Satellites and Speed Millions of people all over the world are wondering when the first explosion is going to take place in the expected nuclear Armageddon. It seems to be a morbid foregone conclusion with many that it must happen, sooner or later. The bomb builders are not allaying the fear very much with their pronouncements about the horrible possibilities. For years the editors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have dramatized their fears on the front cover of the magazine by manipulating the hands of their doomsday clock. Right now it stands just a few moments until midnight! Yes, my friends, the ugly shadow of a nuclear holocaust is cast over the lives of all the inhabitants of this planet. The truth is that there is no hiding place, no sanctuary of security within 25,000 miles of any of us. No wonder the hearts of men are failing them for fear. It was in 1945 that a new dimension of Fear came to the world. Fear that seemed to be multiplied in direct proportion to the shortening of time. This was the year when a mushroom cloud rising over Japan told the world that the power of the atom had been unleashed! True, it led to new tools in the science of medicine, and industry. It made possible the travel of our submarines under the ice of the North Pole, and opened the vista of mighty ships plowing our seas without stopping to refuel. Suppose however, in the hands of ruthless, power hungry men this power were unleashed on the world. This is the gnawing fear that grips the hearts of men today. But coming back to this new dimension of “time”. This has come about because the world has gone technological. The pace makes us not only dizzy, but its high cost leaves us breathless. They tell us that the Chinese invented gunpowder. Through the years all that was necessary to get a bigger “bang” was to ignite a bigger pile of powder. Then along came the refinement of TNT. We struggled along through World War II with that. But in 1945 somebody invented the “A Bomb”, so mighty and powerful that we didn’t even have a “yardstick” to measure its power. Up to this time a “ton of TNT” was our unit of measurement, but this was useless for this new invention. The term “kiloton” or the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT was invented, but before it could really be used, it was useless for the “Hydrogen Bomb” came into the picture. Thus the term “Megaton” the power of one million tons of TNT came into being. I speak not of the power of the “H” Bomb, only the unit by which it was to be measured! How big is a “megaton”? Just take 50 foot freight cars each one carrying 50 tons of TNT and start loading them. When your train reaches a length of 200 miles you will have on board (1) one megaton. But listen! One “H” Bomb has 45 Megatons of destructive power! It is crystal clear that the year 1945 ushered in a new era—with a bang! An excellent index of technological development is speed. When Nero was emperor of the world, he could travel only as fast as a good horse could carry him. From the time of Nero to Columbus, be he rich or poor, man was tied to that horse. Even in 1776, a most important date for Americans, the speed with which history was made depended on Paul Revere’s horse. But in 1830 man broke through this barrier, and for the first time could move faster than horse muscle could carry him. The “iron horse” was invented and speed started to climb, but not too fast! The first military plane purchased by the government in 1910 had to have a speed of at least 40 mph, according to the contract. By World War I men were travelling 100 mph on the race track. We terminated that war with speeds of 150 mph. When we were flying 200 mph, World War II was upon us. But at its close we were flying at the fantastic rate of 470 mph! Then came the magic year, 1945, and we started to make more progress in a week than we had previously made in a year. Man blasted through the “sound barrier.” By 1957 he had attained the speed of 1,600 mph! We have travelled from horses to rockets during our lifetime! Things really started to happen in 1945. October 4, 1957 brought the “beep”, “beep” of the first Soviet satellite as it circled the earth every 96 minutes. Science fiction had become reality. In 1958 our Vanguard 1 went into orbit 2,500 miles out in space. The famous “moon shot” became a reality when the Soviet scientists told the world in advance just what this rocket was supposed to do. To attempt to hit the moon from this earth would be like trying to shoot a bird on the wing from a car which is moving at 100 mph! Yet as the earth travels through space at 67,000 mph, that satellite was hurled the 236,000 miles to the moon, and arrived just 84 seconds late! Now our astronauts can land almost on a dime at any selected spot on the moon and do it only seconds off schedule. I ask you to stop for a moment to consider the question, What do we human beings have that is worth exporting to space? Could it be our technical “know how” that has built the most refined machines of destruction the world has ever known? Or would we like to export our great “ability” to get along with one another? On the other hand maybe our high standards of conduct and morality is the thing we would like to share with other “worlds.” Before the Russians hurled their rocket at the moon, they “sterilized” the moon probe so it would not contaminate the moon with our germs. What of the “germs” of hatred, love of power, and fear. One wonders just what we have to offer after all. Yet what an amazing generation this is. We are the only humans who have literally turned a corner during our lifetime. All others were born and died in the same age. During our lifetime on the other hand we have seen the horse superceded by the auto, then came the airplane and now jets, nuclear science, and space travel. I am postive that God will not permit sinful men to get too far out into His universe. We have nothing worth exporting. As a member of the staff of the Secretary of Defense considered the tremendous progress of this day, he said, “Why all this skyrocketing progress started in the year 1945 is anybody’s guess.” I hasten to ask, did it just happen this way? What was the reason that Nimrod the great hunter of old, did not invent the gun? Or why, I ask, did not Alexander the Great give us the airplane? Look at the Greeks and the Romans with their learned men of science, why didn’t they invent Radar or T.V.? There were men of giant intellect in ages past, and yet for centuries progress in knowledge was nonexistent. Why? Why should these last few years see advancement of such a scale that it is impossible for one mind to fully grasp it? The answer is, it was not the right time! God’s “clock” had not as yet struck the hour. You say, This is the reason, and now may I give you a clue? Centuries ago, speaking to Daniel, this modern-day situation of a phenomenal increase in knowledge was referred to as the sign of something, listen: But thou O Daniel, Shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end: Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4. God says, that when you see men running around this old earth as never before, and when you see a mighty “increase in knowledge” that the “time of the end” has come! Today we are completely surrounded by proofs that the end of time as we know it, is drawing near. Your car, that light switch, airplanes, vacuum cleaner, automatic washer and dryer, rockets and satellites, IBM machines all tell the same story. Many, many people have pondered the strange fact that for thousands of years mankind had run in many of the same old ruts, traveled the same way, disseminated knowledge the same way. And yet when we reach what is termed in Scripture as “the time of the end,” a short period of time before the second coming of the Lord Jesus, everything is changed. The horse-drawn mail coach of our great-grandfathers was not any great improvement over the chariots of the ancient Pharaohs. And the wind-driven ship of the eighteenth century was little better than those of a thousand years before. In the year 1800, there was no system of highways that equaled the old Roman roads, no mail service as quick as Caesar’s, no method of signaling as good as the semaphore “telegraphy” of the Persians, and no ship could pass a Phoenician galley in a moderate sea. When we reach “the time of the end”, the shackels seem to fall from the minds of men. And a great century of modern developments began to take shape. Invention is shattering precedent in thousands of ways, unheard, of new materials coming into being, old ideas of speed and costs and efficiency fading into history. Men in industry accomplishing undreamed-of miracles. Men of science casting into the discard the methods we called modern. Unbelievable speed is replacing what we called speed. New Materials, new ways, progress. To us a humorous incident took place back in 1828 that lets us know that we are truly in “the time of the end,” when this prophecy is being fulfilled. A group of men in Lancaster, Ohio, requested a certain school board to let them use the schoolhouse to discuss the building of a railroad. The following is the reply: “You gentlemen are welcome to use the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads and telegraphs are impossible and rank infidelity. There is nothing in the word of God about them. If God designed that His intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour by steam, He would surely have foretold it through His holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead ... souls down to hell.” If the members of that Ohio schoolboard could be resurrected for a moment to see the experimental X-15 doing 4,093 mph, fast enough to cross the continent in 36 minutes, they would doubtless declare as with one voice, that fallen Lucifer himself had invented these infernal machines and was at the throttle in person. It was after a study of this prophecy in Daniel 12:4 that Sir Isaac Newton avowed his faith in the accuracy of this prophecy and expected it would be fulfilled literally, saying that at some future day men might travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. This, of course, was a most daring prediction for Newton to make, but he did it solely because of his unlimited faith in Bible prophecy. But do you know what happened? Fifty years later the infidel Voltaire cited this prediction of Newton’s as evidence of the utter foolishness of belief in Bible prophecy, alleging that the study of the Bible had led even the prince of philosophers to make a fool of himself. Voltaire is dead; Newton is dead; but the Bible lives on! The prophets of old wrote as “they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” telling us that when we reached “the time of the end” knowledge would be increased, men would run to and fro; or as another Bible writer put it: “They shall run like the lightnings.” Ever since man discovered that the earth was round, girdling the g1obe has been a challenge. Magellan made the first attempt: Drake followed soon after. It took them about three years. Then as the years went by with increased improvements of travel, we find that in 1889 it took only 72 days for the circuit; in 1890, 67 1/2 days; in 1903, 54 days; then 40 days in 1907; 35 days in 1913. Wiley Post cut the time to 7 days and 18 hours. But the prophet said: “They shall run like the lightnings.” Now our astronauts circle the world at the rate of 18,000 mph. This modern age of speed declares triumphantly, “Christ is coming” “The Eternal’s great day is near, speeding apace!” Zephaniah 1:14, Moffatt’s translation.