Explore: The “Gadget”
Trinity was the codename for the first test detonation of an atomic weapon. The Trinity test took place on July 16, 1945, in an unpopulated area of southern New Mexico named Alamogordo. The bomb was awkward in appearance which consisted of wires running over the exterior of its circumference. Of course, this description may not immediately draw you toward the image of today’s modern thermonuclear devices, but this is because the “gadget”, as it was affectionately named, did not include a bomb casing. The wiring was nothing more than the internal components for the device. The goal of the Trinity test was to see if the atomic bomb worked. Designing a bomb delivery system would be accomplished later.
The gadget was hoisted onto a 100-foot tower and placed inside a tin cabin. Scientists were assigned to stay with the gadget through the evening hours and overnight, waiting for the early morning test to begin. An unexpected severe thunderstorm rolled through the area concerning the scientists a single lighting strike could detonate the device and evaporate them instantaneously. Even though calculations did not support this theory, some scientists feared the gadget would ignite the atmosphere and eliminate all life on earth. Thank goodness this did not occur.
Physicists estimated the gadget would result in about a 20-kiloton explosion (equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT), but they were not sure. In the aftermath of the test, it was determined the explosion was around 18-kiloton (18,000 tons of TNT). The blast left a 1,000-foot radioactive crater and the surrounding area was lit up brighter than a sunny day. The shock wave was felt over 100 miles away and the sand below the device was turned into radioactive glass, now known as trinitite or Alamogordo glass. The test was successful, and World War II ended only a month later. This is all good news, right? Not really.
The world was introduced to the atomic age which led to making even more powerful weapons. Within 40 years of the Trinity test the world would be confronted with about 60,000 to 70,000 nuclear devices that could easily destroy the world and possibly all life on the planet. How did we get to this point? What does this single historical event have to do with end time events? Let’s begin by better understanding how a nuclear bomb works before learning about its destructive power and finally its effects on the human body and our planet. A deeper dive into these topics will help us better understand the Bible verses supporting end time events.
As previously mentioned, the purpose of the atomic bomb was to end World War II. So, in less than one month following the Trinity test, the United States military was able to move its latest nuclear weapon, named Little Boy, to the Pacific theater where it was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Hiroshima had a population of about 350,000. The device was detonated at about 2,000 feet above the ground (to maximize devastation to the city). The bomb’s core temperature was several million degrees. Those close to detonation were immediately vaporized without feeling any pain. Some left nothing more than their shadow behind etched on walls or the ground as their bodies were vaporized by the intense light of the explosion. An intense heat wave covered the city followed by a shock wave burning and maiming many. The rivers were filled with corpses with no space between them. Many of the dead were just ash and could not be picked up because they would disintegrate. As you move away from the blast epicenter people were crushed under falling homes and buildings leveled by the shock wave. Others would have the pattern of their clothes burned onto their skin. The radiation burns on some of the living was so intense their skin peeled away from their bodies. The skies became very dark, and clouds formed dumping radioactive rain on the survivors. It was estimated that 70,000 people died in the first hour. More than 140,000 died by the end of 1945. This devastation and loss of life is tremendous considering Little Boy was only a 15-kiloton device (15,000 tons of TNT).
The Japanese government did not agree to an unconditional surrender, so the United States decided to drop a second bomb named Fat Man. Kokura, Japan was the primary drop site on August 9, 1945, but cloud cover forced the pilots to divert to their secondary site, Nagasaki, Japan. It was estimated about 80,000 were killed by the 22-kiloton device (22,000 tons of TNT) in the initial explosion. A third bomb could have been made available, but President Truman made the decision to postpone using the weapon to see if the Japanese would agree to the unconditional surrender terms. They did and World War II ended soon after on the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. But did the bomb give the world peace? The atomic bomb created a new enemy of the free world, the Soviet Union, and laid the foundation for a new type of war. A Cold War!
Joseph Stalin, leader of the U.S.S.R. during World War II, was aware the United State had successfully built and tested an atomic device before the Potsdam Conference kicked off in July of 1945. How did he know? The Manhattan Project was a top-secret U.S./Britain government project responsible for conducting research to produce the first nuclear weapon. Security leaks throughout the life of the Manhattan Project provided Joseph Stalin with inside information about the progress of this project as early as 1941. Foreign spies and U.S./British traitors, who believed the new weapon would never be used if multiple countries had the bomb, shared critical information with the U.S.S.R. which allowed them to compress their timeline for developing and testing their own nuclear device. The Soviet’s tested their first atomic bomb on August 2, 1949. Now three countries (United States, U.S.S.R. and Great Britain) have the atomic bomb. Is the world safer knowing that multiple countries can destroy an entire city with a single bomb?
Fear of the atomic bomb permeated the United States population throughout the 1950’s. The fear was so great, the United States government began a public education campaign on how to survive a nuclear war. One such campaign that was extremely flawed, and nothing more than the government gaslighting its citizens, was known as “duck and cover.” This school drill asked children to hide under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack. Can a desk be expected to protect a child when a 20-kiloton (20,000 tons of TNT) bomb is detonated nearby? Apparently, the American public bought the propaganda because the drill was practiced on a regular basis in schools throughout the nation.
Atomic bomb testing was conducted on a regular basis throughout the 1950’s with the intent of increasing the size of the explosion. The next phase of atomic bomb development was revealed in 1952 when the first hydrogen bomb was detonated on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
The explosive yield of an atomic bomb is usually measured in kilotons (thousands of tons of TNT) while a thermonuclear device is measured in megatons (millions of tons of TNT). In order to achieve higher explosive yields from a thermonuclear device it was necessary to develop a new physical process uniquely different from the first bombs tested at the Trinity test site. The atomic bomb is driven by a reaction known as fission or a splitting of atoms, while the thermonuclear device, or hydrogen bomb, relies on nuclear fusion or a combining of hydrogen atoms. The first hydrogen bomb tested in the Marshall Islands resulted in a 10.5-megaton (10.5 million tons of TNT) explosion. The U.S.S.R. soon followed with their own thermonuclear device on August 12, 1953, which resulted in a 400-kiloton (400 thousand tons of TNT) explosion.
The United States was not about to sit idle, so it detonated another thermonuclear device on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954. The device was supposed to produce a 7-megaton (7 million tons of TNT) explosion, but it turned out to be a 15-megaton (15 million tons of TNT) explosive yield instead. The four-mile-wide fireball and radioactive fallout affected nearby islands and their population for decades. The U.S.S.R. threatened to detonate a 100-megaton (100 million tons of TNT) device but never did. It turns out this threat was nothing more than boasting since no evidence of a 100-megaton device was ever found.
By the time the 1960’s rolled around, bombs were 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima or Nagasaki devices and the U.S. had an estimated 30,000 warheads in their nuclear arsenal. The U.S.S.R. nuclear arsenal did not hit its peak until the mid-eighties with about 40,000 warheads. The nuclear arms race was officially on and has given the superpowers the ability to destroy the world many times over.
Have we come close to launching World War III since 1945. Yes, dozens of false alarms were sounded over the years! Lost nuclear weapons, misplaced devices and close calls kept the world on the edge of nuclear war for decades.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is probably best known. Nikita Khrushchev (U.S.S.R. leader) worked with Fidel Castro (Cuba’s leader) to smuggle nuclear devices into Cuba. Once President Kennedy caught wind, he quickly ordered a U-2 Spy Plane to fly over Cuba to get pictures to verify the accuracy of the lead. Pictures confirmed the Soviets and Cubans were working together setting up launch platforms. President Kennedy was infuriated since Cuba is only 90 miles from the Florida coast. Soviet nuclear missiles could reach Washington D.C. from this position in a matter of minutes. The United States Navy quickly established a naval blockade to prevent any more Soviet ships from entering Cuban waters. This standoff escalated to a DefCon 2 level which put U.S. planes in the air and military forces on full alert. DefCon 1 is nuclear war! The conflict ended with a quid-pro-quo agreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba if Kennedy removed his missiles from Turkey. They did and peace was restored.
In 1983 alarms sounded at a Soviet military nuclear missile facility because the computer system was reporting 5 nuclear warheads from the U.S. were inbound. Thank goodness one Soviet soldier concluded the information does not make sense, before launching his nukes. Why would the U.S. attack the U.S.S.R. with only 5 missiles? If the U.S. was attacking, they would obviously launch more than five. The soldier finally discovered the Soviet early warning system was reporting reflection off clouds that was interpreted as an attack.
In the same year, NATO war games were taking place when the allies changed their nuclear codes amid the games and the Soviets interpreted this move as the U.S. preparing to launch an attack against the U.S.S.R. The Soviets quickly elevated their nuclear alert posture in preparation for a thermonuclear attack. Soviet planes and subs were moved into ready position and Soviet government officials moved into their bunkers. NATO saw what the Soviets were doing and quickly ended the war games.
So, there have been multiple incidents which have led the world just to the edge of nuclear war! And only by the grace of God were we able to avoid the horrors of surviving in a radiated world. But how much longer can humanity maintain its restraint from using such weapons of mass destruction? It is only a matter of time before a nuclear device is launched in anger. Does the Bible provide us with any insight if and how nuclear weapons may be used in future conflicts? It does! The Bible provides details on future battles, troop movement and how nuclear war affects people and the planet, and these events will all unfold exactly as they are prophesied in multiple books of the Bible, including Revelation.
Let’s begin by reviewing scripture in Zechariah which describes how the body can be vaporized by a nuclear detonation. Zechariah wrote about future events and described what he saw in his vision in Chapter 14, Verse 12. “This is the plague (nuclear detonation) with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.” Sounds like a scene from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Zechariah was not talking about a movie, but explicitly described what can happen to a human body in a nuclear explosion. Remember, the bomb’s core temperature can reach several million degrees. Zechariah, a man who lived thousands of years ago, explicitly described how a nuclear detonation could affect a human body.
How will a nuclear war affect the planet? John wrote extensively about nuclear war in the book of Revelation. All the seas die in Revelation 16:3. All fresh water is contaminated in Revelation 16:4. The sun scorching people in Revelation 16:8-9 perfectly describes damage to the ozone layer which is exactly what happens when a large nuclear device is detonated. John, doing the best he can with his first century understanding of modern weapons, describes nuclear exchange at its worst in Revelation 16:18-21. “Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake (nuclear detonations). No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.” “Flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake” perfectly describe a nuclear detonation. According to John “the cities of the nations collapsed”. This is another way of saying cities were destroyed. And “every island fled away and mountains could not be found.” These images speak directly to the events that take place in a nuclear exchange.
Isaiah also writes about his visions of the earth’s demise in Chapter 24, Verse 19-20, “The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.” Isaiah’s description of the results from a global thermonuclear exchange is frightening! Nuclear devastation is so great it will leave the earth to be nothing more than a “drunkard” meandering through the galaxy “like a hut in the wind” so broken it is “never to rise again.” A nuclear wasteland! This scripture is dark, very dark, but it is prophesy and it does so eloquently describe what can happen in a global thermonuclear war.
And these are only a few of the verses that describe the power of nuclear devices and what damage can be done to the world and its inhabitants in the event we are ever confronted with the horrors of a global thermonuclear war. Scripture makes it clear man will one day take us to the brink of an extinction event. Matthew 24:22 confirms this to be the case. “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect (Christians) those days will be shortened.” This is a sad ending for humans. We have so many things to be proud about. Our culture, our love for one another, the way we care for others in time of need. Yes, these are all great qualities about humans. But man has a dark side. A side which is driven by power, greed and control. It is this behavior that could lead the world to destruction, and it all began with the “gadget”.
