Soon after WWII ended, the U.S. and the Soviet Union began their Cold War nuclear arms race which continued for more than a generation. From 1946 to 1958 the U.S. government detonated 23 atomic bombs as tests both above ground and underwater in the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands located in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. had convinced the islanders to temporarily leave their homes, telling them they could return afterwards to their land that would not suffer any ill-effects from the explosions. The government was wrong. It contaminated much of that region with radiation fallout. Consequently, for decades the U.S. has had a trust fund for its residents to cover their medical treatment and birth defects due to the radiation.
Tony de Brum is the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands. He complains that its citizens, who have worried for decades about their health due to the nuclear testing in the past, now worry about present global warming making their islands disappear due to the rising sea level. The average elevation of the Marshal Islands is seven feet.
In April this year, the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands filed with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, separate complaints against nine nations accusing them of not fulfilling their obligations regarding nuclear disarmament. The nations are China, North Korea, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russian, the UK, Northern Ireland, and the U.S. Some of these nations have ratified the 1968 Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and some have not. Those who have done so are the U.S., UK, Russia, France, and China, all which are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. As a signatory to this Non-Proliferation Treaty, they had promised at an “early date” to accomplish “complete disarmament” of nuclear weapons.
Some of these nations cited in the Marshall Islands complaint recognize the authority of the International Court of Justice, and some do not. The Court has no authority to implement its decisions, but it does have considerable influence. It remains to be seen how the 15 justices will vote on this matter and, if their ruling is favorable to the plaintive, how much influence it will have.
Why do I mention this? Bible prophecy clearly reveals that our entire world in the future will not only disarm itself of all nuclear weapons, it will disarm itself of all conventional weapons as well. Ezekiel 38-39 describes in some detail the weapons that will be used in the so-called Battle of Armageddon, which is a misnomer based on Revelation 16.14-16, that will occur at the end of the age. These weapons will include swords, shields, bucklers, bows and arrows, handpikes, and spears (Eze 38.5; 39.9). Obviously, who needs these if you have rifles, tanks, missiles, etc.? This properly called “the battle on the great day of God the Almighty” (Rev 16.14). When it is finished, concerning these weapons the survivors “will make fires of them for seven years. They will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any trees in the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons” (Eze 39.9-10). Thus, most of the elements of these weapons will be made of wood.
Whether or not this Marshall Islands complaint before the world court gains any traction, it will probably make a contribution to the world disarmament movement that will accelerate sometime in the future in order for this Bible prophecy in Ezekiel and other Bible books to be true.
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