Global Holocaust​—Growing Concern About Survival

ON November 20, 1983, a record one hundred million Americans watched a TV dramatization called The Day After. In a graphic​—and at times terrifying—​manner, the film forced its huge audience to ponder the grim aftermath of a nuclear war. Eerie visual images haunt the memories of many viewers: flame-filled mushroom clouds, nuclear missiles hurtling across the afternoon sky, charred bodies, men and women vaporized and reduced to X-ray images, a child blinded by the nuclear fireball, a once pretty teenage girl balding and covered with radiation burns.

No large-scale antinuclear protest movement, though, has arisen as a result of this film. Nor have tensions between the nuclear superpowers thawed. Nevertheless, concern about surviving a nuclear holocaust seems to be growing. People do seem more willing to discuss​—and think about—​this chilling prospect.

Just a few years ago, however, a random group of 50 people in the United States were asked questions such as: “Do you think there might be a nuclear war?” and “What would you do if there was one?” The interviewers met with a surprising reluctance on the part of people even to discuss such matters. Typical was the response of a hairdresser who said: “These are not things for our concern; let the politicians worry about it.” By and large, people dealt with the threat of global holocaust by means of what researchers call “psychic shutdown,” refusing to think about it at all!

As world tensions increase, though, it becomes increasingly harder to perform this feat of emotional gymnastics and simply ignore the threat. Says Jerome Frank, professor emeritus of psychiatry: “The possibility that the world might be destroyed by nuclear arms is literally cutting out the future for many people. There is an alarming increase in suicides among adolescents, many of whom feel that they can’t look forward to contributing to society.”

There is a growing number of people, however, who refuse to sit back and be consumed by feelings of helplessness. Convinced that global disaster is inevitable, they say that there is but one sensible thing to do: Prepare for survival! Thus they have been dubbed survivalists. But who are they? Do they offer an alternative to annihilation?

Survivalists​—Are They Prepared for the End?

“I’M TELLING people to get out of the cities and move to small towns, because civilization all through the world is doomed.” So warned one advocate of a growing movement that both intrigues and frightens: the survivalists! They are, as their name suggests, a people bent on survival of what they feel is an inevitable global catastrophe​—be it nuclear, natural, social or economic. From where disaster will come matters little to them, for they prepare for any eventuality.

Ominously entitled books such as Life After Doomsday provide them with “eye-opening information about shelters, food storage, home medical techniques, survival psychology, and shelter defense.” Periodicals such as Survive keep them up to date with the latest survival paraphernalia: rifles, freeze-dried foodstuffs, combat gear and prefabricated fallout shelters. These, though, are just a sampling of an array of products that have created what U.S.News & World Report some time ago called “A New Growth Industry.” Some survivalist sophisticates have even invested in underground condominiums so as to ride out a ‘nuclear Armageddon’ in comfort.

Make no mistake. The survivalists mean business. True, for many their military maneuvers and target practice seem a macabre fantasy. Life magazine recently reported on the growing popularity of the “National Survival Game.” Here army-fatigues-clad participants tramp through the woods shooting harmless pellet guns at one another​—a rehearsal for post-disaster guerrilla warfare. So far, “the Game has spread to 38 [U.S.] states,” reported Life.

Childish play? Perhaps to some. But others view such maneuvers as serious business. Explains a survivalist: “When things get tough, people will be stealing from us. . . . People will be killing for a loaf of bread.”

Lunatics or Realists?

Many are nevertheless tempted to laugh off survivalists as charter members of the lunatic fringe, but others feel that they are not so irrational after all. The threats of nuclear war and overpopulation with resulting famine, crime, economic collapse, or even the breakdown of the social order, are not the wild imaginings of neurotics. These problems perplex and deeply disturb even the experts. For example, according to The Auckland Star, a research group called Worldwatch recently published a study claiming that “the world is on the verge of an economic crisis caused by the depletion of natural resources.”

Unlike those who practice “psychic shutdown,” the survivalists try to face these fears. Though they come from a variety of social and economic backgrounds, and though their movement is fragmented by different philosophies and approaches, they are united by this powerful common denominator​—FEAR. They feel that the “system” has failed​—that governments, police forces, courts and monetary systems are simply not equal to solving the mounting problems of this decade. They therefore choose to be self-reliant and trust that their own initiative and abilities​—honed to a fine point by advance training—​will save them when the disaster comes.

A Practical Approach?

But are fallout shelters, freeze-dried foods and caches of gold practical approaches to future survival? How effective would they be in the case of an actual nuclear war? An article entitled “Long-Term Biological Consequences of Nuclear War,” appearing in Science, began by saying: “Recent studies of large-scale nuclear war (5000- to 10,000-MT yields) have estimated that there would be 750 million immediate deaths from blast alone; a total of about 1.1 billion deaths from the combined effects of blast, fire, and radiation; and approximately an additional 1.1 billion injuries requiring medical attention. Thus, 30 to 50 percent of the total human population could be immediate casualties of a nuclear war.”

Suppose, though, that a shelter was so fortuitously placed as to escape this immediate annihilation. Newsweek predicted: “Even in the best shelters diseases such as typhoid and cholera could run rampant. Waste disposal would be primitive; medical care would be marginal, and many bodies would decompose long before they could be buried. Most shelters would be dark, cold and cut off from outside communications; an erratic electromagnetic pulse from the blast could destroy radio transmitters. Crowding, panic and uncertainty would heighten the tensions. Latecomers could spread contamination, and acute psychological shock would be contagious in the close quarters.” Yet this grim scenario was of a mere limited nuclear war!

In her book Nuclear Madness, Dr. Helen Caldicott further states: “Those who survived, in shelters or in remote rural areas, would reenter a totally devastated world, lacking the life-support systems on which the human species depends.” The offspring of survivors would inherit a frightening legacy: “Exposure of the reproductive organs to the immense quantities of radiation released in the explosions would result in reproductive sterility in many. An increased incidence of spontaneous abortions and deformed offspring, and a massive increase of both dominant and recessive mutations, would also result.” For how long? For “the rest of time,” claims Dr. Caldicott.

A recent study entitled “Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions” paints an even more pessimistic picture. This report concludes that the massive amounts of dust and smoke even a limited nuclear war would generate “could have a major impact on climate​—manifested by significant surface darkening over many weeks, subfreezing land temperatures persisting for up to several months, large perturbations in global circulation patterns, and dramatic changes in local weather and precipitation rates—​a harsh ‘nuclear winter’ in any season.” In a companion study, a team of scientists reached this chilling conclusion: ‘The extinction of a large fraction of the earth’s animals, plants and microorganisms seems possible, and extinction of the human species itself cannot be excluded.’

No wonder that novelist Nevil Shute imagined that, following a nuclear war, “the living would envy the dead.”

“Us or Them”

The chances of survival-training paying off thus appear dim. But even granting the possibility that the scientists’ predictions are overblown, survivalism still has a fatal weakness: While nuclear war would probably end governments and armies as we now know them, it would not erase the basic cause of war. Realistically, the Bible says: “From what source are there wars and from what source are there fights among you? Are they not from this source, namely, from your cravings for sensual pleasure that carry on a conflict in your members?” (James 4:1) Putting one’s own selfish interests first invariably leads to strife.

Are the ideologies that now bind the survivalists of such an unselfish nature that greed and selfishness would not dominate their thinking when faced with the scarcities that a global catastrophe would generate? The Christian Century recently quoted Jerry Younkins, spokesman of a group of “Christian” survivalists, as saying, “We are Christians first, survivalists second.” By this he meant that when disaster does strike, they will (at least at first) try to practice Christian principles. “We will share what we have to the best of our ability,” he continued. But what about when supplies begin to run short? “We’ll kill them,” Mr. Younkins said. “It’s real simple: It’s us or them in that situation.”

In such a climate of terror, hidden stores of food or gold might spell a survivalist’s death sentence.

Ancient Survivalists

Survivalism is really nothing new. In fact, the survivalists are reminiscent of a group that existed in the first century of our Common Era: the Jewish Zealots. As the seventh decade drew to a close, hostility between the Jews and their oppressive Roman rulers was reaching its flash point. Religious fanaticism, natural catastrophes such as earthquakes and food shortages all fueled fears that the end of the existing system of things had come. (Matthew 24:6-8) Like the survivalists of today, some tried to fortify themselves for the future. When Roman armies under the command of General Cestius Gallus moved against Jerusalem, some Jewish Zealots managed to capture the city of Masada. In their 1,300-foot-high (400 m) rock fortress, the Zealots had a battery of weapons and an ample supply of food and water. Survival seemed secure.

Roman General Titus, however, destroyed Jerusalem in 70 C.E., leaving Masada as the focal point of Roman attack. For seven long months the Zealots held out. But Roman engineers succeeded in constructing a huge ramp that granted their soldiers access to the fortress. Knowing that capture meant a miserable existence as slaves, the 960 men, women, and children of Masada committed mass suicide. Their efforts to survive by taking refuge in a heavily armed mountaintop fortress proved to be futile.

The Only Way of Survival

“WHEN you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then know that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains.” (Luke 21:20, 21) Thus Jesus Christ instructed his disciples. And what of those who disobeyed Christ’s words? He predicted: “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations.”​—Luke 21:24.

The Zealots would have been repelled by Jesus’ words. According to Abram L. Sachar’s book A History of the Jews, the Zealots “were extremists who shrank from nothing to bring down their heathen masters.” The thought of fleeing would have seemed not only impractical but, worse yet, cowardly! So in 66 C.E., Roman cruelty incited these Jews to open rebellion. After Masada was captured by Jewish rebels, Rome rushed to secure Jerusalem. Jerusalem was now “surrounded by encamped armies.” But when the Roman proconsul Cestius Gallus unexpectedly withdrew his troops, the opportunity opened for residents of Jerusalem to follow Jesus’ advice and flee. Says third-century historian Eusebius: “The whole body, however, of the church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation . . . removed from the city, and dwelt at a certain town beyond the Jordan, called Pella.” But what of those who remained?

Came 70 C.E., and the Romans returned under the leadership of General Titus. Bent on conquest, they blockaded the city. Flavius Josephus, a former Jewish rebel who now served the Romans, circled the walls of Jerusalem, begging his people to give up their futile fight. “Realize,” he cried, “that you are fighting not only the Romans but God as well.” The result? In his own words: “Yet, though Josephus with tears thus loudly appealed to them, the insurgents neither yielded nor deemed it safe to alter their course.” As a result, hundreds of thousands died by starvation and the sword, and tens of thousands more were hauled off for a wretched life of slavery! Safe at Pella, however, Christians could contemplate the blessing of obeying Christ’s warning.

Survival Today

What occurred in Jerusalem was merely a small-scale example of what will take place in our time on a global scale. But what is at stake this time is the existence of not just a city but the worldwide system of things!​—Matthew 24:21.

It is God himself who will bring about this global calamity. But for what reason? So as to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) God, “the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, . . . did not create it simply for nothing,” and he will not allow man to bring it to ruin either by pollution or by nuclear destruction. (Isaiah 45:18) But it will take His intervention to prevent the man-made cataclysm that survivalists fear. Nevertheless, Jesus said that it is possible to “succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur.”​—Luke 21:36.

Since Jesus’ followers today are spread out all over the earth, it would be impossible for them to flee to some physical location, as did Christians in the first century. Today, survival will depend upon obeying the Bible’s advice at Zephaniah 2:2, 3: “Before there comes upon you people the burning anger of Jehovah, before there comes upon you the day of Jehovah’s anger, seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” And the Bible further states: “Everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will get away safe.”​—Joel 2:32.

True, some Bible translations obscure the meaning of this text by rendering it: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered.” (Authorized Version) But the original-language text shows that more than an appeal to a nameless “LORD” is required. In many Bibles, texts such as Psalm 83:18 plainly show that the personal name of that “LORD” is JEHOVAH. (AV; American Standard Version) Calling upon his name means more than using it in a ceremonial way. One must “seek” Jehovah by studying the Bible and getting to know him as a person. (John 17:3) This knowledge moves a right-hearted person to respect Jehovah’s authority as Universal Sovereign, to conform to his standards and to imitate Jesus in ‘making God’s name manifest’ to others.​—John 17:6.

Simply going to the church of one’s choice is therefore not the route of survival. How could it be, since the churches not only fail to use God’s personal name but often even discourage the use of it and treat lightly God’s commandments? Remember, the prophet Malachi says that God has “a book of remembrance” for “those in fear of Jehovah and for those thinking upon his name.” (Malachi 3:16) Among all the religious groups that claim to be Christian, which one freely uses God’s name, Jehovah, puts full trust in him and his promises and boldly encourages its members to be witnesses of him? (Isaiah 43:10) Without a doubt, these are the ones ‘seeking Jehovah.’ They urge others to join with them in learning the only sure way to survive the coming global holocaust.