Chapter two final post

People today have the same needs their ancestors have had since the beginning and are simply trying to meet them in other ways. This happens not only through fiction, but also in real life. We talked already about the meaning of the atomic bomb. There is actually much more meaning that can be drawn out of our modern age. Think about what the Lord took away from Adam and Eve on the day they sinned and then think about all we have achieved. Let’s look at Genesis 3:16-24 first:

To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Advances in agriculture have given us pesticides and herbicides to rid us of thorns and thistles as much as possible. For centuries various societies used slaves to compensate for the toil put upon us. Today much of what slaves used to do we do using machines. Death and pain were to be constant reminders of our sin. We would even be born through great pain to our mothers. How much of this do we believe we have overcome through advances in medicine?

The Garden of Eden was a perfect world, they didn’t need clothes because as Genesis 2:25 says “they were … not ashamed”. This means in a spiritual sense when they had an unbroken connection with God, being naked was not wrong for them. It also means in a very practical way that the world they lived in had a balanced temperature (on a side note, what does that say about global warming?). After they were cast out, the world changed into the four seasons we now have. We can’t control the weather outside, though some scientists think we may someday, but we can control the weather inside with furnaces and air conditioning units.

Inside the Garden was a special tree called the tree of life, the fruit of which gave us immortality. Now at the most popular tourist destination in the entire world, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, U.S.A., there is an attraction called the “Animal Kingdom”. In it stands a man made “tree of life”. Through Einstein, Hahn and Mietner we now know how to turn matter into energy. Creation is the reverse, turning energy into matter. Since the Lord created life and not just inanimate objects, we are trying to do the same through cloning and genetically modified organisms. Genesis 1:26 has God creating humanity “in His image”. With robotics and artificial intelligence we believe we will soon create beings in our own image, something which is very common in science fiction.

Adam and Eve were created perfect. Whatever that means exactly, it likely includes better mental abilities than we have today. They probably did not need to use written language. Since our memories are so poor, we have compensated by the use of modern media and created an impressive record of history today, through video, print and audio. From Genesis 11:1-9 the story is told of the Tower of Babel, where all the languages and cultures of this world originate. They were then plunged into darkness in the sense that they lost contact with each other. The whole earth has now been explored and everyone knows about everyone else. This same media system has grown from local outlets to ones that cover the globe.

Every society throughout history has always been ruled by an elite few. Usually they claimed some sort of divine right to be exalted above the common people. With the American Revolution and the rise of democracy, “power to the people” is now a vital part of Western civilization. However the Lord allowed the previous systems to exist because we do need someone like us to look up to. We need to be part of something bigger than ourselves. When in democratic societies the clergy and nobility were no longer venerated, people turned to the likes of Hollywood, the music industry and the world of professional sports to have someone to look up to. Within the last few years there has been a worldwide cultural revolution through what is now called “user generated content” on websites like Youtube and various social networking sites like Facebook. Bulletin boards and blogs are everywhere. Finally instead of waiting for someone else to tell us what to think, we all get to have our say.

Combine all this with the fact that we now have ventured beyond our world into the great heaven above and you can sum it all up in one thought. Mankind was once isolated from the rest of the universe by the Lord Himself, now we believe we have fully recovered from all the restrictions He placed upon us and are ready to take our place in the universe back for ourselves.

What possible purpose could God have had in mind when He allowed us to do all this through the last 500 years of growth? Well we think we’ve recovered, but are we really perfect yet? No. Though many may disagree, I believe the intellectual, cultural and political freedoms we have today were the result of the spiritual freedom that came to the world again when Martin Luther realized “The just shall live by faith.”, Romans 1:17. Jesus said in John 12:31, 32 “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” By looking to Him we won’t need any other heroes. Acts 16:31, last part, says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Knowledge has increased but has wisdom? Jesus said in Luke 18:8 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” The modern mindset, being inspired by the principles of the French Revolution has now almost completely restored all that those revolutionaries tried to achieve in France from 1789-1799. The time of trouble to come will in part be shown to repeat the anarchy that came about as a direct result of setting aside God’s word. Trying to achieve intellectual, cultural and political freedoms without the first and most important freedom of being free from sin in Christ will be a failure.

It is a principle that for everything God does, Satan has a counterfeit. The devil will attempt to distort and change anything God does in every way he possibly can. I remember many years ago talking about the meaning of our modern age with my wife, Melissa. She gave me a great take on what purpose the devil must have today too. His message to us is “don’t you want to stay, don’t you want to believe you really can do achieve heaven on earth in your own power and strength after all?”

In the storyline of the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” an alien came to visit us with an important message. Since we had discovered atomic weapons and were now experimenting with rockets; we were a threat to the rest of the universe, who all live in harmony. Is this not also another parallel to what is really happening today? Are there really beings out there watching us? What does the Bible really say about life on other planets? We will visit this question and more next.