Chain Reaction in Realms of the Spirit
Beauty For Ashes Part 4 - George H. Warnock

CHAPTER 2 - A CHAIN REACTION OF DEATH

Back in the early part of this century a very notable scientist by the name of Albert Einstein came up with a remarkable formula. History has proven that his formula was correct, but for many years it remained but a "theory." He expressed it in a very short equation:

E = MC²

And translated it means,

"ENERGY EQUALS MASS TIMES THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT SQUARED."

Well, this is still quite incomprehensible to most of us, but in those days it made quite an impact upon the scientific world. It was a theory which, if true, carried with it a tremendous potential for the release of energy such as mankind had never dreamed of. Nobody knew for sure if it was valid until other scientists developed it, and out of it came what is known as "nuclear energy" which has revolutionized the whole realm of power and energy, particularly as it relates to the military resources of the nations. The awesome implications of this discovery has terrorized the whole human family; and because of it the whole world today stands on the brink of annihilation.

There are two kinds of nuclear chain reactions: the one is called nuclear fission, such as we have in the atomic bomb, where the atoms are divided; and with every dividing of the atom there is a release of energy, again and again, until there is a massive blast of death. But in the second kind, nuclear fusion, there is an even greater release of energy, as one particle is fused with another, and still another, and still another, releasing the kind of energy that even now is taking place in the sun. It is said that the core of the sun is a mighty nuclear reactor, and that what man has brought about in the hydrogen bomb is just a tiny replica of the same process of fusion that has been going on in the sun--for how many millennia we do not know.

Even now we are told that scientists of many nations are looking for a breakthrough in technology as to how they might harness the energy of nuclear fusion for the good and the benefit of mankind. They feel they are on the verge of a tremendous breakthrough. If they succeed in their quest, all other forms of energy will become obsolete. One scientific observer has this to say:

"The production of power will be efficient and clean, the current nuclear plants wrapped in glass and buried. The Arabs will trade in their Rolls Royces for camels. The Persian Gulf will possess no strategic value. Automobiles will run on electric batteries, charged by hydrogen-produced energy. Coal, oil, and gasoline, and of course uranium fission, will be ancient history..."

But man dreams of still greater accomplishments, if and when he discovers how to convert large amounts of mass into energy on a controlled and sustained basis. One scientist puts it this way:

There is little that would not then be conceivable for him to accomplish, from changing climatic conditions on his planet to shoving other planets into new orbits around the sun."

This may all sound so exciting, so RIGHT in the eyes of man. But what does God say about man's ways?

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12).

God says man's way is going to end in death. God says there is no way by which man can extricate himself from the law of sin and death that has overwhelmed the family of MAN--NO WAY, BUT THE WAY THAT GOD HIMSELF BROUGHT INTO BEING THROUGH THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION, BY THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS.

When men in their rebellion sought to build a city and a tower that would reach into the heavens in order to make a name for themselves, God said it was enough; and He came down to scatter the crowd. (Gen. 11:9).

What do you suppose God is thinking when men start speculating about changing the climates of the earth, or shoving planets into other orbits. You can be sure He is going to come down again, and bring to nought the wisdom of man.

I have a chart that I clipped from a newspaper a few years ago, arranged by men who understand the situation as it relates to the nuclear armaments of the nations. It shows in graphic form how the nuclear weaponry of all nations combined is equal to 6,000 times the total firepower of all nations involved in World War II. It is stated that one percent of the U.S.A. or Soviet arsenal would be sufficient to bring on the nuclear winter, in which the sun would be so blocked out by the dust that filled the atmosphere that our planet would soon be uninhabitable for plants, or animals, or humans. They stated that one new Trident submarine alone had the firepower equal to eight times all the firepower used in World War II by all nations, and that it would have the capability of destroying every major city in the northern hemisphere.

We are talking about the kind of power that man has discovered in the atom; and how man, in his great "wisdom" now holds in his hands the power to annihilate all forms of life on this planet. Our Lord Jesus told us that if God did not intervene, "no flesh" would be saved; but He promised, "...for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:22). Men might have wondered in times past if Jesus was speaking in hyperbole, for how could any kind of war or natural disaster annihilate all flesh? But now the awesome implication of a suicidal holocaust hovers over the whole human family. It is good to know that somewhere in the midst of all the devastation that is coming, God is going to cut it short "for the elect's sake." Man continues to look for the way out, but he is caught in the net of his own making. He does not have the wisdom, even if he had the will, to prevent the using of his own inventions of destruction, for the simple reason he does not have the "grace" that comes only from God.

But entirely apart from the threat of a massive nuclear holocaust we are now in a state of global emergency because of the pollutants that are destroying our land, our seas, and our atmosphere. Even as I write there is an international conference underway in England which they hope will initiate a massive cleanup campaign among the nations, in an effort to save planet earth before it is too late. I thought it very timely that the final issue of National Geographic's centennial year pictured on the front cover a hologram of our planet in a state of collapse, like a glass globe that was shattering to pieces, and under it the question:

"CAN MAN SAVE THIS FRAGILE EARTH?"

Last-Day Scoffers

The apostle Peter tells us that "scoffers" would abound in the last days, "walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2 Pet. 3:4). This scoffing has been going on for a long time, but please note: NO LONGER ARE THEY SAYING, "ALL THINGS CONTINUE AS THEY WERE..."

No man of ordinary understanding is saying it. No fool in his perverted mind is saying it. No scientist, no politician, no environmentalist is saying it. We are actually further along in God's timetable than the time Peter envisioned when he spoke of "the last days." Somewhere in the last 50 years or so we slipped by that period of time that Peter spoke about; and we are now living in a time-frame that would more properly be described as the last hour, or the last minutes.

The tragedy of all this, as far as God's people are concerned, is that most Christians today are as "willingly ignorant" of the times we are in, as were the scoffers that Peter spoke about. Nobody knows the time of the end, that is true. But Heaven s timetable is definitely far beyond what it was just about 50 years ago when the Church lived with a certain sense of expectation for the Lord's Appearing. At that time there was no thought of planet earth starting to fall to pieces. But somehow today, 50 years further along, all this does nothing to arouse the Church to seek the face of God. The thought is much the same as it was in the days of Isaiah the prophet, when Jerusalem's fate hung in the balances, and the people seemed to care less:

"And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die" (Isa. 22:12-13).

Jesus Said, "Occupy Till I Come"

God's people continue to plan and purpose and speculate, and are very much engrossed with the affairs of the world, hoping somehow that they might accumulate just a little more of earth's vanishing toys before the holocaust. But are we not told to "occupy" till the Master returns? Certainly, but "Business as Usual" is not what the Lord was saying. He gave His servants precious gifts and graces and told them to "trade" with these till He returned. He was not telling them to fill out their days much as they have in the past. He bids us to be occupied with Heaven's treasures, not with earth's vanishing toys. To trade with these, that when the Master returns they might not be ashamed at His coming, but could say: "You gave me five talents, I have gained five more. You gave me faith, You gave me Heaven's treasures, I have invested these in the lives of Your people by Your enabling grace, and now, behold the fruit of it in the lives of my brethren."

Chain Reaction Of The Law Of Sin And Death

Frightening as it may be we are inclined to admire the genius of the human species, not only because he discovered the formula for this kind of nuclear energy, but because he found out how to make it work. However, in the light of what has happened, I think we should change the formula a little, and write it this way:

E = MC² = D²

Because THIS NEW FOUND ENERGY EQUALS DEATH MULTIPLIED BY ITSELF, DEATH ON A MASSIVE ACCELERATING SCALE.

For man created nothing; all he did was discover secrets that long lay hidden in the purposes of God, and which God would not reveal until man had descended to the very depths of apostasy. For what has man accomplished but the ability to accelerate the Law of Sin and Death that has been working in the human family ever since the Fall! Let us no longer admire the genius of man; but let us rather be solemnized by the fact that man's wisdom has brought about such an acceleration of the Law of Sin and Death that he now has the capability to set in motion a chain reaction of devastation that could annihilate the whole human race, and obliterate all forms of life on this planet, if God would let him do it. How wonderful an achievement! How wise is man, that he can bring about his own destruction in almost a moment of time!

"Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made FOOLISH the wisdom of this world?" (1 Cor. 1:20).

We are not so foolish as to charge that man wants to bring about a nuclear war and all this devastation. Man certainly wants to maintain his place as lord of this planet. But we know that there is NO PEACE to the wicked, and that man will never find PEACE until he bows at the foot of the Cross, and acknowledges Christ to be the Lord and Prince of Peace. Only in the wisdom of the Cross is life to be found. Only by the blood of His Cross did God make peace for mankind, and reconciled man to Himself. And of course this is deemed to be foolishness to the wise of this world:

"For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the POWER OF GOD" (1 Cor. 1:18).

We are talking about the reign, the rule, and the dominion of death. We are talking about this cruel king who took hold of the human family when Adam sinned; and from that point on there has been a chain reaction of this law in the human family, right down to this day. But now in the end of time, in just this last 50 years or more, there has come about such an acceleration of this terrible law that man has discovered the secret of annihilating five billion of earth's inhabitants in a matter of a few moments of time. And how did he accomplish this achievement? He came to this exalted place because he gave himself over to the god of this world in a vain attempt to be his own god. It was not by way of "evolution" but in "retrogression" that he said: