Insight on the News
Threat of “Apocalypse”
According to the nuclear-winter theory, if bombs equivalent to 5,000 million tons of TNT were detonated in a nuclear war, the resulting smoke and soot—particularly from large cities—would plunge the northern hemisphere into months of darkness and freezing, life-threatening weather. “If the analysis is correct,” states Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon in the magazine Science, “then no nation can make a major nuclear attack even against an unarmed opponent without committing suicide.”
Many experts feel that if this theory is verified, it will be a great incentive for nuclear disarmament. “Recognition of the nuclear-winter problem, awful as it is, seems a piece of immense good fortune at the eleventh hour,” writes Thomas Powers in The Atlantic. But would this end the arms race? Hardly. Powers maintains that the superpowers would be compelled to construct “a whole new generation of weaponry” with “a much larger number of much smaller, extremely accurate weapons that would allow targets in cities to be destroyed without burning down the cities around them.” He concludes that the nuclear-winter problem “does not end the possibility of a big war . . . , but it does push planners in a new direction, away from apocalypse.”
Rather than offering hope, the threat of nuclear winter simply raises new fears. Would the superpowers not be more likely to deploy “suicide-proof” weapons to settle their confrontations? In desperation, might not warring nations still use nuclear weapons at the risk of suicide to avoid defeat? The selfish military strategies that nations employ provide yet another reason for Almighty God to bring about his war of Har–Magedon. This he will do soon, and his Word assures us that “there is no king saved by the abundance of military forces.”—Psalm 33:16; Revelation 16:14, 16.
Armageddon—What Is It?
In a televised debate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan said that no one knows whether Bible prophecies mean “that Armageddon is a thousand years away or day after tomorrow.” But summing up some of Reagan’s statements, Andrew Lang, research director of the Christic Institute, an ecumenical public-policy center, says: “What we have are a series of repetitions that Armageddon may happen in our generation, that Armageddon may happen in the Middle East and that Armageddon may involve Soviet forces.”
The Bible indicates that “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” will be gathered to Armageddon for destruction, though a “great crowd” in God’s favor will survive. (Revelation 7:14, 15; 16:14, 16; 19:19-21) Armageddon (Hebrew, “Har–Magedon,” meaning, “Mountain of Megiddo”) is not an actual site in the Middle East. Nor could the armies of the nations squeeze into the area surrounding Megiddo, an ancient Biblical city. Armageddon is, therefore, a situation, that is, the world’s assembling or lining up in opposition to Jehovah God. This situation will follow the “sign,” which we are presently witnessing. Armageddon will occur in our generation.—Matthew 24:3-15, 21, 34.
Teenage Childbearing
“There is a strong tendency among those of us who are alarmed at the rise in pregnancy and child-bearing among black teen-agers to try to solve the problem by focusing on the pragmatic side of it,” writes black columnist William Raspberry. What does he mean? Teenage girls are told not to have babies “because it interrupts their education, preempts their career prospects and damages their life chances. Their babies are likely to be of low birth weights and subject to learning disabilities.” But, says Raspberry, “what fascinates and dismays me is how seldom the question of morality enters any of these discussions.”
Indeed, teenagers need to be taught that promiscuity, which often results in pregnancy, violates the Bible’s moral laws. (Galatians 5:19-23) They should also be taught principles in God’s Word that deal with marriage and child rearing. The apostle Paul indicates that Christians should cultivate self-control and wait until they are “past the bloom of youth,” when sexual desires first bloom, or become strong, before they get married. (1 Corinthians 7:8, 9, 36) Modern-day studies, which indicate that mature people make the best parents, confirm these moral laws and principles.