It was a different world in the 1950s-1960s. The Cold War supplied the threat of nuclear attacks from other nations. On this day in 1961, President John F. Kennedy spoke to the nation concerning the Berlin Crisis and the threat of nuclear attacks. The address to the nation began at 10:00 p.m. and the nearly 4,500 words were delivered from one of the most articulate presidents our country has ever known. The portion of his message that I bring to our attention was about half-way through the speech.
“We have another sober responsibility. To recognize the possibilities of nuclear war in the missile age, without our citizens knowing what they should do and where they should go if bombs begin to fall, would be a failure of responsibility. In May, I pledged a new start on Civil Defense. Last week, I assigned, on the recommendation of the Civil Defense Director, basic responsibility for this program to the Secretary of Defense, to make certain it is administered and coordinated with our continental defense efforts at the highest civilian level. Tomorrow, I am requesting of the Congress new funds for the following immediate objectives: to identify and mark space in existing structures—public and private—that could be used for fall-out shelters in case of attack; to stock those shelters with food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival; to increase their capacity; to improve our air-raid warning and fall-out detection systems, including a new household warning system which is now under development; and to take other measures that will be effective at an early date to save millions of lives if needed. In the event of an attack, the lives of those families which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire can still be saved—if they can be warned to take shelter and if that shelter is available. We owe that kind of insurance to our families—and to our country. In contrast to our friends in Europe, the need for this kind of protection is new to our shores. But the time to start is now. In the coming months, I hope to let every citizen know what steps he can take without delay to protect his family in case of attack. I know that you will want to do no less.”1
Millions of dollars were invested by Americans to build personal fallout shelters. Well meaning. Well intentioned. Reassuring. But most shelters would prove to be ineffective or inadequate in the event of nuclear attack. Inadequate ventilation, leaking ceilings/walls, insufficient supplies, and sanitation issues were some of the more common issues. Good intentions don’t protect, especially when there was the failure to recognize that the effects of a nuclear attack wouldn’t dissipate in a few days. It would take months before entry into the above-ground world would be safe.
Children in school would have practiced nuclear drills where they were instructed to get
under their desks and cover their heads with their hands. “Duck and Cover” was the name of the program taught to children, led by animated Bert the Turtle who hides in his shelter when trouble comes. Since we can’t carry our own “shell,” we have to locate a shelter or practice the “duck and cover” method. Another ineffective tool to ward off atomic attacks.
It would seem that the government knew this wouldn’t work. Kennedy privately expressed his skepticism over fallout shelters, even the ones that were made by the government in heavily populated cities. But it was the best plan they could devise and if it kept everyone calm, the false assurance of hope would have been deemed worth it.
Everyone wasn’t calm, though. “Mere months into the program, reports emerged of leaking water drums and shelters that had never received any supplies. In a New York Times story on June 11, 1963, a Harlem woman asked, “Who’d want to go down there?” referring to the fetid tenement cellar meant to serve as her shelter space. The “rats are as big as dogs,” she said. “If fallout came, I’d just run.”2 Again, another ineffective response to a nuclear attack.
If we bring the analogy over into the spiritual realm, it sounds a lot like how people are responding to the prophesied Judgment Day. The church and religion have become the “fallout shelters” for the soul of man. People keep trying to do their best and right things, believing it will work when that day comes. However, all these methods will prove to be ineffective under the blast of God’s wrath on that day.
The Old Testament gives us a picture of what is necessary to shield a person from God’s wrath and judgment. Exodus 12:3-7, 12-13 says, “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: (4) And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. (5) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: (6) And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. (7) And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it… (12) For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. (13) And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
The only shelter from the wrath of God is the blood of Jesus. Jesus Himself said, “Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7) And 1 John 1:7 tells us that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Hiding from God in a fallout shelter constructed of religion, good works, self-righteousness, and other efforts of the flesh is about as effective as crawling into a cardboard box at ground zero, thinking you will be safe from the atomic blast.
As the song says, we must be “sheltered in the arms of God,” placed there at salvation by Jesus and sealed safe and secure in that place by the Holy Spirit. Nothing else will work.
What is your spiritual fallout shelter?
John 10:27-29 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” The door is secure in Jesus and guarantee is affirmed in Ephesians 1:13. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” Amen!
1https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PPP-1961-book1
2https://www.history.com/articles/nuclear-fallout-shelters-were-never-going-to-work
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