[275 words]
It seems that as mankind has achieved greater levels of technological sophistication, the more he has worried about the end of the world. This is almost certainly because we have achieved the ability to completely wipe out life on earth. If war ever broke out, even a limited exchange consisting of a tiny percentage of the world’s nuclear arsenal would be enough to plunge our planet into nuclear winter. This worries a great many people.
At least one fear of the end of the world will continue until midnight on December 21 of this year. The Meso-American Long Count Calendar supposedly predicts the end of everything on that date. Mayan scholars dispute this claim, but it hasn’t stopped people from proclaiming the end of the world just days before Christmas (it even inspired the movie 2012 starring John Cusack).
Scientifically, astronomers state that there will come a time when the universe will come to an end. According to this view, the sun will eventually burn itself out, long after turning planet Earth into a cinder. Indeed, the entire universe will end one of two ways: either in the “Big Freeze” or the “Big Crunch.”
God has a different plan. Indeed, it was different from the very beginning. Peter says the end will come like a thief, and the heavens and earth will be consumed (2 Peter 3:10). But he also says that we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth because righteousness will dwell there (v.13).
The end of this world isn’t really the end—it’s a new beginning. And it’s something to which we should be looking forward.
Dewayne Bryant
Church of Christ
El Paso, TX