The Nuclear Attack on New York City
Another Trigger
There is another trigger to consider, the trigger that is predicted to cause the economy to collapse. A very frightening trigger. The Bible provides an extensive list of clues, all taken from Revelations 18. As this list is perused keep in mind that it is taken from passages of Scripture. Every word is significant, meaningful and true ; if it wasn’t it would not be found in God’s “owners manual.”
v2 Great Babylon has Fallen!
v8 in one day she [the economy] will be struck with plagues — disease, grief, and famine.
v8 She [the city] will be burnt with fire...
v9 the kings of the earth … will weep and cry over the city when they see the smoke from the flames that consume her.
v10 They [world leaders] stand a long way off, because they are afraid of sharing in her suffering.
v10 this great and mighty city Babylon! In just one hour you have been punished!
v14 All the good things you [the merchants of the earth] longed to own have disappeared, and all your wealth and glamour are gone and you will never find them again!
v15 The businessmen, who became rich from doing business in that city, will stand a long way off, they are afraid of sharing in her suffering.
v16 How terrible! How awful for the great city!
v17 In one hour she has lost all this great wealth!
v17 All the ships’ captains and passengers, the sailors and all others who earn their living on the sea stood a long way off …
v18 saw the smoke from the flames that consumed her (Verses 18-23 refer to the city)
v18 There never has been another city like this great city!
v19 How terrible! How awful for the great city!
v19 In one hour she has lost everything!
v21 This is how the great city Babylon will be violently thrown down and will never be seen again.
v22 The music of harps and of human voices, of the players of the flute and trumpet, will never be heard in you again!
v22 No workman in any trade will ever be found in you again
v22 The sound of a millstone will be heard in you no more!
v23 Never again will the light of a lamp be seen in you …
v23 No more will the voices of brides and grooms be heard in you
v23 Your businessmen were the most powerful in all the world, and with your false magic you deceived all the peoples of the world!
The ancient city of Babylon was one of the world’s earliest and most famous cities dating to 2000 BC, having the most advanced systems of commerce in the ancient world. It was the capital of the powerful Babylonian Empire. Under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar Babylon became one of the world’s most magnificent cities. He built the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and is credited with Babylon’s highly developed trade and industry (WBE B10-13, N102).
But what has the ancient city Babylon got to do with the end-time? After all, over the centuries its buildings were gradually abandoned, and were left lying in ruin for some 2000 years.
The answer: It is likened to that of the world’s present financial capital. Just as Babylon was one of the world’s earliest and most famous cities with remarkably well developed trade and commerce in that time, so the world’s present financial capital is also world-famous, having the most advanced systems of trade and commerce in all human history. However, whereas ancient Babylon fell into ruin over the centuries, the “Babylon” in this prophecy will be destroyed in an instant. It will be ‘violently thrown down and will never be seen again.’
And, according to this prophecy, New York City will be the world’s last financial capital!
The Nuclear Attack on New York City
What would cause New York City to suddenly be ‘thrown down’ with great violence, never to be found again, to burn — in one hour? What would make the site no longer inhabitable? What would, in one day, cause the world to suffer torture and grief, death, mourning and famine?
Surely, the answers are obvious.
In his book, The Fate of the Earth, Jonathan Schell describes the effect a nuclear attack would have on New York City. He bases his work on nuclear tests conducted by the government on Bikini Atoll and others, and to some extend on Russian nuclear tests, as well as on studies done on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts.
Mr. Schell says the following about a nuclear attack on New York City:
“If a 20-megaton bomb (a weapon that is more likely to be used against New York) were air-burst over the Empire State Building at an altitude of thirty thousand feet, the zone gutted or flattened by the blast wave would have a radius of 12 miles and an area of more than 450 square miles, reaching from the middle of Staten Island to the northern edge of the Bronx, the eastern edge of Queens, and well into New Jersey, and the zone of heavy damage from the blast wave (the zone hit by a minimum of two pounds of overpressure per square inch) would have a radius of 21 1/2 miles, or an area of 1,450 square miles, reaching to the southernmost tip of Staten Island, north as far as southern Rockland County, east into Nassau County, and west to Morris County, New Jersey. The fireball would be 4 1/2 miles in diameter and would radiate the thermal pulse for some twenty seconds. People caught in the open 23 miles away from ground zero, in Long Island, New Jersey, and southern New York State, would be burned to death. The mushroom cloud would be 70 miles in diameter. New York and its suburbs would be transformed into a flattened desert in a few seconds ... If a 20-megaton bomb were ground-burst on the Empire State Building, the range of severe blast damage would be reduced but the fireball, which would be almost 6 miles in diameter, would cover Manhattan from Wall Street to northern Central Park and also parts of New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Queens, and everyone within it would be instantly killed, with most of them physically disappearing.”
To summarize: The zone gutted or flattened by the blast wave would have a radius of 12 miles, and the zone of heavy damage 21 1/2 miles. People caught in the open 23 miles from ground zero would be burned to death. New York and its suburbs would be transformed into a flattened desert in a few seconds. The mushroom cloud would be 70 miles in diameter. The author writes that if the wind carried the fallout over heavily populated areas, then this one bomb would probably doom upward of twenty million people, or almost ten per cent of the population of the United States (The Fate of the Earth pp. 97-99).
Such a bomb could be detonated in the heart of the city, one of the world’s largest and busiest seaports, from the hold of a ship, from a shipping container carried into the city by rail or delivery truck. It could be air burst by a suicide bomber from an aircraft, or by a nuclear-armed rocket launched from a hostile nation. (Charles Krauthammer remarked regarding Iran’s launch of a homemade Earth satellite, “If you can put a satellite into orbit, you can hit any continent with a missile, North America included.”) A source for such a weapon could be North Korea; and it is virtually certain that Iran is working hard to produce one. Also, since the president of Pakistan does not control his generals — the opposite is true — a rogue general could qualify (reminiscent of A.Q. Kahn, “the notorious proliferator selling nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran.”)
That is the fate that awaits New York City!
That is the reason the ‘kings of the earth,’ the leaders and “captains of industry” worldwide, will ‘cry and weep over the city when they see the smoke of the flames that consume her.’ They will ‘stand a long way off, afraid of sharing in her suffering’ … afraid of the radioactive fallout from the ‘smoke,’ the mushroom cloud.
That is the reason businessmen all over the world will weep and mourn because there is no market for their goods; and why all pensioners, and all investors who own shares and mutual funds will realize to their horror that their pensions and investments are worthless. They will be aghast that ‘in one hour she has lost all her wealth’ — which means they have lost all their's! They, too, will ‘stand a long way off because they are afraid of sharing in her suffering.’
That is the reason why ‘all the ships’ captains and passengers, the sailors, and all who earn their living on the sea, stood a long way off, and cried out as they saw the smoke from the flames that consumed her,’ they were staring aghast at the mushroom cloud that had been the great city.
Pictures of the mushroom cloud will be shown on every television screen in the world.
The nuclear attack on New York City is the domino-effect-trigger that will cause the investment industry to collapse, the banking industry to collapse, and the economy to collapse.
The Major Calamity
Financial markets abhor uncertainty. Just think of your own portfolio and retirement funds. What will be the effect on your judgment when you learn that the New York Stock Exchange, the nation’s major banks, and New York City itself have all disappeared? You will want to sell. But so will many millions of others. Even if your stocks and mutual funds are not listed on an exchange in New York City, but say in Toronto, or London, or Tokyo, what chance is there that your orders will be filled before your portfolio and investments are worthless? Who in his right mind will be a buyer?
And with the collapse of the value of stocks, virtually every major bank will be in default. The reason is that a significant portion of loans extended by these banks are secured by stocks, and when their value is reduced to zero the banks’ security is similarly affected. It will be futile for banks to call a loan in these circumstances. Consequently their liabilities exceed their assets and the banks are in default and must close. This will cause a run on other banks, a run for cash. When most depositors simultaneously seek to withdraw their funds within an hour the banks are out of cash and they too will lock their doors. This will be a global phenomenon affecting not only the major banks; it could close every financial institution in the world. For those in the Western world it is virtually certain.
The immediate effect will be the collapse of the economy. And along with that collapse will come a collapse in the value of all other assets, including small businesses, real estate, etc.
Because the Lord tells us He will give a warning before He acts, the attack on September 11, 2001 obviously is that warning!
It is reported that Osama bin Laden* obtained an edict from a misguided Saudi cleric, justifying the use of nuclear weapons against America and the infliction of mass casualties. Can there be any doubt that terrorists like those who blew up the twin towers will not take on a target with far greater consequences, and with that one incident achieve bin Laden’s much broader objective?
*At his son's wedding in February 2001, Osama bin Laden is reported to have made a speech about jihad hinting at 9/11. It is suggested that that attack was intended to draw the US into a war in the Middle East — expecting Muslims to rally to him and al-Qaeda. That did not happen. The USA destroyed al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and bin Laden escaped to the tribal areas in the mountains of Pakistan. He has warned at least six times since 9/11 that the USA will be attacked again. With his influence in the region and with the power and authority of al-Qaeda only a fool would dismiss his warnings as idle threats.
The Beginning of the Seven years of “Tribulation”
This nuclear attack on New York City will set the end-time clock ticking; it will signal the start of the seven years of ‘tribulation.’ The economic collapse that will follow will force the economic system back to the barter system. Unfortunately that is a system that a modern, secular, materialistic society is ill equipped to deal with. Mr. George Will remarked on ABC’s program This Week a year or so ago, “We have an absurdly low pain threshold in this country,” referring to the threat of a recession! Imagine the pain that will be felt with a complete collapse, and society’s reaction to such a calamity! It is not hard to visualize the chaos that will ensue: Along with the great hardship and civil strife, these disasters will be quickly joined by violence in all its forms, along with hunger, famine and disease. Money in all its forms, including government checks, will become worthless. Some nations will attempt to ameliorate the problem by printing money but that will ignite hyperinflation and exacerbate the crisis . All levels of government, unable to collect taxes, will quickly lose their authority. They will lose their power when ever more civil servants, policemen, prison guards, the armed forces, politicians, and judges, too absorbed with problems at home, fail to show up for work, particularly when they are no longer paid, or paid with paper that quickly loses its value. (We can look to Zimbabwe for an example of such a debacle, and the hardships that go with it!). As civil and national authority collapses the rule of law ends and anarchy ensues. It will be common to see riots in the streets (like those in Greece) and thieves and gangs with weapons roaming the streets. (New Orleans gave us a small glimpse of it in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.) While this upheaval will affect every country on earth, it will be felt particularly severely in the prosperous Western nations.