The Beginning and the End

• Home
• -
• The Beginning and the End

The Beginning and the End By Geoff Chapman

July 22, 2010

ACCORDING to NASA, “Two of the most profound questions that all cultures, both past and present, have asked are: where did we come from and what is our destiny?  Throughout history philosophers, theologians, and scientists have debated these questions.” Secular scientists have proposed several scenarios for the fate of our universe.

RUNNING DOWN

The “Heat Death” theory is based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics (which states that everything is running down due to increasing “entropy”) In spite of its name, this theory suggests that the universe will become totally dead with a temperature close to absolute zero. The “Big Rip” theory  suggests that the matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, and including our own solar system, will be progressively torn apart by the expansion of the universe at a certain time in the future. Then there is the “Big Crunch” theory which presupposes that the universe will eventually collapse back on itself, resulting in a massive “black hole.” Each of these scenarios assumes that it all began with a “big bang”, and some scientists even suggest that a “Big Crunch” could be followed by another “big bang” to create another universe! They also assume that the universe has no ultimate purpose, that it will continue for billions of years, and that there will be no supernatural intervention.

GOD WILL INTERVENE AGAIN

Such a naturalistic scenario is totally unacceptable to Christians, who have always believed that God, who stepped into history when Jesus Christ was born, will intervene again. The Wikipedia online encyclopedia rightly states, “The second coming of Christ is the central event in Christian eschatology.” Natural processes will not be allowed to run their course to ultimate destruction.

Christians  have differing views  about the sequence of events at the end of time, but all agree that following the return of Jesus Christ as King and Judge, God will replace this fallen world with “a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” (2 Peter 3: 13). The contrast with the secular, naturalistic view of the end is striking. The Bible clearly teaches that it will be a restoration (Acts 3: 21). This will not be a restoration to the primeval conditions imagined by secular evolutionists, but to the state that existed before “The Fall”. This is how John described his vision: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” (Revelation 21: 1). He also wrote, “No longer will there be any curse.” (Revelation 22: 3). That which blights creation at present will not exist in the new creation.

INSTANTANEOUS

The Bible says that when Jesus returns Christians “will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye.” (1 Corinthians 15: 51-52). This will be an instantaneous re-creation not a process over eons of time. And God didn’t need eons of time to create everything  in the beginning! No Bible-believing Christian can accept the secular scientists’ view of the universe’s destiny, so why accept their views about its origin?