Remember the 1950s and 1960s frenzy about nuclear weapons? We had 'duck and cover' drills at school. There was a 'Fallout Shelter" triangle poster on every school and sturdy building. Civil defense authorities and notifications were common in pamphlet, television and radio. Movies and films reflected the common dread that one day, a nuke would fall and WWIII would begin.
Then in the 80s everything changed when Reagan came in and confronted the worst evils of communism through harsh rhetoric and backed it with military buildup. The Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s. And that was the end of hearing about nuclear weapons for two decades.
The triangle fallout shelter placards faded. The pamphlets from Civil Defense organizations drifted away like leaves. First responders were into training and preparation of 'sexier' catastrophes like Ebola and pandemics and exotic chemical weapons.
When I was an editor and reporter of a weekly newspaper in Maine a few years ago, I interviewed the manager of the last Maine nuke bunker and wrote a story about it. The bunker seemed like an anachronism, cute even. Buried in the side of a hill in Windham, it housed, and may still house, the Cumberland County emergency operations center. The concrete underground center was built in 1960 during the the Cold War.
"The Cold War is over and fears it engendered about nuclear war have diminished. But the state still maintains an underground shelter in Cumberland County - just in case. Maine Emergency Management Agency Director Art Cleaves said the bunker near the state prison compound in Windham is covered by 12 feet of dirt and is well-maintained with an active communications center that would be used by state authorities in the event of a major calamity. Cumberland County's Emergency Management Agency and dispatch center work from that site daily. The site "is a holdover from the 50s," said Cleaves, noting that modern emergency planning is geared more toward terrorism than a nuclear attack."
Well, everything old is new again. Or should I say, everything old is nuke again. Nuclear weapons and nuke attacks and mystery radiation are in the news and on the consciousness of citizens coast to American coast.
Mystery radiation has been drifting over many European countries like unwanted acid rain. They are calling it “radioactive dust”. No one knows where it is coming from and Fukushima Nuclear Plant is not the source. IAEA official: “﻿We are a little concerned”. IAEA press release on the situation is here.
"Very low levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected throughout Europe, but the particles are not believed to pose a public health risk, the U.N.nuclear agency said on Friday. NASA have released images of 2,400 stars, known as the Tarantula Nebula, that are producing intense radiation and powerful winds, believed to be the cause for the detection in the atmosphere."
Huh? Unknown radiation continuing to be released in Europe?? And it is from the Tarantula Nebula??? Erm, OK.
What really happens when a nuclear bomb hits?
"IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Officials with the Idaho National Laboratory say at least 17 workers were exposed to low-level radiation from plutonium.The employees were working inside the facility's decommissioned Zero Power Physics Reactor Tuesday afternoon when a container holding plutonium was opened, exposing them to radiation."
In 1979, Iran declared war on the US and on Israel. They have been single-mindedly aiming toward completion of their goal ever since. Their goal? Wipe out the Great Satan (US) and the little satan (Israel). Iran gathered enough money and trained enough scientists so that they have been for at least ten years in actuality edging ever closer to making a nuclear bomb so they could accomplish the promised obliteration. The reality of Iran's goal didn't ever seem to penetrate US consciousness and we did not consider them a threat. Israel always did, but we did not listen. Things got serious a couple of years ago, (late 2008-2009) when Iran seemed to have made some astounding breakthroughs toward their goal of developing a bomb. This snippet from 2009 explains one of the breakthroughs:, which was to make a trigger for the bomb.
At that time, Israel wanted to make a foray into Iran to strike their nuclear facilities. To do this, Israel has to fly over Jordan and then the width of Iraq before even getting to the border of Iran. When Israel said they wanted to strike, the US was against the strike, preferring to exhaust diplomatic and economic options first. Israel was insistent. Then-former US security adviser to President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski said that the US should use their stationed troops in Iraq to militarily prevent Israel from flying over. In fact, the Bush Administration toward the end of President Bush's second term in 2008 actually refused the Israelis permission to fly over Iraq.
Senior Foreign Office figure: ‘We’re expecting something as early as Christmas, or very early in the new year.
"Israel will launch military action to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon as soon as Christmas, intelligence chiefs have warned. ... Sources say the understanding at the top of the British Government is that Israel will attempt to strike against the nuclear sites ‘sooner rather than later’ – with logistical support from the U.S. ... In recent weeks, Ministry of Defence sources confirmed that contingency plans have been drawn up in the event that the UK decided to support military action."
Why is Israel so hot to take care of business? This week an IAEA report unequivocally remarked that Iran is this close to a bomb.
"Israel has refused to reassure President Barack Obama that it would warn him in advance of any pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear capabilities, raising fears that it may be planning a go-it-alone attack as early as next summer."
Now there are two ways to react to the fact that the end of days is nearly here. You can search out that bunker in Maine and pound on the door when the bombs fly, hoping there are enough canned goods inside to feed you through the nuclear winter, or you can take refuge in Jesus.
He is the best option. He is peace forever, He is safety forever. Safety from sin and evil. He is forgiving, loving, inviting. He seeks you, even now, asking you to answer the call of eternity in your heart (Ecc 3:11). There is a reason the world is suddenly consumed with nuclear weapons, nuclear fallout, nuclear leakage from unknown sources. It is poison, and poisonous times are here and nearly overtaking the world. Come with us in the rapture. Things will only get worse from here on out, never returning to normal. But things are MORE than normal in heaven, and will be so forever.
In the Left Behind series, it seemed like Nuclear weapons were part of the judgements...Reading that visual info about a nuclear bomb reminds you how apocalyptic it's effects can be.
The Isaiah 17:1 prophecy that Damascus will be completely destroyed (obliterated, actually) overnight bespeaks of nuclear weapons, to me.