Today’s Scripture Reading (May 5, 2018): Revelation 16
Some scientists are beginning to argue that
Venus was once a very inhabitable planet. It had great seas and land masses and may have boasted the nicest climate
in the solar system. For most of the history of the planet, it was a far
different place then we know it to be today. But then, something happened. We
are not sure why, but Venus was subjected to a runaway greenhouse effect. The
temperature rose, the water disappeared, and if there was any life on Venus, that life
disappeared with it. What might have been the garden planet of the Solar System
became one of the most inhospitable. Today, Venus, and not Mercury, is the
hottest planet in our Solar System. And this is true in spite of the fact that
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.
One of the major “complaints” about God is
this belief that he sends us to hell, or that he sends judgment on the earth. The
question that is raised is simply this:
How could a loving God we responsible for such, at least in the eyes of some,
evil actions. But I have never been convinced that that was true. This idea of
hell being a place of eternal fire is largely a product of our, and the
biblical writers, imaginations; it is the result of very human people trying to
explain the concept of spiritual
punishment, us trying to explain the unexplainable. But some of the confusion
exists in the Hebrew idea that God is all-powerful, and therefore he is the
cause of everything, even the consequences that arise from our behavior and
decisions. According to Hebrew thought, because God could stop any action on
the earth if he wanted to, these actions became his responsibility. Essentially
the idea is that if I decide to jump off a bridge and die, God allowed my death
to happen because he could have stopped it. Instead of stopping it, he allowed
me to die (and surrendered me to the results of my stupidity.) The biblical
judgments could possibly be a mixture of
the actions of God and the actions of the human race of which he allows us to
suffer the consequences.
Enter Revelation’s bowls of God’s wrath.
These could be actions of God, and nothing written here should indicate that
they are not. But the reality is that many of these effects of God’s wrath,
skin conditions, the pollution of the water systems of the earth, the drying up
of rivers and even the extreme heat indicated in this verse, are not out of the
realm of possibility of our current environmental decay. In other words, these
“bowls of wrath” might be the direct action of God on an unbelieving world, but
they might as equally be the consequences of our use of the planet. Venus, the
hottest planet in our Solar System, stands as an example of what can happen
when the environment runs amok. On Venus, it was a natural disaster that caused
the degradation of the environment. On Earth, that natural disaster is us.
Adding to our guilt is the fact that taking
care of this planet was the original task given to the human race by God.
Adam’s instructions were to name the animals and take care of the garden.
Pollution and climate change stands as a
testimony to how badly we have failed at the task that God left to us.
Our reality is that God might pour out his
wrath on the planet, but we are doing just
as good job at producing the predicted effects all by ourselves. And in the
end, we don’t need God’s wrath; our wrath will accomplish God’s purpose without
him lifting a finger.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Revelation 17
Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my daughter, Alyssa. I hope you
are having a great day.
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