Has Iran become a nuclear nation?

Matt Drudge had a headline under a compelling graphic yesterday afternoon.

I am a child of the cold war, born in 1960 and raised in my formative years with Sputnik at my back and the 'sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to earth' to my front. The 70s and 80s are still vivid in my memory of the Russkies, Reds, Commies that were neck and neck militarily with the US and someday might even invade. And nukes. Goodness, the nukes we all worried about.

In the 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new generation was raised without the Red boogeyman as a political specter. We all went on to "greener" pastures, literally, with worrying about the environment and global warming and population control. The Bomb was so passe.

But in 2007 when the Russians started to make a surprise comeback, those of us who were old enough to remember the Cold War, Iron Curtain, East Germany, Berlin Wall, and the military buildup, collectively shuddered. The bomb is back. Oh, boy, is it back.

In God's economy, the bomb never went away. But more on that in a minute.

Yesterday Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (above, right) and Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei (left) revealed that they already have the bomb. This may be true. It may not be true. We will see. But the point is, they want it and one way or another. Iran is going to wind up possessing a bomb, if they don't already. Here is the news article-

Ahmadinejad: Iran already a nuclear state, but has no intention of launching attack on Israel
"Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that while Iran is already a nuclear state, it has no intention of attacking Israel. Ahmadinejad was interviewed on the eve of his visit to Cairo, where he will attend the 12th Islamic Summit Conference, due to open there on Wednesday. ... Ahmadinejad said the world must now treat Iran as a nuclear country. “They want Iran to go back to what it was in the past, but they won’t succeed. They assume we’ll give in to pressure; such thoughts are misguided. We’re already an industrial and nuclear country, a country that has conquered space."

Wait, back that up- a 'nuclear country'? Well, maybe they mean nuclear power. Like, electricity.

Maybe so, maybe not so. The interview went on-

"Mentioning the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran, Ahmadinejad said that while it might be easy to launch missiles or attack using fighter jets, Iran’s response and defense capability were important in this context."

Ahmadinejad is being cagy, perhaps to save face in recovering from the terrible loss of the Fordow nuclear processing plant, sabotaged two weeks ago. Maybe Ahmadinejad is telling the truth.

Is there a biblical take on nuclear war?

Yes, and no. The bible does not explicitly mention nuclear missiles in the Tribulation, of course. But it is my opinion, nuclear exchanges will take place. I will offer scriptures on why I think so and leave it to you as to whether the future portends nuclear war, or not.

Zechariah 14:12 tells of the time when Jesus returns. His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and the mount will split during a major earthquake and make a huge valley. At that time, the armies of satan will be surrounding and attacking Jerusalem. Jesus's return stops it. He says, "And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. And on that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps." (Zechariah 14:12-15).

The 'plague' could be an actual plague like the one that attacked Herod when worms ate him and he died. But the description here sounds much more like hat happens to flesh during a nuclear blast. I looked it up. The eyes, tongue, lungs, internal organs etc literally melt.

Revelation 6:14 speaks of a great earthquake and other signs happening: stars disappear and the sky recedes like a scroll. In my research about what happens when a nuclear blast detonates, I learned that there is a shock wave that travels in the air. The shock wave travels at supersonic speed, as well as the wave that travels upward, carrying the dirt, ground, and debris with it. A vacuum immediately around the blast occurs during this time. It is like the atmosphere rolls up and then rolls back.

In the aftermath of Gog Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39, there is a scene which is explicitly described. Ezekiel 39:11-16 has it:

"On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord God. They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make their search. And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. (Hamonahe is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land."

The specifications for cleanup are similar to a bio-hazard protocol which would be instituted after a nuclear blast. In addition, the name "Hamon Gog" means "multitude of Gog." In the Hebrew it bespeaks of a multitude, multitude. A LOT of bodies. And we see that there are so many it takes 7 months to bury them and an entire valley has to be set aside for the mass graves. It seems that nuclear blasts would be one kind of weapon to cause such massive casualties.

In Isaiah 17:1 the oracle states that Damascus will cease to be a city. Instead it will be heap of ruins. Even during the London Blitz of 1940 by Germany with conventional weapons, the city was not reduced to a heap of ruins. And Hitler tried his best. 348 German bombers escorted by 617 fighters blasted London for 12 hours. However, a nuclear blast could reduce a city to rubble...

In Revelation 6:8, Death and Hades ride out on a pale horse. A quarter of the earth's people are killed and after that in Revelation 9:15 another third of the world is killed. As a matter of fact, so many die during the 7 years that Jesus said no flesh would be saved if He does not cut short the time. (Matthew 24:22).

Now, God does not need me to make a case for Him. He could move His hand and that many people would succumb to death at any moment. But it seems that with so many nuclear weapons still in the hands of man, the high level of deaths during this prophesied time of total war, and the verses which seem to indicate nukes are used given the effects recorded in Isaiah, Revelation, Zechariah and Ezekiel, that it seems logical to conclude that nuclear weapons are launched at some point.

The blessing is that the believer will not be here to endure any of that. Jesus Christ is not going to put His bride thought nuclear winter and radiation fallout. We will be take up to be with Him where He is- in the place He has prepared for us, (John 14:3) New Jerusalem

So Iran claims to have the bomb. Well...the Tribulation will be a time when man's inclinations of evil will be a time when nukes will most likely be used. What do you think?