Humanity has moved a step closer to destruction, scientists behind the Doomsday Clock have warned.
The predicted moment of human demise has been brought forward by 30 seconds on the metaphorical timepiece used since 1947 to demonstrate the risk of global catastrophe.
We are now two-and-half-minutes away from midnight. In 2015, the clock was brought two minutes forward, taking us to three minutes to midnight. Remember scripturally we are in the midnight hour.
Climate change, nuclear proliferation, nationalism and President Donald Trump's "disturbing" comments have been cited by the clock's keepers as the greatest pressures on humanity's existence.
This clock is maintained by the Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, which was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the world's first nuclear weapons during World War II.
In 1947, the Bulletin group established the Doomsday Clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war. They adopted the 'minutes from midnight' idea because it reflected both a "doomsday" midnight and the countdown of a nuclear attack.
It is now as close to midnight as it has been since the darkest days of the Cold War.
The decision to move the clock is made by a group including 15 Nobel laureates. It considers a wide range of factors before adjusting the clock.
At the announcement in Washington DC the organisation said there was "little appetite for cuts" to CO2 emissions despite the world "continuing to warm", that "serious arms control negotiations are nowhere to be seen" and that "trusted sources of information came under attack".
"Words were used by a President-elect of the United States in cavalier and often reckless ways to address the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change," it says.
"Even though he has just now taken office, the President's intemperate statements, lack of openness to expert advice, and questionable cabinet nominations have already made a bad international security situation worse."
I perceive God is using President Trump to stir up many and remaining end times events that is yet to be fulfilled. A good example is the decision of Trump to move US Embassy From Tel-Aviv to East Jerusalem, this alone can cause Atomic war in the middle east.
Scientists say the world has edged closer to apocalypse (i.e The Rapture, Great Tribulation and Armageddon) in the past year amid a darkening security landscape and comments by Donald Trump.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BPA) moved the minute hand of the symbolic Doomsday Clock from three minutes to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight.
It is second closest it has been.
BPA chief Rachel Bronson urged world leaders to "calm rather than stoke tensions that could lead to war".
In a report, the BPA said President Trump's statements on climate change, expanding the US nuclear arsenal and the questioning of intelligence agencies had contributed to the heightened global risk.
It is the closest the clock has come to midnight since 1953, when the minute hand was moved to two minutes away following hydrogen bomb tests by the US and Russia.
What is the Doomsday Clock?
The minute hand on the Doomsday Clock is a metaphor for how vulnerable to catastrophe the world is deemed to be.
Chart showing adjustments to Doomsday Clock since 1947
The symbolic device was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947. The BPA was founded at the University of Chicago in 1945 by a group of scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons.
Yesterday, the group includes physicists and environmental scientists from around the world, who decide whether to adjust the clock in consultation with the group's Board of Sponsors - which includes 15 Nobel laureates.
Why has it moved half a minute closer to midnight?
For the last two years, the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock has stayed set at three minutes before the hour. But the BPA says the danger of global disaster is even greater in 2017, and so has moved the hand forward 30 seconds.
It said: "Disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons made by Donald Trump, as well as the expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change by both Trump and several of his cabinet appointees, affected the Board's decision, as did the emergence of strident nationalism worldwide."
Other influencing factors listed in the BPA report include doubts over the future of the Iran nuclear deal, threats to cyber security and the rise of fake news. The board's decision to move the clock less than a full minute - something it has never before done - is because Mr Trump has only recently taken office and many of his cabinet nominations are not installed in government.
How does the threat compare to previous years?
When it was created in 1947, the clock's hand stood at seven minutes to midnight. Since then it has changed 22 times, ranging from two minutes to midnight in 1953 to 17 minutes before midnight in 1991.
The clock was last adjusted in 2015 when it was moved from five minutes to three minutes to midnight amid global perils such as climate change and nuclear proliferation.
That was the closest it had been more than 20 years.
It was last at three minutes to in 1984 when US-Soviet relations reached their lowest point.
How the doomsday dials have moved since 1947?
:: 1947: Seven minutes to midnight. "As the Bulletin evolves from a newsletter into a magazine, the Clock appears on the cover for the first time. It symbolises the urgency of the nuclear dangers that the magazine's founders - and the broader scientific community - are trying to convey to the public and political leaders around the world."
:: 1949: Three minutes to midnight. "The Soviet Union denies it, but in the fall (autumn), President Harry Truman tells the American public that the Soviets tested their first nuclear device, officially starting the arms race."
:: 1953: Two minutes to midnight. "After much debate, the United States decides to pursue the hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than any atomic bomb. In October 1952, the United States tests its first thermonuclear device, obliterating a Pacific Ocean islet in the process; nine months later, the Soviets test an H-bomb of their own."
:: 1960: Seven minutes to midnight. "Political actions belie the tough talk of 'massive retaliation'. For the first time, the United States and Soviet Union appear eager to avoid direct confrontation in regional conflicts such as the 1956 Egyptian-Israeli dispute."
:: 1963: Twelve minutes to midnight . "After a decade of almost non-stop nuclear tests, the United States and Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which ends all atmospheric nuclear testing."
: 1968: Seven minutes to midnight. "Regional wars rage. US involvement in Vietnam intensifies, India and Pakistan battle in 1965, and Israel and its Arab neighbours renew hostilities in 1967.Worse yet, France and China develop nuclear weapons to assert themselves as global players."
:: 1969: Ten minutes to midnight. "Nearly all of the world's nations come together to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."
:: 1972: Twelve minutes to midnight. "The United States and Soviet Union attempt to curb the race for nuclear superiority by signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (Salt) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty."
:: 1974: Nine minutes to midnight. "South Asia gets the Bomb, as India tests its first nuclear device. And any gains in previous arms control agreements seem like a mirage."
:: 1980: Seven minutes to midnight. "Thirty-five years after the start of the nuclear age and after some promising disarmament gains, the United States and the Soviet Union still view nuclear weapons as an integral component of their national security."
:: 1981: Four minutes to midnight. "The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan hardens the US nuclear posture."
:: 1984: Three minutes to midnight. "US-Soviet relations reach their iciest point in decades. Dialogue between the two superpowers virtually stops."
:: 1988: Six minutes to midnight: "The United States and Soviet Union sign the historic Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the first agreement to actually ban a whole category of nuclear weapons."
:: 1990: Ten minutes to midnight. "As one Eastern European country after another (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania) frees itself from Soviet control, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev refuses to intervene, halting the ideological battle for Europe and significantly diminishing the risk of all-out nuclear war."
:: 1991: Seventeen minutes to midnight: "With the Cold War officially over, the United States and Russia begin making deep cuts to their nuclear arsenals. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty greatly reduces the number of strategic nuclear weapons deployed by the two former adversaries."
:: 1995: Fourteen minutes to midnight: "Hopes for a large post-Cold War peace dividend and a renouncing of nuclear weapons fade."
:: 1998: Nine minutes to midnight. "India and Pakistan stage nuclear weapons tests only three weeks apart."
:: 2002: Seven minutes to midnight: "Concerns regarding a nuclear terrorist attack underscore the enormous amount of unsecured - and sometimes unaccounted for - weapon-grade nuclear materials located throughout the world."
:: 2007: Five minutes to midnight. "The world stands at the brink of a second nuclear age. The United States and Russia remain ready to stage a nuclear attack within minutes, North Korea conducts a nuclear test, and many in the international community worry that Iran plans to acquire the Bomb. Climate change also presents a dire challenge to humanity."
:: 2010: Six minutes to midnight: "We are poised to bend the arc of history toward a world free of nuclear weapons. The dangers posed by climate change are growing, but there are pockets of progress."
:: 2012: Five minutes to midnight: "The challenges to rid the world of nuclear weapons, harness nuclear power, and meet the nearly inexorable climate disruptions from global warming are complex and interconnected. In the face of
such complex problems, it is difficult to see where the capacity lies to address these challenges."
:: 2015: Three minutes to midnight: "Unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernisations, and out-sized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity, and world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on Earth."
:: 2016: Still three minutes to midnight. "The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon. That probability has not been reduced. The Clock ticks. Global danger looms. Wise leaders should act - immediately."
:: 2017: Two and a half minutes to midnight.
""As we marked the 70th anniversary of the Doomsday Clock, this year's Clock deliberations felt more urgent than usual. In addition to the existential threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate change, new global realities emerged, as trusted sources of information came under attack, fake news was on the rise, and words were used by a President-elect of the United States in cavalier and often reckless ways to address the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change."
The Doomsday Clock gives a symbolic 'countdown to midnight' for the human race.
Conclusion
Many will say, can scientists know the mind of God concerning the end of the world? Do not be deceived, God can use anything and anyway to speak to his people, He make sure He sent several warnings to humanity before judgement so that nobody will have an excuse. Remember Noah preached for 120 years, warning the people of his time but he only won seven souls. I believe as God can use signs in heaven, weather, Earthquakes and etc, why can't he do same through scientists.
The Bottom line is Jesus Christ is at the Door...
Rapture is about to take place...
Armageddon is looming...
This is the right and best time to give your life to Christ, and come out of Babylon, believing and accepting every Word of God in order to escape the destruction that is about to befall this world...
Very soon we shall see, some decisions President Trump has took in his first week in office and their Significance in the End of time.
Stay tuned...
Remain blessed...