardized the earth. A hydrogen bomb has the potential to be 1,000 times more powerful than an atomic bomb, according to several nuclear experts. Hydrogen bombs cause a much bigger explosion, which means the shock waves, blast, heat and radiation all have larger reach than an atomic bomb, according to Edward Morse, a professor of nuclear engineering at University of California, Berkeley.

    In 1946, three Manhattan project scientists, including Dr. Edward Teller, who would later become known as the father of the hydrogen bomb, did not know for sure whether exploding a hydrogen bomb would create a chain reaction in the earth’s atmosphere and destroy the earth’s capacity to support human life. However, they wrote a report concluding the explosive force of the first atomic bomb wasn’t even close to what would be required to trigger a planet-destroying chain reaction in the air. The report was not declassified until 1973.

    It is boggling to the mind that man would be willing to take even an outside risk to jeopardize the earth’s population. But this answers the question, “Would man take that final step to destroy all life?” In the event of war, human beings by their own arrogant vanity would do just that. German born physicist, Albert Einstein, is widely held as one of the most influential scientists. Einstein said, "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

Why is humanity so bent on destroying itself?

    There is an unseen entity who affects the minds of all mankind. He is called the “prince of the power of the air,” and through his spirit he causes human beings to disobey God and pursue their own ways (Ephesians 2:2-3). The basest of our desires is motivated by vanity, jealousy, lust, and greed, and that is Satan’s nature too. So, in actual fact, human nature is Satan’s nature instilled in humans from birth; it makes us hostile to God’s laws.

    God and His Son are life givers, and they are the epitome of love. Satan is a life taker, and he epitomizes hate, exactly the opposite of God. In Revelation 9:11, one of the names for Satan is Abaddon in Hebrew, and Apollyon in the Greek, meaning destruction and destroyer. Apollyon, called the king over the great abyss who ascends from the bottomless pit to wreak havoc on human life. He is also known as one of a chief deities worshipped by the Greeks and Romans, Apollo. No wonder human beings are bent towards destruction because they have taken on the very same nature of their father, Satan or Apollyon, the destroyer.

    Interestingly, the religious leaders during the time of Jesus sought to kill Him, and Jesus said: “But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.’ Then they said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.’” (John 8:40-45)

    This is why humanity, when brought to the point of deciding to press the big red self-destruct button, will bring about this end-time scenario of destruction. Jesus Christ warned in His earthly ministry: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)

    Man will come to the brink of destroying all life, but Jesus will return and stop humanity from blotting all life off the planet. He will then take control of the entire earth. The pretrained saints of God will assist Him to help bring about world peace. Jesus Christ, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, will begin to show those remaining alive after the great tribulation God’s ways and laws. (Revelation 11:15-18; 19:16)

What should God’s people be doing now?

    It is imperative for all those who are called to be throwing off Satan’s nature and ways and putting on Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

    Paul also wrote the church at Ephesus and admonished: “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

    Finally, the Apostle Peter wrote the early church saying, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1:10-11)

    Although mankind is heading toward destruction, we can we confident in our Lord Jesus Christ. God will see us through to inherit eternal life in the kingdom of God.

    This is my Perspective!