I just watched a movie……Greenland. It was pretty good entertainment……..lots of action, talented actors, and a fast moving plot. The condensed version is that a comet slams into earth and kills almost everything. This is referred to as “a planetary extinction event”. Science tells us that this has happened before……..at least 5 times, maybe more, depending on how you define the term.
The best known of these was the Yucatan asteroid. This caused the death of about 80% of the living things on earth……..including the dinosaurs. It doesn’t take a lot of foresight to accept that anything that has happened 5 times already can happen again. It is not so much a question of IF there will be a planetary extinction event. It is more a question of when. Every few years, scientists detect a giant space rock that passes close to earth. They assure us that it will miss……..that we will literally dodge the bullet one more time. There are likely plans to try to blow up or deflect such an asteroid should it threaten us.
Curiously, mass extinction is an area where science and the Bible agree. The flood of Noah’s time, described in Genesis, was just such an event. Revelation is a detailed, though likely metaphorical account of a future mass extinction event. In the Bible, as with science, the only question………is when.
Science and the Bible agree.
We are headed for a mass extinction event. It’s just a matter of time.
What to do?
If the secular humanists are right, the only defense is to die from something else before the comet hits. As “best possible case scenarios” go…….this is daunting.
The Bible offers something else……..a spiritual dimension…….a cosmic “escape pod”. We go to another dimension that is safe. Even better……it is eternal. Pretty cool.
But there is a catch.
In the movie, there is a sanctuary. In order to get into the sanctuary, you have to have a bar code on your phone and a little blue plastic band on your wrist.
The Bible is different. The Bible teaches that there is an eternal spiritual dimension……..that both the physical world and the spiritual world were created by an intelligent being…….and that this intelligent being, God, has expectations……….conditions. Instead of a blue wrist band and a bar code. God requires you to accept his existence. This means that you accept his rules…….love him and love those around you. Do that, and you will survive the final mass extinction event.
The burning question is this:
Who is right? The secular humanists or the Christians. Which explanation of the final mass extinction event is true.
It is not an academic or philosophical question. It is literally a choice between life and death.
Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus describing the escape pod, John 14: 1-3, ESV