Only 30 minutes away?

On August 6, 2000, syndicated newspaper columnist Charley Reese wrote that we are "living every day of our lives only 30 minutes from the end of civilization."

He says, "It is worth remembering... that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, simple fission devices, were little more than hand grenades compared with the thermonuclear warheads perched atop rockets in the arsenals of a growing number of nations. We remain, despite the end of the so-called Cold War, living every day of our lives only 30 minutes from the end of civilization."

Reese concludes with, "To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, anybody who believes in a just God ought to be getting kind of nervous about right now."

His full article is at http://orlandosentinel.com/automagic/columnists/2000-08-06/OPEDreese06080600.html

To my knowledge, Charley is not a Christian, but he has a keen sense of history and human nature. I don't know where he got the "30 minutes," but it reminded me that when I was in the U.S. Air Force and one of the first launch crew commanders in our Minuteman ICBM nuclear arsenal, our nuclear missile flight time to targets in Russia was about 30 minutes. From the moment of launch to the vaporization of our targets and no doubt "the end of civilization" was about 30 minutes.

Human nature has not changed since Hiroshima. Also, no weapon of war has ever gone unused. Plus, we are living in the days of Bible prophecy fulfillment. Meanwhile, passengers are dancing on the deck of the Titanic, and the music plays on.

It reminds me of the words of the apostle Paul:

"You know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:3-9, NIV).