I am not a doomsday kind of gal, but I’m also not someone who is willing to scoff at God’s Word either. After reading some of the comments today on an article about the meteor in Russia, my heart broke. There are those who are saying the ‘end of the world’ is upon us and those who scoff at the very idea of a judgment for our wicked behavior. The whole event and the response of people is ‘like the days of Noah’ when Noah prepared for a flood. As he built an ark, the people mocked him, his family, his unseen, unnamed God until the day he went into the ark and the rain started coming down. Clearly, we will each respond to the event of a meteor hitting the earth that injures many people in different ways.
Do I believe that the former earth was destroyed by water in the ‘days of Noah’. Yes. Do I believe the Bible says the present heaven and earth will be destroyed by fire? Yes. I’m not alone in my beliefs. My mother taught me the world would be destroyed by fire and I never once remember seeing her read her Bible. Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” suggests the same thing. Why else do the godless fight global warming and its affect on ‘mother earth’ if they’re not worried about ‘great heat?’
Galatians 6:7 says, “God will not be mocked; a man reaps what he sows.” Whether or not the meteor is a sign from God that the end of life as we know it is near, I do not know. But I do know that I will not scoff at an event from the heavens that injured more than 500 people.
Whether or not one believes in God of the Bible doesn’t make Him non-existent or His prophets irrelevant. What if the dooms sayers are wrong? What if the meteor is just a ‘freak accident’ of our own space trash? What does it matter? Man is still reaping the judgment what he has sown in space. Yet, what if the dooms sayers are right? What if the meteor is a broken-off chunk from a comet passing very close to earth? What if it truly is the Creator’s way of ‘waking us up?’ Are we ready to reap what we have sown or change our rebellious ways? I can only hope that those Russians were ready. The meteor came on them like ‘a thief in the night.’
Initially, I was only going to post the following words from the apostle Peter, but I wanted to clarify why I was sharing them.
“Dear friends, I am writing you now this second letter; and in both letters I am trying to arouse you to wholesome thinking by means of reminders; so that you will keep in mind the predictions of the holy prophets and the command given by the Lord and Deliverer through your emissaries.
First, understand this: during the Last Days, scoffers will come, following their own desires and asking, “Where is this promised ‘coming’ of his? For our fathers have died, and everything goes on just as it has since the beginning of creation.” But, wanting so much to be right about this, they overlook the fact that it was by God’s Word that long ago there were heavens, and there was land which arose out of water and existed between the waters, and that by means of these things the world of that time was flooded with water and destroyed. It is by that same Word that the present heavens and earth, having been preserved, are being kept for fire until the Day of Judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
Moreover, dear friends, do not ignore this: with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some people think of slowness; on the contrary, he is patient with you; for it is not his purpose that anyone should be destroyed, but that everyone should turn from his sins. However, the Day of the Lord will come “like a thief.” On that Day the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.
Since everything is going to be destroyed like this, what kind of people should you be? You should lead holy and godly lives, as you wait for the Day of God and work to hasten its coming. That Day will bring on the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt from the heat; but we, following along with his promise, wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness will be at home. Therefore, dear friends, as you look for these things, do everything you can to be found by him without spot or defect and at peace. And think of our Lord’s patience as deliverance, just as our dear brother Sha’ul also wrote you, following the wisdom God gave him” (2 Peter 3:1-15 CJB).
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