EB: 11 The Effects of America’s Destruction with Nuclear Weapons

Chapter 11

The Effects of Nuclear Warfare Against America

[Warning: This chapter contains graphic descriptions and pictures of the effects of nuclear weapons.]

Contents

A) A description of the effects of nuclear war

B) Video portrayals of the effects of nuclear war

C) The effects of America being destroyed with nuclear weapons

Primary Points

• It is virtually impossible to effectively put in writing what the nuclear destruction of America would be like.
• Most people in America would die from radiation poisoning causing vomiting, diarrhea, severe headaches, and seizures, followed by coma and death within twenty-four hours.
• Epidemics of diseases now controlled by immunization and good hygiene would reappear.
• Anyone who would make it to a fallout shelter and is not suffocated in it, would need to stay there for at least six months until the radiation decays sufficiently so outside survival is possible.
• If you survive the initial radiation, what kind of world will you live in? As Jesus predicted, there will be devastating famines and plagues in many lands (Luke 21:11 NLT; cf. Rev 6:3-8).
• If you want to understand the Endtimes world, it will perhaps be a world where the economic, military, political, and Christian power of America has been destroyed in a surprise nuclear attack. It would be the apocalyptic Remaining World that exists after the nuclear destruction of America.
• The effect of America being destroyed with nuclear weapons would fulfill what is predicted in the first four Seal Preparations in Revelation 6.
• Not a single person will survive in Endtime Babylon. If you try to remain and live there you will die at best an instant death, but more likely a painful and slow death.
• It is regularly claimed that nuclear war will result in the complete annihilation of all life on Earth. But this is not what Scripture predicts. The Bible says the nuclear destruction of Endtime Babylon and the resulting deaths in the Remaining World will affect only one fourth of the Earth (Rev 6:8).
• The nuclear destruction of America would accomplish what both God and Satan desire: destroying the world’s dependence on, and worship of, the idol of Money and the anti-God World, especially represented and empowered by America.

A) A description of the effects of nuclear war

We read again of Endtime Babylon’s destruction in the following prophecy:

The ten horns that you saw, and the beast will hate the Prostitute, and these will permanently remove all people from her and strip her naked and they will devour her body and will burn her down with fire. (Rev 17:16).

It is virtually impossible to effectively put in writing what the nuclear destruction of America would be like. One of the best in print is from the respected anti-nuclear war activist Dr. Helen Caldicott. The Smithsonian Institution has named Caldicott one of the most influential women of the 20th century. She wrote in her book, The New Nuclear Danger:

Landing at 20 times the speed of sound, nuclear weapons explode over cities, with heat equal to that inside the center of the sun. There is practically no warning, except the emergency broadcast system on radio or TV, which gives the public only minutes to reach the nearest fallout shelter, assuming there is one. [Not even this will happen if cyber warfare or EMP attacks have shut down electricity]. There is no time to collect children or immediate family members.

The bomb, or bombs—because most major cities will be hit with more than one explosion—will gouge out craters 200 feet deep and 1000 feet in diameter if they explode at ground level. Most, however, are programmed to produce an air burst, which increases the diameter of destruction, but creates a shallower crater.

Half a mile from the epicenter all buildings will be destroyed. At 1.7 miles only reinforced concrete buildings will remain. At 2.7 miles bare skeletons of buildings still stand, single-family residences will disappear. 50 percent of the people within a 3-mile radius will be dead and 40 percent severely injured.

Bricks and mortar will be converted to missiles traveling at hundreds of miles an hour. Bodies will be sucked out of buildings and converted to missiles themselves, flying through the air at 100 miles per hour. Severe overpressures will burst windows, producing millions of shards of flying glass, causing decapitations, and shocking lacerations. Overpressures will also enter the nose, mouth, and ears, inducing a rupture of lungs and eardrums.

Most people will suffer severe burns. In Hiroshima, which was devastated by a very small bomb—15 kilotons compared to the current 1000 kilotons—a child actually disappeared, vaporized, leaving his shadow on the concrete pavement behind him. A mother was running, holding her baby, and both she and the baby were converted to a charcoal statue.

The heat will be so intense that dry objects—furniture, clothes, and dry wood—will spontaneously ignite. Humans will become walking, flaming torches.

Forty or fifty miles from the explosion people will instantly be blinded from retinal burns if they glance at the flash. Huge firestorms will engulf thousands of square miles, fanned by winds from the explosion that will exceed 1000 miles per hour.

People in fallout shelters will be asphyxiated as fire sucks oxygen from the shelters. (This happened in Hamburg after the Allied bombing in WWII when temperatures within the shelters, caused by conventional bombs, reached over 1400 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Most of the city and its people will be converted to radioactive dust shot up in the mushroom cloud. The area of lethal fallout from this cloud will depend upon the prevailing wind and weather conditions; it could cover thousands of square miles.

Doses of 5000 rads (a rad is a measure of radiation dose) or more, experienced by people close to the explosion—if they are still alive—will produce acute encephalopathic syndrome. The cells of the brain will become so damaged that they will swell. Because the brain is enclosed in a fixed bony space, there is no room for swelling, so the pressure inside the skull rises, inducing symptoms of excitability, acute nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe headache, and seizures, followed by coma and death within twenty-four hours.

A lower dose of 1000 rads causes death from gastrointestinal symptoms. The lining cells of the stomach die, as do the cells in the bone marrow that fight infection and that cause blood clotting. Mouth ulcers, loss of appetite, severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea will occur within seven to fourteen days. Death will follow severe fluid loss, infection, hemorrhage, and starvation.

At 450 rads, 50 percent of the population dies. Hair drops out, vomiting and bloody diarrhea occurs, accompanied by bleeding under the skin and from the gums. Death occurs from internal hemorrhage, generalized septicemia, and infection.

Severe trauma and injuries exacerbate the fallout symptoms, so patients die more readily from lower doses of radiation. Infants, children, and old people are more sensitive to radiation than healthy adults. Within bombed areas, fatalities will occur from a combination of trauma, burns, radiation sickness, and starvation. There will be virtually no medical care, even for the relief of pain, because physicians within targeted areas will be dead.

Millions of decaying bodies—human and animal alike—will rot, infected with viruses and bacteria that will mutate in the radioactive environment to become more lethal. Trillions of insects, naturally resistant to radiation—flies, fleas, cockroaches, and lice—will transmit disease from the dead to the living, to people whose immune mechanisms have been severely compromised by the high levels of background radiation.

Rodents will multiply by the millions among the corpses and shattered sewerage systems. Epidemics of diseases now controlled by immunization and good hygiene will reappear such as measles, polio, typhoid, cholera, whooping cough, diphtheria, smallpox, plague, tuberculosis, meningitis, malaria, and hepatitis.

Anyone who makes it to a fallout shelter and is not asphyxiated in it, will need to stay there for at least six months until the radiation decays sufficiently so outside survival is possible. It has been postulated that perhaps older people should be sent outside to scavenge for food because they will not live long enough to develop malignancies from the fallout (cancer and leukemia have long incubation periods ranging from five to sixty years). But any food that manages to grow will be toxic because plants concentrate radioactive elements. ^[1]

The punishment that God plans for Endtime Babylon is horrific. Second only to flooding the entire Earth and killing all but 8 people in Noah’s day. The use of nuclear weapons will accomplish God’s purpose for Endtime Babylon to permanently remove all people from her and strip her naked and … burn her down with fire (Rev 17:16).

Many who are confronted with this information may assume they and their loved ones will simply be instantly and painlessly vaporized by such weapons. But the prophecy in Revelation 17-18 predicts otherwise. In chapter 9 it was noted that Endtime Babylon’s (America’s) punishment is described as torture. We read:

When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment [basanismou], they will stand far away (Rev 18:9-10 NIV)

It was explained there that the Greek word used here means “torture” and is used to describe Hell. It was also stated there:

What will that torture look like? The blast radius of even powerful nuclear warheads is only a few miles. Within that radius people will be instantly evaporated. That could not be described as torture. It would seem the reason that the killing of all people in Endtime Babylon (America) is called torture is because the vast majority of them will die a rather slow and painful death from radiation poisoning (sec. A).

As Dr. Caldicot noted above regarding a nuclear blast: “50 percent of the people within a 3-mile radius will be dead and 40 percent severely injured.” Therefore, if you are not in the immediate vicinity of where a nuclear warhead explodes, which would be the case for the vast majority of people, you will suffer a slow and painful death from the lasting effects of the nuclear blasts.

As noted above, this will include severe burns. In addition, poisonous radiation will be carried by winds over several hundred miles resulting in one of the worst ways to die. Low radiation poisoning causes your immune system to break down and make you more susceptible to disease. Repeated vomiting and diarrhea will cause severe dehydration. But because the water supplies will be contaminated, finding safe water may be difficult. More significant radiation poisoning will cause internal bleeding and your skin to peel off. All of this resulting in a painful death over a period of days to weeks.

Accordingly, we read the following prophecy that seems to apply to God’s future punishment of Endtime Babylon: “Yes,” says the LORD, “but the time is coming when I will destroy Babylon’s idols. The groans of her wounded people will be heard throughout the land (Jer 51:52 NLT)

If you survive the initial radiation, what will Endtime Babylon (America) be like? As Jesus predicted, there will be devastating famines and plagues in many lands (Luke 21:11 NLT; cf. Rev 6:3-8). The resulting smoke in the atmosphere is expected to drop the temperature by 20 degrees. The electromagnetic pulse of nuclear weapons may wipe out electrical grids and equipment including computers and all kinds of devices that run our lives. People may literally live in the dark. People will be in a panic. No one will be working or in school, but just trying to survive.

Again, a nuclear holocaust defies human description. An attack with nuclear weapons has only occurred in two cities in human history. Hiroshima and Nagasaki over 75 years ago. Below are offered some pictures from the time. But remember, just one Russian nuclear warhead is 50 times more powerful than the bomb dropped in Hiroshima.

Hopefully, the reader is beginning to understand why God commanded regarding the impending destruction of Endtime Babylon:

“Move out from Babylon the Great My people; so that you will not be connected to her sins and so that you will not experience her being struck hard with a sudden and severe disaster. This is because her sins are piled up to Heaven and God has focused His attention on her wrongs” (Rev 18:4-5)

B) Video portrayals of the effects of nuclear war

The following are video representations of the effects of nuclear war on our world. Initial research has found surprisingly few informative examples. Most of the following are relatively short.

“Live or die: what would you choose in a nuclear attack?”

https://youtu.be/Yr5yh1O5mnA

“Can we help nuclear attack victims?”

https://youtu.be/GkTAAjfvEXA

“If a nuclear bomb dropped on your city, this is the reality you would face”

https://youtu.be/kZzHBzIy6Rk

Simulation of a Nuclear Blast in a Major City

https://youtu.be/Z3RzNEzJyzo

History Channel: “Doomsday: 10 Ways the World Will End: Nuclear War THREATENS Earth (11 min.)

https://youtu.be/brK__dfY7pM

“The Terrifying True Scale of Nuclear Weapons”

https://youtu.be/fs1CIrwg5zU

“Animation shows the deadly evolution of nuclear weapons”

https://youtu.be/xLRSmzGRLUk

C) The effects of America being destroyed with nuclear weapons

C.1) The effect in America

Not a single person will survive in Endtime Babylon. If you try to remain and live there you will die at best an instant death, but more likely a painful and slow death.

It should be noted that a nuclear attack of such intensity on America will certainly effect at least southern Canada and northern Mexico.

This complete extermination of all human life in Endtime Babylon will not only occur because of the expected results of nuclear weapons. It will also occur because God promised to kill every single person in Endtime Babylon. When God is done punishing its land and people, He will permanently remove all people from her and strip her naked … and will burn her down with fire (Rev 17:16). This is why the Angel proclaims over Endtime Babylon:

The sound of harps, singers, flutes, and trumpets will never be heard in you again. No craftsmen and no trades will ever be found in you again. The sound of the mill will never be heard in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The happy voices of brides and grooms will never be heard in you again. (Rev 18:22-23 NLT)

Likewise, we read in Jeremiah of Endtime Babylon: Because of the LORD’s anger she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate… It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation (50:13, 39-40 NIV; cf. Isa 13:19-20). Again, desolate means: “devoid of inhabitants” (Webster’s). Likewise, another unfulfilled prediction of Endtime Babylon’s destruction describes the same:

“I am your enemy,” says the LORD. “I will raise my fist against you, to knock you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble. You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out,” says the LORD. (Jer 51:25 NLT)

It would be foolish to think anyone could survive such divine punishment. God will not protect and preserve even His own people living in Endtime Babylon from this punishment and destruction. Which is precisely why He commands His people:

“Move out from Babylon the Great My people; so that you will not be connected to her sins and so that you will not experience her being struck hard with a sudden and severe disaster. This is because her sins are piled up to Heaven and God has focused His attention on her wrongs” (Rev 18:4-5)

C.2) The effect in the world

If you want to understand the Endtimes world, it will be a world where the economic, military, political, and Christian power of Endtime Babylon (America) has been completely destroyed in a surprise nuclear attack. It would be the apocalyptic Remaining World that exists after the nuclear destruction of America.

If America is completely destroyed in a nuclear attack, the effects on the rest of the world will be unimaginable. It will simply erase the most powerful nation on the planet from the Earth. Of course, this would cause the necessary political, economic, and military vacuum that the Antichrist is predicted to fill. The nuclear destruction of America would accomplish what both God and Satan desire: destroying the world’s dependence on, and worship of, the idol of Money and the anti-God World, especially represented and empowered by America.

The effect of America being destroyed with nuclear weapons will fulfill what is predicted to occur in the Seals of Preparation in Revelation 6.

[Pause your reading and read Revelation 6:3-8]

When the second seal is opened, the rider on a fiery red horse will be given power to take peace from the earth and to make people violently slaughter each other in a catastrophic war symbolized by a large sword (Rev 6:3-4). It has been argued that this is when Revelation 17:16 will be fulfilled and the Antichrist and Coalition will destroy Endtime Babylon in one hour (18:10).

Destroying the financial wealth of America will result in the third seal being opened, unleashing worldwide and severe economic hardship such that two pounds of wheat will cost a day’s wages (vs. 5-6). Such scarcity would result because, “The United States exports more food than any other country in the world.” ^[2] Therefore, the destruction of America in the 2nd Seal of war would lead to the economic scarcity the 3rd Seal of Preparation is predicting.

While death from starvation may not be happening during the 3^rd Seal, it will be with when the fourth seal is opened. At that point, Death will be given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth (vs. 7-8). As argued elsewhere, this one fourth of the earth is referring to a part of its geographical area, not population (cf. BBP ch. 18, sec. E). Therefore, while the severe economic hardship described in the 3rd Seal will probably affect the entire world, it seems the deaths described in the 4th Seal will only affect a fourth of the earth. However, it seems that virtually all of the people living in this one fourth of the earth will die during the 4th Seal.

Of course, this will include all of the people living in Endtime Babylon (America). As explained above, those not perishing in the initial blast will die of radiation, disease, and famine over a period of time, just as reflected in the 2nd through 4th Seals of Preparation in Revelation 6. It was also argued elsewhere that the food shortages, and resulting plagues will especially effect the African continent because of its great dependence on importing food from the rest of the world (cf. BBP ch. 18, sec. E). America and Africa make up one fourth of the geographical area of the earth. Therefore, it is possible that the Remaining World will primarily consist of people living outside of America and Africa.

Therefore, we can correct a common assumption about the results of nuclear war in our world. It is regularly claimed that nuclear war will result in the complete annihilation of all life on Earth. But this is not what Scripture predicts. The Bible says the nuclear destruction of Endtime Babylon (America) and the resulting deaths in the Remaining World will affect only a fourth of the earth (Rev 6:8). As noted previously, biblical prophecy even indicates that massive flooding will extinguish the fires in Endtime Babylon (America) to avoid a “nuclear winter” (cf. EB ch. 9, sec. D).

Of course, the nuclear destruction of America and the resulting deaths in a fourth of the earth will be an unprecedented and unimaginable disaster for the world. However, it is not nuclear warfare that ultimately destroys this world. God will directly punish and destroy the entire Earth after the opening of the 7th Seal and Christ’s Endtime Wrath begins in the Trumpet and Bowl Punishments during the Day of the Lord (cf. Rev 6:12-17; 8:1-9:21; 15:1-16:21). This will occur after Antichrist has had his opportunity to reign over the Remaining World and complete The Greatest Persecution of the Church.

It is interesting to note what happened when Rome fell, a partial fulfillment of the destruction of Endtime Babylon in the early fifth century:

In A. D. 410, the Vandals, under the command of their king, Alaric, captured the city of Rome. Rome was known as the Eternal City because the Romans thought that it would literally never fall, and the year 410 shook this belief to its foundations and ultimately led to the collapse of the Roman Empire.

The world itself seemed to have been destroyed, and everyone sought answers about what to do and what to believe in. Those who adhered to the waning pagan faith were quick to blame the Christians, claiming that the gods had abandoned Rome because many Romans had forsaken them and taken the new faith. These Romans claimed that Christians were not patriotic enough because they asked people to serve God rather than the state, and they advocated forgiveness toward enemies. More important, they said the Christian God had failed to protect Rome, as he should have done, since Constantine had declared him to be the one true God. ^[3]

The Remaining World will experience something similar when the following biblical prophecy is fulfilled:

The ten horns that you saw, and the beast will hate the Prostitute, and these will permanently remove all people from her and strip her naked and they will devour her body and will burn her down with fire.

This will happen because God has put a desire in the hearts of the ten kings to accomplish His purpose. They will agree to give the beast their power until God’s prophecies for the Prostitute are fulfilled. (Rev 17:16-17)

1. Helen Caldicott, The New Nuclear Danger (New Press, 2004, Kindle ed.), 7-11. ↑

2. For data on food exports and imports see online at: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-american-food-giant-the-largest-exporter-of-food-in-the-world.html. ↑

3. http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/augustine/section2.rhtml. ↑