A Scriptural Answer to the Question Whether Man Will Be Bombed Off the Earth
By LOU IS S. BAUMAN, D.D.
D R. HARRY EMERSON FOS- DICK has published a tract en titled: “ One World — or, None!” The concluding statements in this tract are: “ I f Mr. Willkie were writ ing his book today, he would undoubt edly give it the title: ‘One World or None!’ ” Then comes Mr. Fosdick’s closing comment: “ And, since August 6, 1945, that word ‘none’ rings with an ominous sound!” That day, August 6th, 1945, was the day on which the first atom bomb was ever dropped on a city— the city o f Hiroshima, Japan. In ,the wake o f that bomb, out o f the city’s population o f 343,969 men, women, and little children, 78,150 lay burned and mangled corpses, 37,425 were wounded and disfigured, while 13,983 were classed as missing. That means that at least one out o f every four of the city’s inhabitants was dead; and that three out o f every seven were either dead, or wounded, or missing. And then, without giving the Jap anese nation time to think, consider, or to recover a bit from the horror of it, just three days later, on August 9th, another atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a city o f 252,630, leav ing 23,753 dead, 40,464 wounded or insane, while 1,927 were classed as missing. Thus more than one out of every four human beings in that great city lay wounded or in the still ness o f death, or was missing. The brain reels when one tries to imagine the scene: the awful sham bles left from that holocaust, with only a few half-crazed doctors, with out instruments or remedies trying to minister to the bleeding and the dying. The living could scarcely bury the dead! Let an unregenerate world that used to scoff at the possibility o f a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy o f a day when “ the earth also shall dis close her blood, and shall no more cover her slain” (Isa. 2 6 :1 9 ); or used to discredit our Lord’s own prophecy J U N E , 1 95 0
bombard other atoms, so that dis integration o f matter might proceed indefinitely,” and bring about the disintegration o f the earth itself. Since he said that, science has pre sented to mankind the prospect of being bombarded with the new and immensely more powerful hydrogen bomb, beside which the atom bomb is but a baby! ■ Dr. Irving Langmuir, Nobel Prize physical chemist, points out that an atomic war might make the whole earth uninhabitable because o f the tremendous amounts o f radioactivity that would be released in the atmos phere and distributed by the winds. Dr. Albert Einstein, physicist and Nobel Prize winner, whose work in directly contributed to the release o f atomic energy, concedes that two- thirds of the people o f the earth might be destroyed by atomic bombs, but hopes that enough people would be left to start civilization over again! He made no comment as to the futility of starting a “ civilization over again” that would contain within itself the power o f self-destruction even as it starts! As for the hydro gen bomb, well, according to this famous scientist, if once that bomb in its full power is dropped on this earth, there will not be enough people left alive to re-seed it. At that point would come the end o f all flesh! In the light o f Dr. Einstein’s words, it is not hard to understand why, if for no other reason, our Lord declared that no man will be per mitted to enter the kingdom o f God unless he is born again, and from above (John 3 :3 ). Men in the next world will surely possess greater knowledge and power than they possess in this world. In possession of this greater power, unless they are given new hearts filled with love for man, and love for God and His righteousness, they would soon bomb out heaven itself! It is not to be forgotten that the angels once sinned! (2 Pet. 2 :4 ). Page Seven
jDr. Louis S. Bauman Pastor of First Brethren Church, Washington, D. C. of a time when “ There shall be great tribulation” . . . so great that “ except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matt. 24: 21, 22). Let a skeptical world look upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki and think again! View those scenes and you will grasp the import o f Dr. Fos dick’s words: “ One world, or — none! And, since August 6, 19J/.5, that word ‘none’ rings with an ominous sound!” Dark indeed are |the prognostica tions of our generation of statesmen, scientists, modernists, and men of war. The super-optimists o f a few years ago have become the super pessimists of today. Listen to them talk: Dr. Roy Marshall, Director of the F e l l s Planetarium, Philadelphia, actually envisions the possibility that “ atoms released by a bomb might
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