Colossians 1:16-17; 1 Peter 5:8; Exodus 34:6. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 20, 2022.
Last week, we talked about the delusion that humanity has embraced that we do not need God, or a god, to accomplish what the Bible says God has promised. So, we talked about how we double down on intervention, treating society like a social experiment. The biblical framework does not have a problem with intervention so long as it is surrendered to the sovereignty of God.
Today, we can see that the world as a whole is moving towards either thinking there is no God, or gods even. Yet, we will posit that, if there are “gods,” they are merely a part of the universe and only more advanced than us.
Regardless of this, we are refusing to listen to God’s King, Jesus, who has revealed truth to us personally and through his apostles. In a sense, we want there to be no God, or at least for Him to leave us alone and cede the universe.
There are some big problems with this idea that God could abdicate His authority over the universe, that is, for Him to act as if He doesn’t exist and let us do what we want. Look at Colossians 1:16-17.
When we read this, we run first into the fact that everything was made through Jesus, and it was made for him. The whole purpose of the universe was to be for Jesus, so Christ would have to be giving it up even after having died for it. It seems that this is not an option, since He went through such great lengths to redeem it.
Yet, we run into another problem at the end of verse 17. It says that “in Him all things consist.” The word “consist” has the idea of being set, or established, together. It is a picture of the many complex systems that exist and are even inter-related. It is not entirely clear that all things would continue to stay together if God completely ceded His authority. Thus, we would need God to keep everything in the universe running for us, and yet stay out of our affairs.
There is another problem with God ceding the universe that we can see in 1 Peter 5:8. Even if God agreed to keep the universe running, and give up His claim on it, we are not alone in this universe. There are interdimensional beings who have already shown a penchant for enslaving and abusing humanity. They are light-years beyond us in abilities and knowledge, and they have the character of a hungry lion towards us. The devil and his angels want to devour us, metaphorically speaking, and perhaps literally for that matter.
The only way that we can win against them is to resist them “steadfast in the faith.” This is the same faith that Jude spoke of in his letter, verse 3. “…[C]ontend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” To stand against them, one needs to do so with complete confidence in the God that we don’t want to believe in. This is a big problem.
Now, we would need God to keep everything running, and we would need Him to keep any higher powers from messing with us, all while acting as if He doesn’t exist.
Finally, let’s look at Exodus 34:6. Several times, we see God proclaiming to Moses His own character, specifically, that He is gracious and has a steadfast love- this includes the notion of mercy. If God really is gracious and loves steadfastly, could He agree to what we are asking Him to do?
Let us explore an illustration from the family. Let’s say that your adult son loves to game with his buddies all of the time. Sometimes they even come over and eat a bunch of food while networking their systems together to play. Let’s say that your son comes to you and asks you to provide for the house to be used by him and his buddies, as well as keep it fully stocked with food, water, power, etc. Similarly, they ask you to provide 24/7 security so that they can be safe. And, they want to pretend that you don’t exist. In fact, you should just move out and expect no more communication from them ever.
I’ve taken some time to put the picture on the table. Now, put aside the fact that all parents would be highly offended at such a plan. Could a good parent go along with such demands? And, if they did, would this be good for their son and his buddies? What kind of people would they become under such circumstances? Perhaps, we should recognize that God is often the counter-balance to our wickedness. A good God could not go along with this idea and still remain good.
If there was some way that God could agree to all of the above, where would we end up? There are several possibilities of which I do not believe any of them end well.
First, we could destroy ourselves, which is most likely. Even secular prognosticators of the future warn that we are most likely going to destroy the whole human race before we develop the technology to spread out. This is what drives guys like Elon Musk. We have to get some humans off of this rock before we destroy the whole planet and the humans on it. Yes, many governments have continuity of government bunkers and seed vaults, etc. However, that is a big risk to gamble that you can ride out any storm that humanity will be able to devise in 50, 100, or 1000 years.
Whether through war, or some other mechanism, our technology is at a level that such things are not so far-fetched. If by some grace of God- irony intended- we were able to keep from annihilating all humanity, then we could only succeed to a degree far short of what we will want.
Do you remember the statements made as we entered the 1800s with the discovery of a small pox vaccine? It was projected that science would vanquish all sickness and disease by the end of the century. Needless to say, our gusto is somewhat tempered today. In fact, we are seeing old “conquered” diseases come back as super strains due to the pressures that antibiotics have put on their reduplication over the years. However, let’s say that we were able to fix our DNA, and genetically conquer all disease? Well, we would need to fix the problem of aging. What if we were able to fix that? Eventually, our physical bodies would be the weak link. Our quest to become ever more god-like in our powers would lead us to leave our biology behind and become machine, or we could attempt to go the Eastern Mysticism route and try to become pure spiritual beings. Regardless, no matter how high we “ascended,” we could never be God, who is beyond this universe by definition and by logic.
Read this article by Eric Betz that was published on September 10, 2020, and is called The Big Freeze: How The Universe Will Die.
“The comos may never end. But if you were immortal, you’d probably wish it would. Our comos’ final fate is a long and frigid affair that astronomers call the Big Freeze, or Big Chill.
“It’s a fitting description for the day when all heat and energy is evenly spread over incomprehensibly vast distances. At this point, the universe’s final temperature will hover just above absolute zero…
“No normal matter will remain in this final “Dark Era” of the universe, which will last far longer than everything that came before it. And the second law of thermodynamics tells us that in this time frame, all energy will ultimately be evenly distributed. The cosmos will settle at its final resting temperature, just above absolute zero, the coldest temperature possible.”
We would always fall short, and we would turn ourselves into an unrecognizable, freakish shadow of what we once were. What would we do when we hit the limits of the universe? Would there be more than one of us? Is this universe big enough for so many little gods?
Ultimately, our greatest problem is unsolvable by science. The moral problem of man has its roots in a spiritual problem. We are not in right relationship with God, and we are wicked. Jeremiah 13:23 says, “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you could do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” God is not being bitter here. He is putting His finger on the problem.
1 Corinthians 15:50 says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” Truth cannot be redefined to our liking. Only truth can fix our moral problem, and without God, we are woefully short in that department.
If we do not have God, then the best we can do is become stuck in a material universe as fallen beings with no way out, that is, a prison universe, and waiting for an inevitable end of all things. Who wants to be an immortal sinner who has ceased to enjoy life a 1,000 years ago, or a billion? Who wants to be in the vice of the Big Freeze, unable to do anything but exist?
God loves us, God loves you, too much to leave us to ourselves. He has promised to bring us to immortality and a perfect society in the way that is best for us, and in a way that works. Perhaps, hell is best thought of as what this universe will become when God takes whosoever believes in Him into the Final State of the New Heavens and New Earth. Or, perhaps, that is only wishful thinking. Perhaps, we should turn back now and take His hand, and His offer to become a part of His family.