LAST THINGS
THE WORLD AND YOU
DR. JIM DIXON
1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-11
JUNE 11, 2006
It was of course Woody Allen who once said, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” I think that’s how many people feel about the end of the world. It’s not that they’re afraid of the end of the world. They just don’t want to be there when it happens. But of course, everything comes to an end. That is true of our physical lives. They come to an end, and we understand this biologically. It is true of empires and nations. They come to an end, and we understand this historically. It is true of planets and star systems, and we understand this cosmologically. Everything comes to an end.
In the Bible, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, it states, “There is a time to be born and a time to die.” Everything comes to an end. The only question is, “Are you ready?” We begin this Sunday an 8-week series on “The Last Things,” and next week we’re going to look at Islam and Israel as that relates to the end of the age. But today we have kind of an introductory lesson and we’re going to go over kind of a basic summary fashion of this subject and we’re going to look at the world and you—what’s going to happen to the world and what’s going to happen to you. We begin by looking at the world. What is going to happen to this planet? What’s going to happen to the world?
Some of you have seen the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” The movie is about ecological disaster, a global warming which melts the polar ice caps and elevates the oceans of the world and the waters flood cities. The melting of the polar ice caps not only elevates the ocean but drops the water temperature and the oceans of the world, bringing global climactic change and enveloping the earth in an ice age. And North America becomes uninhabitable. It’s kind of pseudo-science, but what does real science have to say about this earth? What does real science tell us is going to happen to this world?
Of course, scientists have kind of a long view and then they have a short view of what’s going to happen to the planet. But on the long view they point out that the thermonuclear reactions at the core of our star, which we call the sun, will be sustained. They will continue unabated for 4.5 billion years, with the sun’s temperature and the heat it produces gradually rising but relatively stable. And then after 4.5 billion years, the thermonuclear reactions at the core of the sun will destabilize. The sun will begin to expand and it will become a red giant star and it will expand to the orbit of Mercury and the light given off by the sun will increase by a billion years 5,000 times. Of course, nothing could possibly live on planet earth then. After that period of time, the sun would become a white dwarf and then later it would become a black dwarf and of course eventually the solar system would be dark and cold and dead.
That’s the long view, but scientists know that that’s kind of irrelevant for humanity because human life will not last on this world even during the time of our sun being a yellow dwarf, which it is now. Human life is not going to last on this earth for 4.5 billion years. Scientists point out that the sun’s temperatures are rising and over time that will be significant, particularly when combined with the changes in earth’s atmosphere. The carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere is changing for a variety of reasons and of course water vapor content in the atmosphere is also changing. Scientists point out that eventually this is going to be a scorched earth and they think that it will take 30 million years for planet earth to be scorched.
Of course, you’re probably thinking that’s still a pretty long view and I’m going to be off the bus long before that ever happens, but scientists know that it’s really not the long view that matters. Scientists know that civilization will probably not go out with a whimper but with a bang, and so scientists believe that something cataclysmic inevitably will happen on this planet.
In the year 1980 the Nobel Laureate, the Nobel Prize winner whose name was Louis Alvarez made an amazing discovery. He was looking at the so-called geologic column and the layers of the earth’s history. He was looking at what is called the KC Boundary, the boundary between the crustaceous and tertiary periods of earth history. As he looked there, he found an unusual amount of the element iridium. Iridium is found on planet earth but it’s rare here and is very common in asteroids or in comets. Alvarez proposed—this doctor, this scientist, this Nobel Laureate—that perhaps between the crustaceous and the tertiary periods of earth history 65 million years ago this earth took a big hit from an asteroid or a comet that was rich in iridium.
Looking at the geological column, scientists have now found 50 sites right at the KT layer, between the crustaceous-tertiary periods where they find iridium. Alvarez speculated that this asteroid hit the earth and sent a vast cloud canopy of dust and debris into the atmosphere which enveloped the earth and stopped the sun’s light from reaching the surface of the earth and stopped the process of photosynthesis and plants and animals began to die. Some scientists doubted it. They believe that an asteroid hit could not produce a cloud canopy that would last long enough to kill 50% of the earth’s population as Alvarez had proposed.
But then in the year 1990 they found the crater. They found the KT crater, a crater that was formed between the crustaceous-tertiary period 65 million years ago. They found it near the Yucatan Peninsula—112 miles wide, a huge crater. They found that where the asteroid or where the comet hit the earth, the land was rich in sulfur and they now believe that when that asteroid hit the earth, it sent 100 billion tons of sulfur into earth’s atmosphere, creating sulfiric acid droplets that encircled the globe for decades, which caused acid rain on the earth and of course caused fires to break out globally. It was a holocaust. It was apocalyptic, cataclysmic, almost the end of the world. And scientists believe it will happen again. They know it will happen again. They can look at the earth and they see two hundred craters of similar size to the one in Yucatan—200 craters. There are many additional craters, but there are 200 large craters that were formed before man came on the scene, before humanity came on the scene. They know it’s just a matter of time before it happens again.
Is this part of the biblical picture? Is this part of the biblical scenario as to what will happen on earth? Well, we’re going to look at that in the weeks ahead, but scientists know that there are other ways that this world could come to an end. A nearby star could go supernova. Scientists tell us that if a star is our neighborhood were to go supernova, and if it were within ten parsecs, or thirty light years, from earth it would destroy human civilization. It would destroy our ozone layer. A star going supernova in our neighborhood would eventually destroy our ozone layer, which would perhaps take 300 years, but humanity could not survive it. And so, scientists say that’s just another way that it could all come to an end.
The spin of the earth—the earth spins on its axis—could change. It has happened in other star systems. It happens and it could happen here with cataclysmic affect, with mass extinction. It could happen here. And of course there could be global climatic changes. The polar ice caps could melt. The oceans could rise. Cities could flood. Oceans could drop in temperature, changing global climate, ushering in an ice age. It could happen.
Scientists know there are a lot of ways for this world as we know it to end. And so, what does the Bible tell us? What does the Bible tell us is going to happen? Of course, we’re going to be looking at this in the next seven weeks, but the Bible tells us the Great Tribulation is coming. It’s what Jesus tells us, the Son of God, in the Olivet Discourse given outside the city of Jerusalem. He said that the Great Tribulation will come such as this earth has never seen. He tells us that there will be ecological disaster. We can look in the Book of Revelation and see that one-third to two-thirds of the earth’s air will be polluted, depending on how you interpret the Book of Revelation. One-third to two-thirds of the arable soil on the earth will be corrupted. One-third to two-thirds of the fresh water on the earth will be corrupted. Partly by man perhaps but for a variety of reasons, that’s all going to happen. “There will be pestilence,” Jesus said, and we’re told this in other portions of scripture as well in prophetic passages. There will be pandemic plague.
We read in the newspapers about the bird flu and scientists are afraid that perhaps this virus will mutate and it will become an airborne contagion. And that’s what happens in pandemic plagues. The Bible says pandemic plagues will come. The Bible tells us there will be apostasy, even in the churches, apostasy, and the Antichrist will come. We’ll look at these things in the weeks ahead.
The Bible tells us in the last days Israel will be reborn as a nation. Many passages of the Bible prophesy the rebirth of Israel and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland. For centuries Bible scholars thought this was impossible. They thought it must just be somehow symbolic. And now we understand God meant it literally and Israel has been reborn miraculously in our generation. In 1948 Israel was reborn. In 1967 the Jews reoccupied Jerusalem and 5 million Jews have gone to the Holy Land to live, all in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The Bible tells us that when Israel is reborn, that newborn nation will be hated by the surrounding nations and that is happening today. It will all lead to Armageddon. But we will look at these things in the weeks to come.
The Bible tells us that what’s really going to bring about the end of this age of the world is the return of Jesus Christ. He will come again to judge the world and to receive His people unto Himself. He tells us in the Olivet Discourse, were He not to return, the earth would destroy itself. No one would survive if not for His return. He will cut Armageddon short. Before the earth is destroyed, He will come again. When will this happen? There has been a lot of speculation through the centuries, and not all of it good. In the year 50 AD, Christians in Thessalonica quit their jobs because they thought the return of Jesus Christ was imminent and the Apostle Paul wrote to them and said, “Go back to work. It’s not the time.”
In the year 150 AD, there was a man named Montanus, and he was charismatic. He founded a kind of semi-Pentecostal movement in Asia Minor and he was joined in leadership two women, one named Maximilla, the other named Priscilla. The early church father Tertullian refers to Priscilla as Prisca. It’s not the same Prisca or Priscilla that we find in Paul’s writings in the 1st century, or Priscilla who was a friend of Paul’s. This is a 2nd century Priscilla or Prisca and part of the Montanist movement. They gathered people throughout many parts of the Christian world and they all came to a region of Phrygia and they taught that the little town of Pepuza would be the New Jerusalem and that Jesus Christ was coming again soon and He would usher in the Millennium and ultimately the new heavens and the new earth. But of course it didn’t happen and Montanus died and Maximilla died and Priscilla died.
In the year 410 AD, Alaric surrounded the eternal city of Rome with his Gothic hordes. He brought his vast army of Visigoths. He cut off the city of Rome from all of its supplies. People were dying of starvation in the city of Rome, dying in the streets, and the followers of the theologian Pelagius announced the end of the world, the return of Christ, but of course it didn’t happen.
In 991 AD, Vesuvius erupted again, volcanic eruption, and just five years later in 996 there was a great civil war in Rome. As they approached the dawning of a new millennium, as they approached the year 1,000 and Otto III ascended the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic theologians said Jesus was going to return and the new millennium was going to be THE millennium of scripture, that Jesus Christ would come and this age of the world would end. But of course, it didn’t happen.
In the year 1191, there arose a man named Joachim who was kind of a wannabe prophet. He befriended Richard the Lionhearted who was King of England and somehow he convinced Richard the Lionhearted that Saladin, the Muslim Sultan, was the Antichrist. Joachim convinced Richard the Lionhearted that through the Crusades, Armageddon would come and Jesus Christ would return. But of course, it didn’t happen.
In the year 1495, shortly after Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World and shortly before Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, in that year—1495—there arose a great man of God. His name was Savonarola. He was deeply committed to Christ. He made prophecies and some of them came true, but he made a mistake. He predicted the end of the world and he set the day and the hour, and it did not happen.
In the year 1501, about that same time, Christopher Columbus wrote his little-known book called “The Book of Prophecies,” where Christopher Columbus predicted that Jesus Christ would return in the month of December in the year 1656. Of course, that did not happen.
In the 19th century, William Miller became popular in America and he founded the Millerite movement and the Adventist Movement and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He had tens of thousands of followers. He made a great mistake. He predicted the return of Christ and he set the day and the hour, and he said it would happen on October 22 in the year 1844. As that date approached, thousands of Millerites, tens of thousands, quit their jobs. Some went to live in churches. Some went to live in trees. They thought the return of Christ was imminent. Of course, October 22, 1844, arrived and Jesus Christ did not. The next day all those Millerites were so embarrassed. They had to return to people and kind of have egg on their face. And so it’s been throughout history.
I promise you this. In the next eight weeks, we’re not going to be setting the day or the hour. That’s not going to happen. Of course, no one knows when Jesus Christ will return. Jesus said, “No one knows but the Father. He alone knows that day and hour.” But it will happen. That day will come, and with the Lord a day is as a thousand years. It says in the Book of 2 Peter, “A thousand years is as one day,” but the day will come.
There are reasons to believe that the day is near. There are reasons to believe that geopolitically. After all, the rebirth of Israel is significant in its place on the globe and the reaction of the nations of our world to that reborn nation of Israel. It’s not just geopolitical realities. There are environmental factors. We’re approaching the description of air, water, and earth as described in the Book of Revelation. And there are theological, moral, and ethical factors. And certainly apostasy is growing. It’s certainly possible that the time is near. We’re going to be looking at these things in the weeks ahead as we go through the summer. I hope that you’re going to want to be here.
This morning I want us to conclude by taking a look at you. What’s going to happen to you and what’s going to happen to me? I think a lot of you have heard of utilitarianism. You probably studied it in high school and certainly in college. Utilitarianism was a moral philosophy established by English philosophers James Mill and John Stewart Mill, and primarily established by Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism taught that morals should be based on utility. Moral decision should be based on the results, the consequences, the outcome. They hated moral absolutes. Utilitarianism and the people who belonged to it hated the Ten Commandments. They believed that nothing is absolutely true. It’s only true if it produces a beneficial effect.
Of course, moral purists responded by saying, “If something is true, it’s intrinsically true.” Telling the truth is morally virtuous whether it produces a beneficial result to you or not. It’s intrinsically true. But utilitarians judged everything by its utility.
Now, Jeremy Bentham died in the year 1832. I think many of you know that he was not buried and he was not cremated. Jeremy Bentham was stuffed, and he was preserved. You can see him today, if you’re a little bit morbid, if you’re a little strange, in London, England, at the University College Hospital there. They have him exhibited, his stuffed body preserved. Jeremy Bentham. I mentioned before one time that for 92 years Jeremy Bentham sat on the board of the hospital. He was dead. The years were 1832 to 1924. For those 92 years, he sat on the board of the University College Hospital in London, England, his body stuffed and preserved and sitting there at the table. He had demanded that. He had said that he should be at all board meetings in perpetuity if upon his death his entire estate was given to the hospital. They agreed to this, but after 92 years they just couldn’t take it anymore. They were having a hard time getting board members. Nobody wanted to sit at a table with a dead guy.
I think of course people don’t like to be reminded of our mortality, the fact that death is inevitable. The death rate is almost 100%. It’s true Enoch was translated into heaven while he yet lived. Elijah was taken into heaven in a fiery chariot. Someday the church of Jesus Christ is going to be raptured and that generation of Christians will not see death. That’s an elevator you don’t want to miss. There’s no staircase that you can go up. But death is almost 100%.
Barb, on Friday night, pulled down from the internet a list of all the famous people who have died so far this year. I took a look at it yesterday. It’s amazing. Peter Benchley, who wrote “Jaws,” died this year. Senator Lloyd Benson, who was the running mate of Dukakis in ’88, just died this year. Betty Friedan, the feminist, died this year. Tony Franciosa, the actor who was married to Shelly Winters, died this year, and in fact Shelly Winters died this year just a few days from when Tony Franciosa died. Curt Gowdy… I think a lot of you have heard of him, the famous sportscaster, football, baseball. I used to love to listen to him. He died this year. John Kenneth Galbraith, the famous economist, the Ambassador to India, Harvard Professor and famous writer, died this year. Coretta Scott King died this year. She was a Civil Rights activist, a musician, the wife of Martin Luther King, and of course she saw her husband’s ended prematurely with an assassin’s bullet. And just this year she, too, died.
Don Knotts, Barney Fife, died this year. That can’t be a good thing. Famous people. Of course, Darren McGavin, whose reruns of “Nightstalker” are still on TV, just died this year. Buck Owens, the co-host of “Hee Haw” (maybe you’re not too embarrassed to admit maybe you saw that), died this year. Lou Rawls, the famous singer. Maureen Stapleton, famous actress. Dennis Weaver, Chester on “Gunsmoke,” died this year. Caspar Weinberger, who was Secretary of Defense in the Iran Contra time, died this year. So many deaths.
I was thinking yesterday it doesn’t matter whether you’re famous or unknown. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor. None of it matters. Death comes, doesn’t it? The issue is, are you ready? Are you ready for that? Are you ready for the end of this world? And more importantly, are you ready for the end of your life? Are you ready for this physical life as you now know it to come to an end?
In the Aegean Sea there is an island called Patmos. Some of you have been there. Some of you have gone there with me. The island is small, only 50 square miles. In the Roman era it was a place of banishment. Roman prisoners throughout the Empire were at times sent to this island of Patmos. John the Apostle was banished there. We don’t know when. According to church tradition, it was about 95 AD during the reign of Domitian. He was there for 18 months according to church tradition. There’s a monastery there today. It was built in 1088 by Christodoulos, the Monastery of St. John the Apostle. Half the island today is owned by the Monastery. You can go there to the grotto near the monastery where John allegedly lived and you can see where Jesus appeared to John, resurrected and alive, and you can see where Jesus made that incredible statement, “ego eimi ho zon,” “I Am The Living One.”
Those words are so important. They are at the beginning of the Book of Revelation, and of course the Book of Revelation has to do with last things, what’s going to happen and how the world is going to end. But it’s so important to know as we look at last things that Jesus said, “ego eimi ho zon,” “I Am The Living One.” You see, He has life in Himself and He offers life to you and He offers life to me. You don’t need to fear the end of this life. You don’t need to fear the end of the world. You don’t need to fear anything if you have Jesus, because He is indeed The Living One and He offers a forgiveness of sins and eternal life to everyone who believes in His name. I promise you His words are true. He said, “He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die.” Those words are true.
As we move ahead in these weeks this summer, maybe some of you who don’t yet know Christ will give your hearts to Him, your lives to Him. That’s my prayer. And for those of us who believe, maybe we’ll wake up. Maybe we’ll get real, and that’s what Paul tells us to do. When he talked about the last things, Paul’s words to the Thessalonians were, “Gregoromen!” “Wake up!” “Nephomen!” “Get real!” “Be sober!” “See reality!” When Peter was talking to the church of Jesus Christ and talking about the last things and talking about the devil himself, Peter said to Christians, “Gregoromen!” “Wake up!” And, “Nephomen!” “Get real!”
You’ve all heard of Washington Irving. Some of you have read his story of “Rip Van Winkle.” Some of you haven’t. You know perhaps the story of Rip and how he lived in the Catskills Mountains during the colonial period of American History. Rip had an argument with his wife. He was all upset and in a huff. He went outside and took a walk, trying to calm down and cool down. He went into the foothills of the Catskills. As he wandered around kind of trying to calm down, he ran into a strange little man and this strange little man had a keg of liquor and he offered Rip a drink. Rip took a drink and he fell asleep, and he didn’t wake up for 20 years. You know the story. So, he woke up 20 years later and he discovered that his wife had died, his kids were grown, the Civil War had come and gone, and he was out of it.
There are a lot of people who are kind of out of it, like walking dead. Some of them are Christians and they are kind of out of it. Paul says, “Wake up!” “Gregoromen!” “See things as they really are!” ” Nephomen!” That’s what we’re going to for this summer. We’re going to see if the Lord might give us eyes to see so that we might see things as they really area and we might wake up and realize God has a purpose for us here on earth and the time is short. So, join me in these weeks ahead. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.