Chapter 8 - What is happening to our world

These factors are leading to a period which was foretold by Jesus of unprecedented peril and suffering:

“...because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now - and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has shortened them." (Mark 13:19-20)

Yes, there is hope for mankind. God will intervene in world affairs to save humanity from the great corruption and destruction these hazardous innovations are fomenting. He will also protect His own followers while these events are happening.

Here, then, are seven great dangers mankind is facing:

1. The rapid growth of nuclear arms

After a quiet period during the Cold War (1945-1991), now, with a more tolerant and available technological knowledge in a very war-weary world, various countries - some quite unstable - are acquiring or producing nuclear bombs. According to statistics, there are more than fifteen thousand nuclear weapons in the world. This is enough to eradicate and destroy all people from the face of the earth. In fact, scientists calculate that most of mankind and the ecosystem would largely be destroyed by the use of only hundred atomic bombs. in other words, less than two percent of the total.

Not so long ago, Ryan Rastergar, wrote for Global Zero, an organization committed to eliminating nuclear weapons, the following:

“A 2014 report published in the journal Earth’s Future found that even a regional war of 100 nuclear detonations would produce 5 teragrams of black soot (that’s 5,000,000,000 kg!) that would rise up to Earth’s stratosphere and block sunlight. This would produce a sudden drop in global temperatures that could last longer than 25 years and temporarily destroy much of the Earth’s protective ozone layer.

“This could also cause as much as an 80% increase in UV radiation on Earth’s surface and destroy both land and sea-based ecosystems [including the plant and animal life within them] potentially leading to global nuclear famine” (“How Many Nukes Would It Take to Render Earth Uninhabitable?” GlobalZero.org, July 9, 2015).

The rapid growth of nuclear weapons among different countries is becoming more widespread. What was limited to a small group of nations - the United States of America, Russia, China, Great Britain and France - is now also part of countries like Israel, India and Pakistan. Lately, the communist unstable dictatorship of North Korea, also possesses them, and Iran will likely join this fraternity soon. Who knows how many other neighbouring countries, feeling threatened by these new nuclear upstarts, are preparing their own nuclear programs as self-defense? (to be continued)