Citizen Columns

Citizen Columns >> Answer (February 17th, 2007)

Question

Scientists tells us that the sun has a finite life and will eventually destroy our earth in a fiery inferno. Does your religion believe this prediction, and if so, does your religion believe that God will intervene to save mankind?

Answer

I can't write about this without thinking of Robert Frost's poem, "Fire and Ice":

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Everything natural has a life-cycle, so it is no surprise that the earth will pass away. It may be destroyed by a natural phenomenon as you describe, or we may self-destruct long before the sun gets to us. The Bible does talk about a fiery end, but the focus is not there at all. The Bible's focus is on God. He was there long before creation came into existence and will be there forever after it ends. And however it ends, God's ultimate purpose is to save the creation that his love brought out of nothingness into being. By salvation we understand that God desires to shares his life and love with all.

We already have glimpses of this in our present life, and Christians believe that God fully shared the tragedy of human existence by entering it himself, in the person of Jesus Christ. But in the age to come we will see God face to face in a transformed existence where all sickness, suffering, evil and death have been purged away. In this "new heaven and new earth" (Rev 21:1) all that is good, true and beautiful in this life will find its place and its fulfillment, including every relationship with any ounce of love: nothing of this will be destroyed. For now, however, we can only look forward to that day and seek to be God's servants by bringing his love to the world around us.

Father John Jillions