ON January 23rd The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that the Doomsday Clock would remain at the closest to global catastrophe that humanity (in their opinion) has ever been.

The Doomsday Clock is currently set at 90 seconds to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock was initially set after the beginning of the atomic age when the horror of what occurred at Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, where the first atomic and only atomic weapons were exploded in warfare, killing more than 100,000 people. With that one act America brought World War II to a close but at a terrible price.

World renowned scientists, who included Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer – were convinced that the world needed to know how close humanity was coming to total annihilation.

The clock was first set in 1947 at 7 minutes to midnight.

Many can remember the Cold War, with the constant fear of a nuclear holocaust. There were nuclear bunkers stocked with food in prime locations to enable Government to continue its work should the unthinkable happen. There was a very clear threat to world safety.

At the close of the Cold War the clock was pulled back to the farthest it has ever been from the midnight hour; 17 minutes reflecting the optimism that there was at that time regarding world peace as America and Russia entered a new period of cooperation.

In more recent times new threats have been identified. Russia has a huge nuclear arsenal and has been engaged in war with Ukraine that threatens to draw in NATO. China is an ever present threat to world peace as is Iran. Global warming as been cited as a growing problem for the future of humanity together with Artificial Intelligence. The thought of computing technologies going AWOL and taking over the world is a chilling scenario! Also the potential for AI being employed by so called rogue states to create a nuclear programme poses a grave risk to world peace. This past week Britain has announced plans to recruit a citizens army to boost our armed forces in readiness for a war with Russia and the United States is once again going to position nuclear warheads in British soil. These are grim times, it is true.

So there are challenges facing the world and much of it is caused by man’s own ineptitude and lack of morality. 

There are real problems, however, with the philosophy behind the Doomsday Clock.

There is a total denial of sin. The reason why man uses the intelligence God has given him to devise means of killing millions of people is sin. This is a product of the curse that has been brought about by man’s disobedience of God. Therefore, the ruin that man threatens to bring upon the world must be viewed with reference to man’s broken relationship with God.

sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James 1:15

Also – and this follows on from the first; there is a supposition that man has the power to make the world good, to improve himself and save the world from humanity. If man’s broken relationship with God is the problem, then man cannot be saved and the world cannot be saved without God. To pin our hopes upon the very corrupt creature who uses his intelligence for his own destruction is nonsensical in the extreme. The god of humanism is not the answer.

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Romans 3:10-12

As God is removed from the equation and because man has been elevated to god-like status the concept of judgment is eradicated from history. Judgment is woven into the essence of humanity and our understanding of the world. The curse that afflicts this world is judgment and we see it’s out working every day. The fact that there are terrible wars is judgment. Natural disasters, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes spewing their tonnes of red hot destructive lava is judgment. Parents who murder their children, husbands who bludgeon their wives to death – is judgment. Abortion , the slaughter of the most innocent is judgment. Depraved expressions of sexuality is judgment. Our very nature, responsible for all of this – is the unleashing of judgment upon the world. We are living with judgment every day.

God is angry with the wicked every day.

Psalm 7:11

Another problem I see with the Doomsday Clock scenario is the concept that man can determine the end of the world. It is true that man has the ability to destroy millions, and it is possible, maybe probable, that God will permit such mass self destruction as a judgment. But the Bible teaches that God will determine the end of the world and that inferno will like no nuclear holocaust – it will be on another level completely – something that only God can and will accomplish!

Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Mark 13:30-32

A further fallacy in the logic of this humanistic western mindset is that the Gospel is ignored as the answer to the world’s problems. There is hope in the midst of the onrushing darkness, hope for billions – it is found in Christ alone. God is full of grace; grace manifested when Christ laid down His life for our redemption. It is only through universal international faith in Him that the nuclear warheads will be disarmed, and the armies of the nations stood down. The Gospel alone is the message of peace from the Prince of peace. The Church alone, not the United Nations and certainly not the powerful people who stalk the corridors of power, has the message which will change the world and I believe that one day it will! But perhaps mankind will need to be awakened out of his terrible ignorance in a most alarming manner before this will happen.

And he shall judge among the nations,
and shall rebuke many people:
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob, come ye,
and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Isaiah 2:4-5

The Bible, however, teaches that there is a Doomsday Clock which is ticking down. We need to be aware of this! Doomsday signifies the ultimate disaster. For those who do not know Christ, who have not sought refuge under the blood of the lamb, doomsday is approaching. The picture of resting under the blood is pertinent. Doomsday was fast approaching for Egypt. That great nation had faced disaster after disaster. But the King of all judgments was coming – the night when the death angel would take the lives of every first born. BUT Israel would be saved because they did what God said. Sacrificing a lamb for every household, with the blood marks painted upon every door post and lintel – Israel was saved from doom.

And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:13

If we are to be saved from doom we must shelter under Christ’s blood. Faith in Him in our only hope.

DEATH IS THE SINNER’S PERSONAL DOOMSDAY

There is no greater tragedy than to die in your sins.

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

John 8:24

There are some awful tragedies which occur – families being wiped out in one blow, children suffering cruel deaths, unexpected accidents, young people suddenly cut off with so much of life left to live. I do not minimise the enormity of such events – the shock, the loss, the sorrow.

To die unrepentant without faith in Christ is the greatest tragedy of all. It is terrible to lose your life; BUT there is an inevitability in that. Death is the inescapable and unavoidable fact of human life and destiny. To lose your soul, however, is a greater tragedy – it is entirely and completely avoidable. This is particularly relevant for those who have the Gospel, who possess God’s word, who are familiar with its hope and peace and who spurn the day of grace. How awful.

Therefore for the sinner the Doomsday Clock is counting down. How near the midnight hour are you? Your clock may be in in first quarter or the first half. It may three quarters of the way to midnight. But there might be someone reading and there may be minutes or even seconds on the clock of life. This clock is wound only once. When the midnight hour strikes and death comes, there will be no rewinding of the hands, no second opportunity. Once midnight hour strikes the clock stops.

Humanism today lives with the basic assumption that death is the end. There is no consciousness, no awareness, no reality beyond the grave. We are flesh and bone. The material is the only reality. Of course when one chooses to deny God this is the working assumption. To introduce life beyond the grave brings us face to face with accountability, with the concept of sin and judgement, and with the Creator whom we will stand before. This is unpalatable for modern man.

Yet these are realities the Bible teaches and which our conscience alerts us to. If there is morality, there is judgement and there is conscience. It is the conscience which sounds the trumpet of God in the heart of even the most irreligious person.

We are living on the countdown to death and eternity. And for some this reality is closer than for others.

Oh – what will eternity look like for those who are without Christ? Christ drew back the veil as he described the death of the rich man in Luke 16:

the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

If you, dear reader, refuse the refuge that is provided by the blood of Christ – there is no hope. Only certain Hell!

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation

Hebrews 2:3

Today the world wrings its hands in fear of what may happen as a result of the horrible cataclysmic potential that humanity has fashioned. Yet the thought of personal accountability, individual sin, eternal Hell never crosses the mind. The ignorance of our boastful, self resourceful, proud race!

JUDGEMENT DAY IS THE SINNERS’ UNIVERSAL COLLECTIVE DOOMSDAY

There is not only doomsday for the individual sinner – there is doomsday for the world, this depraved, wicked and broken world must be wound up.

Peter talks about fervent heat and Paul writes abut flaming judgement. John sees a day when Christ will appear and every eye will see Him. Paul says that in that day those who are saved will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, transformed from mortality to immortality in an instant. Then the graves of Christians will be opened and the resurrected saints will arise, souls and bodies reunited in glorious and incorruptible perfection. Our Lord tells us that the sinners will then be resurrected to be brought before God to judgement. John describes the awfulness of this moment when sinners of all nations and classes will be screaming for the mountains to fall on their heads as the wrath of the Lamb comes closer. John writes of a courtroom after the heaven and earth have fled away, vaporised in an instant. This courtroom will be filled with the dead small and great and they are standing before God. With horror each one of millions hears the evidence read from the old books, which are the records of the unrepentant. Records of thoughts, of words, of deeds, sins that were long forgotten, harms and hurts inflicted on others, above all times of Gospel opportunity when the message of hope was mocked and scoffed or simply ignored. Our Lord speaks of the judge separating humanity as a shepherd divides the sheep from goats. Families separated forever, loved ones torn asunder yet the sheep will feel only peace. But the goats, the unsaved will suffer the affliction of every solemn moment. Then the sentence is issued – DEPART FROM ME I NEVER KNEW YOU. Death and Hell will be delivered to the lake of fire – this is the second death – the Blackness and darkness forever. This the doomsday that never ends.

This is the doomsday we need to worried and concerned about. Not the doomsday which may and or may not occur. But the doomsday which is approaching for this old world.

The only escape from this wrath which is coming down upon our heads is

the power of the cross

Christ suffered our doomsday. He took our pain and our guilt. He submitted Himself to the power of death for us. Therein lies our hope, our only hope.

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself:
but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Proverbs 22:3