| Highlights of DAWN | January 1982 |
World Without End
WE ARE seated in a planetarium. The scene before us is a bright warm summer day. Flowers sparkle in the sun, brilliant islands of color in a sea of lush green grass extending over and beyond the meadowy fringes of a friendly brook and fading from view into the deepening shadows of a distant woods. Above the shimmering treetops and reaching up into the blue cloudless sky, the spires and glassy towers of a city skyline glisten in the sunlight’s reflected glory. The entire landscape bathed in light and vibrant with life and beauty gives mute testimony to our planet’s utter dependency upon the life-sustaining warmth, light and energy with which our mother sun nourishes her children. And as we bask in the contentment of this gentle scene, the beautiful words of the poet Lowell come to mind:
“Whether we look or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur or see it glisten.
Every clod feels a stir of might
And instinct within it that reaches and towers
And groping blindly above it for light
Climbs to its soul in the grass and the flowers.”
In our contemplations we think of what Jesus said: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. … Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field … shall he not much more clothe you?” (Matt. 6:28-30) These words bring to us an awareness of the myriad intricate motions of life in our world—the beauty and fruitfulness they bring forth, and how they are all the loving handiwork of our generous Creator in providing this earth with such great bounty for mankind. Our thoughts go back to Genesis and we consider the eons of time during which step by creative step the power of God drew back the curtains of darkness and using the life-sustaining rays of the sun, transformed this earth from a void and dark place into a fruitful beautiful garden. “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.”—Gen. 1:3
We remember also how Job declared that God, who had formed the earth with “the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, … commanded the morning … and caused the dayspring to know its place.”—Job 38:9,12
As we thus muse, a change comes over this tranquil scene. Almost imperceptibly at first, but with gathering intensity, one senses an enveloping dimness. Though the sun continues in its place, its rays become increasingly muted and the landscape takes on a somber tone. The flowers begin to wither, the verdure rapidly fades, the city no longer glows, but in the semi-obscurity of the gathering dusk it assumes a silhouetted silence before the gray pall of the sky, through which a paling impotent sun appears as a shadowy yellow disc.
One by one the lights from the city’s windows blink on with tiny shafts of light reaching out into the gloom to reveal the cold and barren specter of skeletal trees standing stark against accumulating snow and encrusting ice. But soon, as their life’s energy ebbs away, one by one the flickering lights go out, until at last the city is dark. The sun, now reduced to a mere shadow, hovers momentarily over a lifeless, wasted earth—its icy ruins a monument of futility, until, in a gesture of finality, the last remaining vestige of its dimming outline disappears and all is black, cold, and void.
Out of the darkness of the planetarium a voice speaks: “You have just witnessed a time-lapse portrayal of what many astronomers believe to be the destiny of our planet Earth. But do not be alarmed, this will not happen within your lifetime nor that of your children. What we have depicted is the inevitable culmination of events some two million years in the future. Be assured that our sun is burning itself out very slowly.”
The foregoing, of course, is a simulation of what is sometimes enacted and often expressed as a common belief in the science of astronomy. However, not all who hold to the theory of a dying sun would show the scene in just this way. Some, in their study of other celestial phenomena called ‘novas,’ believe an eventual destruction of our sun will occur through great and rapid expansion occurring within its core, emitting such intense heat and gravitational disruption that its planetary system, including our earth, will be destroyed. One astronomer writes, “Although a nova explosion does not seriously harm the star, our planet would very likely be wiped clean of all life if the sun went into a nova phase. The sun would eject a shell of gas that would be at least several thousand degrees hot. Our atmosphere could be boiled away; if the oceans were not vaporized in the first flash of heat, they would soon be evaporated without the air to protect them from the sun’s direct rays. Flammable things like forests, cities, and people would probably be ignited.”
We applaud the scientists of astronomy and their honest and dedicated efforts to observe and understand our material universe. But at the same time we should not take too seriously their projected conclusions. Very little of their studies is set forth as an exact science. Most astronomers admit that we have barely peeked at our own solar system, much less the rest of our galaxy, and much, much less the hundreds of millions of distant nebulae now observed in only a fraction of the visible universe. In recent times, when we have been able to get a closer look at Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, via telepicture fly-bys, everyone was amazed at how inaccurate and limited had been our previous knowledge of even these, our nearest stellar neighbors. The two hundred years or less in which we have been able to any degree extend our vision into space is rather like a blind man, who, after an operation to restore his sight, has had the bandages off for perhaps less than a second or two. We must remember that when astronomers observe the not too common phenomena of supernovas and collapsing suns, they are in fact witnessing celestial events that, depending on their location within our universe, have for the most part transpired hundreds of thousands, millions, and hundreds of millions of light years back in time—the light emitted just now reaching the earth. Many of these events happened, perhaps, at a time in the more formative period of our universe. We have no accurate way of knowing whether these cosmic activities are still going on today, and if so, with what frequency. And it is completely beyond the limits of conceivable scientific rationale to conclude because a few suns have undergone this change, for reasons about which we only speculate, that the countless billions upon billions of stable suns that exist, including our own, must in time also die.
The most eminent and perhaps wisest cosmologist of our time, Professor Einstein, made no such tenuous assumption, but rather postulated that there is an ever-present balance of matter and energy in our universe—matter constantly being dispersed into energy, and energy transformed into matter. This process, he believed, was taking place within our own sun, and could continue never-endingly. It was his understanding that as our sun expends matter through the process of fusion, and emits it into our solar system, at an equal ratio it is absorbing stellar energy and gravity-fed loose matter through a process which maintains its own balance of bulk.
A growing school of astronomy called the Steady-state theorists, have, in the more recent study of quasars, made observations which support Einstein’s point of view. We quote concerning them: “Steady-state theorists have wrestled with two intriguing possibilities. Some have considered that the quasars represent matter expelled from a galaxy; others are examining the possibility that the quasars are the ‘little bangs’ of new matter coming into existence in intergalactic space. The first idea is based on the assumption that matter is continuously created inside of existing galaxies. They reason that the quasars are chunks of matter hurled out of galaxies because galaxies have reached their maximum ‘allowable size’ and new matter is still being created inside them.
“Other Steady-state enthusiasts take the opposite tack. They stick to the idea that new matter enters the universe only in empty space. Thus the quasars may be the sudden ‘popping in’ of new matter, rather close by an existing galaxy.”
Regardless of their assumptions, it becomes obvious that the more astronomers peer into space, the more they seem to observe a dynamic self-perpetuating creation. And the more men study the cosmic geometry and solar chemistry which maintains the delicate balance of our earth’s life-support system, the more evidence we find of the stable and infinite nature of these processes. Thus, as in other branches of science, astronomy tends to confirm a very important line of Bible testimony.
The words ‘ever,’ ‘forever,’ ‘everlasting,’ and ‘evermore,’ are used more than 500 times in the Scriptures, and while in many instances relate to the eternity of God as a being, they also are often used in speaking of God’s purpose for this earth and mankind. Basically, these are English translations of the Hebrew words olam and ad, and the Greek words aion and aionious, all of which have the meaning of ‘perpetuity.’
By way of reviewing a few of these texts as they relate to mankind, let us first return to Genesis and consider an interesting statement that God made to Adam, the father of our race. While Adam was still perfect before God he was given a simple law of obedience. It was clearly stated, “In the day thou eatest thereof [of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] thou shalt surely die.” Consider now what this law would have meant to Adam had he continued to obey. Clearly, the alternative was life everlasting, not only for himself, but for all who received life through him, as long as they (each one) obeyed.
The sustenance required for such perpetuation of life existed in the trees of life which God especially planted in that little spot of paradise eastward in Eden. When God ordered the expulsion c’ our first parents from this garden, he said, “Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.”—Genesis 3:22
Turning now to Isaiah, we find so sorrowfully worded the plea of all mankind, sharing through inheritance as children of Adam his sentence of death. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. … Thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever.”—Isa. 64:6-9
How well this expresses that which lies deep in the heart of man, planted there originally by God, but held by fallen man in ignorant despair—a desire for life, everlasting life, and to be relieved of the terrible stigma of sin. Jehovah’s prophetic answer to this troubled cry is subsequently stated by Isaiah, where he gives assurance that this present condemned condition will not last forever. But after the full purpose for the permission of evil has been accomplished, God will effect a change—a complete reversal of circumstances—and man will come to a knowledge of God’s truth; and be blessed instead of cursed. He states: “He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes. For behold I create new heavens [spiritual administration for man] and a new earth [social order on earth]: and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind [come upon the heart—Rotherham]. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.”—Isa. 65:16-18
This new heavens and earth which brings about everlasting rejoicing in the earth is further identified in the ninth chapter of Isaiah as the millennial kingdom of Christ. Here again we find it very plainly stated that what Christ’s rule will successfully accomplish in establishing peace and justice, will endure without end. This prophecy reads: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth even forever.”—Isa. 9:7
Another very pointed prophecy which states that God’s purpose for this earth is eternal is found in Daniel 2:44, where the past and present kingdoms of this evil world, represented in the form of an image, are shown to be only transitory to the time when God shall cause them to end and shall establish in their place his everlasting kingdom. “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. … It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” This everlasting kingdom of God was represented in this symbolic prophecy by a stone which grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth. It should be noted that the ‘earth’ here mentioned is the same ‘earth’ that contained the image which was smitten and removed. When the Apostle Peter (II Pet. 3:5-13) tells about the present heavens and earth being destroyed, he is careful to let us know that he is not referring to the literal heavens and literal earth. He reminds us that once before a world (cosmos—order of things among men) was destroyed in the Flood and a new order (heavens and earth) supplanted it through saving alive Noah and his family. He uses this as an example of how the present world, its spiritual and civil authority referred to as “the heavens and earth which are now,” will also pass away and be supplanted on this planet Earth by Christ’s kingdom, a new heavens and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Peter says this will happen “according to his promise,” the promise of a new hope for life contained in these prophecies.
The few prophecies we have briefly considered here, and the many other scriptures expressing God’s promises, state very clearly that God’s original purpose for man was everlasting life on this earth. And although the fall of man was allowed to intervene, necessitating other features of God’s plan such as the call of those to share with Jesus in the spiritual aspects of his kingdom reign, God’s purpose has not changed.
Perhaps no other biblical statement on this point is as direct as that expressed by Solomon, the wise man: “The earth abideth forever.” (Eccles. 1:4) Indeed, this must be true if God, whose word does not return unto him void, is to have his purposes for men accomplished.
How wonderful that with these assurances we can look up into the heavens and have full trust in the great power and wisdom of God who is over all—who “meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. … Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.”—Isa. 40:12,26
We do not have to share even that measure of doubt with the astronomer who writes: “Stars like the sun appear to be in no danger of going out in the near future. Although the sun is squandering energy at the rate of five hundred thousand billion billion of horsepower, its supply of hydrogen is ample for about one hundred billion years. … If we assume that the stars have always been radiating at their present rate then possibly stars replenish their stocks of hydrogen by sweeping up diffused matter in space. This alternative has been receiving considerable attention. The space between the stars is filled with a tenuous cloud of gas, a majority of it probably hydrogen. In traversing the interstellar cloud, a star will probably exert sufficient gravitational attraction to capture large quantities of the gas. The question is whether a star will do that at a sufficiently rapid rate to prolong its life.”
While the astronomer can now see the probability of perpetuity, but still doubts, we can, on the other hand, rejoice to find in the physical evidence which his expertise more accurately reveals as time goes on, a grand confirmation of the Word of God. David the psalmist wrote: “Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him.”—Ps. 72:1,2,8,17
“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. …
To him that by wisdom made the heavens. …
To him that stretched out the earth above the waters. …
To him that made great lights. …
The sun to rule the day …
The moon and stars to rule by night:
For his mercy endureth forever.”—Ps. 136:1-9