Nuclear War Is A Greater Threat Than Ever

small box on the left represents all of WWII Allied bombing

1945: total allied bombs dropped in WW II    1985: world's nuclear weapons equals                                     (3 megatons )                                       6,667 WWII's  (20,000 megatons)

According to the 1985 Center for Defense Information graph above, the world reached a peak of some 20,000 megatons of nuclear weapons thirty years ago, most of them in the possession of the US and the USSR. Thanks to various diplomatic efforts since then, the world now has just over 6,500 megatons, but that still represents over 2000 times the destructive force of all of the bombs detonated in all of World War II. 

This is both utterly unimaginable and absolutely immoral, and represents a flagrant violation of God's first recorded command to our human ancestors, to "tend the earth and care for it".

Early this year the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists advanced its doomsday clock to only 2.5 minutes to midnight, their highest alert since 1953.  According to a January 26, 2017, New York Times piece, two of the group’s officials said, “In 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come to grips with humanity’s most pressing threats: nuclear weapons and climate change,” and went on to say:

“Making matters worse, the [U.S.] now has a president who has promised to impede progress on both of those fronts. . . . Mr. Trump’s statements and actions have been unsettling. He has made ill-considered comments about expanding and even deploying the American nuclear arsenal.”

North Korea's recent aggressive tone, and its development of missiles capable of reaching US targets has of course added to the danger, along with the President's repeated provocative and derogatory statements about its leader, Kim Jong Un. For example, in his address to the United Nations (lauded by evangelist Franklin Graham as "his best speech ever"), President Trump literally threatened to destroy North Korea:

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

Our threatening to call off the Iran nuclear agreement is another of other factors that may inch us closer toward a nuclear Armageddon. Needless to say, there has never been a time when our efforts at urgent prayer and active persuasion have been more needed.