Every sincere Christian would be
longing for the return of the Lord Jesus in all HIS power and glory. Whenever
we face severe adversity, we long for HIS Second Coming. Even now we pray, come
Lord Jesus come (Revelation 22:20). Come and deliver us from all evil.
We are aware that Christ’s second
coming will usher the end of the world (Matthew 24:3b). The Lord’s second
coming is imminent and will be sudden (1 Peter 4:7; Luke 12:40).
Interestingly, secular scientists also think that the end of the world is closer than ever before.
They moved the Doomsday clock 100 seconds to midnight on January 23, 2020 (and
they did not even consider Coronavirus!):1
The Bulletin of
the Atomic Scientists—a nonprofit group of scientists and security experts who
monitor the possibility of Armageddon caused by humans—has moved the Doomsday
Clock 100 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the clock has been in
its 75-year history.
“Humanity
continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate
change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information
warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond,” the Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists said in a statement. “The international security situation is
dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have
allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”
According to
the Bulletin, the Doomsday Clock is a visual representation of how close humanity
is to ending itself. Every year since the clocks inception in 1947, a group of
scientists and experts gather to discuss the possibility of the end of the
world and adjust the clock accordingly. It’s meant as a warning.
At 100 seconds
to midnight, the Bulletin is saying it believes Earth is closer to global
disaster than at any other time in its history.
Eschatology
is the study of the last things. Theologically it means the study of the
consummation of history, the completion of God’s working in the world. Theological eschatology is the
Christian eschatology, whereas Physical
Eschatology is a scientific field of study.
In science, Eschatology is a branch of Cosmology, and studies all things
pertaining to the end of this world. Dr. William Lane Craig posits, “Eschatology
is no longer exclusively the subject matter of theology but has in the last
quarter century or so emerged as a new branch of cosmology (the study of the
large-scale structure and history of the universe), being a sort of mirror
image of cosmogony, that branch of cosmology that studies the origin of the
universe. Not that the future of the universe will resemble its past; far from
it. But just as physical cosmogony looks back in time to retrodict the history
of the cosmos based on traces of the past and the laws of nature, so physical
eschatology looks forward in time to predict the future of the cosmos based on
present conditions and laws of nature.”2
How would our universe end? Here’s what the
scientists believe:3
Scientists
believe that eventually even the universe will end. How precisely that will
happen is a matter of debate, but scientists have come up with three main
theories as to how the entire universe will die.
The first
theory is called the Big Crunch. Essentially, the Big Crunch theory states that
one day the expansion of the universe will reverse. Matter will solely become
compressed until the universe returns to its state prior to the Big Bang and
reforms the Cosmic Egg. From here, some people theorize that another Big Bang
will occur and a new universe will form. That universe then will expand,
eventually reach its full size, collapse in a Big Crunch, form a Cosmic Egg and
repeat the entire cycle.
The second
major theory is that of the Big Rip. The Big Rip is the exact opposite of the
Big Crunch. In the Big Rip theory, the universe will continue expanding
forever. Eventually, this expansion will become so great that molecules, atoms
and even subatomic particles are torn apart. The very fabric of space-time will
be shredded and all semblance of existence will cease.
The third major
theory of the end of the universe is called the Big Freeze or, more ominously,
heat death. Like with the Big Rip theory, the Big Freeze theory states that the
universe will continue to expand forever. Eventually, it will become so large
that particles can no longer interact with each other. The expansion of the
universe will become faster than the speed of light, and the maximum entropy of
the universe will have been reached. No more heat transfer or work can be
complete from a physics standpoint, and the universe ends quietly and meekly.
How
do theological eschatology and physical eschatology compare? Dr. Craig says
that they do not disagree, “…even on a purely physical, scientific approach to
eschatology, there is the imminent possibility of an apocalyptic scenario that
would involve worldwide destruction.”4
Dr. Craig outlines a parallel between the theological
eschatology and physical eschatology, “The parallels between the
theological and physical eschatological apocalypses are striking and
unmistakable: a complete and worldwide metamorphosis of nature, sudden, without
warning, like a thief in the night, unavoidable, issuing in a new heavens and a
new earth, a renovated universe.”5
Where
do physical eschatology and theological eschatology diverge? Dr. Craig
outlines the disagreement between physical and theological, “The difference
between the two is, of course, for Christians we look forward to this event as
the Second Coming of Christ and the deliverance from this world and its
shortcomings and being ushered into the new heavens and new Earth that God has
prepared for us.”6
Does
physical eschatology believe in a sudden and imminent extinction of our
universe just as theological eschatology (2 Peter 3:10-12)? Yes! Dr. Craig posits, “Doubtless,
one of the chief difficulties presented by Christian eschatology is that it
just seems incredible that next year, say, or next Tuesday the universe is
going to be obliterated by the return of Christ and Judgement Day…physical
eschatology itself contains its own apocalyptic scenario of impending worldwide
destruction…it is unpredictable and could happen, in the words of Adams and
Laughlin, "at virtually any time, as soon as tomorrow." [40]”7
Finally, physical eschatology provides sufficient scope
for the existence of a transcendent Creator of our universe. This is an
intriguing likeness to the theological eschatology.8
Cosmologists agree that our universe
could not have existed eternally. Our universe ought to have had a beginning.
The beginning, then, should have had a beginner – the one who caused the
universe to exist. Dr. Craig explains:9
Of course,
physical eschatologists might ask whether there is any reason to take seriously
the hypothesis of a transcendent, intelligent agent with requisite power over
the course of nature to affect the projected trajectories of physical
eschatology. Intriguingly, physical eschatology itself furnishes grounds for
taking seriously such a hypothesis. As we have seen, already in the nineteenth
century scientists realized that the application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
to the universe as a whole implied that the universe will eventually come to a
state of equilibrium and suffer heat death. But this apparently firm projection
raised an even deeper question: if, given sufficient time, the universe will
suffer heat death, then why, if it has existed forever, is it not now in a
state of heat death? If in a finite amount of time the universe will inevitably
come to equilibrium, from which no significant further change is physically
possible, then it should already be at equilibrium by now, if it has existed
for infinite time. Like a ticking clock, it should by now have run down. Since
it has not yet run down, this implies, in the words of Richard Schlegel,
"In some way the universe must have been wound up." [8]
… Thus, the
same pointed question raised by classical physics persists: why, if the
universe has existed forever, is it not now in a cold, dark, dilute, and
lifeless state? In contrast to their nineteenth century forbears, contemporary
physicists have come to question the implicit assumption that the universe is
eternal in the past. P. C. W. Davies reports,
Today, few
cosmologists doubt that the universe, at least as we know it, did have an
origin at a finite moment in the past. The alternative - that the universe has
always existed in one form or another—runs into a rather basic paradox. The sun
and stars cannot keep burning forever: sooner or later they will run out of
fuel and die.
The same is
true of all irreversible physical processes; the stock of energy available in
the universe to drive them is finite, and cannot last for eternity. This is an
example of the so-called second law of thermodynamics, which, applied to the
entire cosmos, predicts that it is stuck on a one-way slide of degeneration and
decay towards a final state of maximum entropy, or disorder. As this final
state has not yet been reached, it follows that the universe cannot have
existed for an infinite time. [11]
Davies
concludes, "The universe can't have existed forever. We know there must
have been an absolute beginning a finite time ago." [12]
… The
plausibility of Christian eschatology vis à vis the projections of physical
eschatology is thus inherently bound up with one's ontology. If, as physical
eschatology itself intimates, there exists a personal, transcendent agent who
created the universe with all its natural laws and boundary conditions, and if
that agent has raised from the dead Jesus of Nazareth, who promised his
eschatological return, then it is eminently rational to entertain "the blessed
hope" of Christian eschatology, while accepting the findings of physical
eschatology as more or less accurate projections based on present conditions.
Endnotes:
1https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epgzqj/scientists-think-were-closer-to-the-end-of-the-world-than-ever
2https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/christian-doctrines/time-eternity-and-eschatology/
3https://www.beliefnet.com/news/what-does-science-say-about-the-end-of-the-world.aspx
4https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-2/s2-doctrine-of-the-last-things/doctrine-of-the-last-things-part-8/
5https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/science-theology/the-end-of-the-world/
6https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-2/s2-doctrine-of-the-last-things/doctrine-of-the-last-things-part-8/
7https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/science-theology/the-end-of-the-world/
8https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/christian-doctrines/time-eternity-and-eschatology/
9https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/science-theology/the-end-of-the-world/
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