“A new nuke wave washes over the world,” Axios wrote on March 19. In country after country, discussion and action aimed at acquiring or boosting nuclear power is increasing, heightening the threat of nuclear World War iii. Yet our world is asleep!

Europe believes it can no longer depend on America’s nuclear umbrella. Germany wants access to other European nukes and is even considering building its own. France has agreed to share its nukes. South Korea, also questioning United States support, is contemplating the nuclear option. Japan says if South Korea can have nukes, it can too. China has “significantly expanded” its nuclear program, “fielding more types and greater numbers of nuclear weapons than ever before,” the Federation of American Scientists warns. Terrorist-sponsoring Iran is extremely close to nuclear weapons of its own and has rejected Western pressure to back off.

Back in 1924, Winston Churchill wrote an essay about advancements in military technology titled “Shall We All Commit Suicide?” He foresaw the atomic age two decades before it began. “Mankind has never been in this position before,” he wrote. “Without having improved appreciably in virtue or enjoying wiser guidance, it has got into its hands for the first time the tools by which it can unfailingly accomplish its own extermination. That is the point in human destinies to which all the glories and toils of men have at last led them. They would do well to pause and ponder upon their new responsibilities.

“Death stands at attention, obedient, expectant, ready to serve, ready to shear away the peoples en masse; ready, if called on, to pulverize, without hope of repair, what is left of civilization. He awaits only the word of command. He awaits it from a frail, bewildered being, long his victim, now—for one occasion only—his master.”

Those deadly tools are here—yet mankind is incredibly casual about it! We have been so desensitized to this topic that we fail to comprehend the stakes. In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists pushed the minute hand of their symbolic Doomsday Clock forward to just 90 seconds to midnight. Signs are everywhere that nuclear proliferation will end in nuclear suicide!

Before World War ii, most leaders in the U.S. and United Kingdom lived in a weak world of illusion. But Churchill was willing to face reality and speak the truth. In a speech on June 20, 1936, Churchill said, “At any rate my conscience is clear. I have done my best during the last three years and more to give timely warning of what was happening abroad, and of the dangerous plight into which we were being led or lulled. It has not been a pleasant task. It has certainly been a very thankless task. It has brought me into conflict with many former friends and colleagues. I have been mocked and censured as a scaremonger and even as a warmonger by those whose complacency and inertia have brought us all nearer to war and war nearer to us all.”

Anybody who sought the truth could find it. But people didn’t want to hear the truth. They wanted to hear “smooth things” and “deceits” (Isaiah 30:10). They wanted to be deceived!

It is hard to overestimate the deceit and wickedness of the human mind. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). How many people today believe this irrefutable biblical truth?

Leaders like Churchill and Isaiah refused to “prophesy deceits.” That is a mark of a great leader: He always tells the truth, no matter how intense the opposition!

Nations today have the power to deliver nuclear weapons in mere minutes. We are heading into the worst crisis the world has ever known. Only people drowning in illusion can fail to see the great dangers. If we make the same mistake Britain and America made in World War ii, our nations will not survive! What a terrifying tragedy if we fail to heed this warning.

That is the biggest challenge each one of us must always face: Do we really want to hear the truth? And will we act on it?

Hearing the truth can be the most painful experience of our lives. It often means ripping wrong ideas from our proud minds. But the truth greatly enriches our lives and sets us free.

Your Bible reveals that what the Nazis did in World War ii was child’s play compared to what they are about to do—unless we wake up! And we don’t have much time to do so. Germany started both world wars in the 20th century. The Allies promised to never allow Germany to rearm so it could never start another war. But those promises have been long forgotten—to our peril. Right-wing extremism in Germany is growing. It isn’t alarmist to discuss such issues. It would be irresponsible if we don’t!

We are living in the time of the lion’s roar: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7-8). Jesus Christ warned us about a coming nuclear holocaust (Matthew 24:21-22). He is going to intervene to prevent us from annihilating humanity entirely.

We can heed this warning and avoid the worst suffering in history. Each of us must choose. The consequences of that choice are truly monumental!

Do you believe God? Do you have the courage to face the truth?