Hope for Our Fragile World
Our world is a bit like Humpty Dumpty—fine until it cracks. Bible expert Graeme Bradford looks at how it’s going to be put back together again.
Social commentators say the most significant contribution of the 20th century to world history will be the devastating effects that contemporary humankind has had upon the planet. Recently The Global Environment Outlook,* a 450-page summary compiled by the UN of our past 30 years, looked at what’s likely to happen over the next 30. Here are some highlights:
- 1183 species of birds and 1130 species of mammals threatened with extinction
- 2.2 billion more mouths to feed than in 1972, and another 2 billion in 30 years time
- 4 billion people, two-thirds of the world’s population, living on less than $2 a day
- overgrazing causes 35 per cent of soil to degrade
- half the world suffering water shortages, including 95 per cent of the Middle East.
It seems as if the ecologists are the new prophets of doom, as they seek to warn us of dangers ahead. In fact, we’re getting a wake-up call—an ultimatum to clean up our act or suffer the consequences.
Then there’s the threat to our planet of September 11–type of terrorism. Our politicians warn us we can expect more, including nuclear devices. Stephen Hawking (the world’s best known cosmologist), is one. Earlier this year, he said: “Although September 11 was horrible,” he says, “it didn’t threaten the survival of the human race, like nuclear weapons do.
In the long term, I’m more worried about biology. Nuclear weapons need large facilities, but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can’t regulate every lab in the world. The danger is that, either by accident or design, we create a virus that destroys us.
“I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life. . . .” It seems those who know most are most pessimistic. He sees life as so fragile on earth that humanity will need to reach into space to survive.
Of course even if we don’t cause life to come to an end, outer space itself remains a hazard. Asteroids have been pummelling our planet since the dawn of time. Some travel in orbits that cross our path. There’s always the danger that one of them will collide with us. The asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, is filled with more than 10,000 million fragments, ranging in size from dust-sized particles up to monsters more than 1000 kilometres in diameter. If even a moderately sized asteroid struck earth, it would trigger earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires and massive tidal waves. Tonnes of rock and dust would be blasted into the atmosphere, changing the climate, causing the end of life on this earth.
One came close just last December, when it passed within two million kilometres. It was one kilometre in diameter—large enough to have caused destruction worldwide.
Another one of approximately five kilometres diameter is due to come even closer in 2004.
We’re forced to admit it: life is indeed fragile on our planet. As I write, the conflict between India and Pakistan still simmers. If that cold war ever heats up, it could mean the “death of the subcontinent,” especially if nuclear weapons are used.
So where can we go to find hope for the future? The Bible contains both hope for the future and meaning to the present.
The apostle Paul wrote: “For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:19-22, NLT). This suggest that as humanity suffers, so too does the earth—God’s creation.
But it will not always be like this. The time is coming when God will bring humankind into a new everlasting creation, which will not know death and decay. The present pain is real, but it will pass, then will come joy like the birth of a new child.
Paul assures us that our suffering and distress pales in comparison to the wonders that God has in store for this world.
The Bible reassures us that God is preparing for the birth of a new Creation—a new earth. Our hope rests in the fact that the God who made this world in the first place will, in the end, make it new again.
He hasn’t given up on us, or this world we’ve messed up. God tells us this in many places in the Bible (see Isaiah 65:17- 19; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-3).
We know this is His intention, not only because He says so, but because of history. It’s a cliché that actions speak louder than words. Notice what the Bible tells us about what God has already done about the mess we find ourselves in: “In the beginning the Word already existed.
He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. . . . So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us” (John 1:1-3, 14, NLT).
Here the writer, John, is telling us that the One who made this world came into it, taking on Himself our human nature.
It’s hard to believe, but the One who made the world came as a babe to Bethlehem.
He grew up as one of us and walked the dusty roads of Palestine.
His name is Jesus Christ. The word Christ means “anointed one.” He was anointed by God to do a special work— to restore us and His creation to what God had always intended.
Jesus said of Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come” (Luke 4:18, 19, NLT).
The fact that He came and carried on His ministry was God’s way of saying that this is a glimpse of what the future will be. He went around healing lame people, feeding hungry people, telling people how to have a place in a better world by being made right with God. He stilled the waves as a demonstration that He controls the forces of nature.
In all He did, Jesus was reassuring us that there will come a time when all things will be put right again. And giving us hope for a better future. However, He also warned us that for the time being we can expect trouble and there will be suffering before that better world comes.
In fact, He experienced suffering. The Bible says He was put to death by painful crucifixion. Soldiers nailed Him to a wooden cross and left Him there to die.
While he was dying this terrible death, He cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” He felt alone as He died in our place. But because He died, the Bible declares, we will live—if we accept His death in our place. We have only to accept that, surrendering our lives to His.
And if we can do this, then a place in the new Creation is ours. One day. Our future doesn’t rest in outer space on some other planet. God will recreate this fragile planet and bring it back to its original condition, He says.
He will recreate a wonderful world.
There will be no more rich and poor. No more hunger or thirst. All will have homes in which to live. No more wars or terrorism. No more blindness or lameness.
No more racial tension. It will be a new world order brought in by God Himself.
Jesus coming into this world is God’s guarantee this will happen. One day.
While He was with us, He warned there would be trouble in this world, right to the end when He comes to put things right again. He said, “There will be strange events in the skies—signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And down here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. The courage of many people will falter because of the fearful fate they see coming upon the earth, because the stability of the very heavens will be broken up” (Luke 21:25, 26, NLT).
So the worst is yet to come. However, as has often been said, it’s darkest just before dawn. His very next words give us hope: “Then everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near!” (Luke 21:27, 28, NLT).
Although difficult times still lie ahead, beyond it all those who trust in God can look forward to the ultimate future.
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Articles of interest:
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This is an extract from September 2002
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