On January 24th, 2023 at 10:00 EST, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will update the famed, Doomsday Clock. As Elizabeth Weise noted in her article with USA Today, “Historically, the clock has measured the danger of nuclear disaster, but climate change, bioterrorism, artificial intelligence and the damage done by mis- and disinformation have been included in the mix. Each year, the 22 members of the Science and Security Board are asked: Is humanity safer or at greater risk this year than last year? Is humanity safer or at greater risk?” Currently, the Doomsday Clock sits at 100 seconds until midnight, representing the idea of being “closer to destruction than at any point since it was created in 1947.”
Eternity in Our Hearts
Admittedly, I find the idea of the Doomsday Clock fascinating. In many ways, it represents an awareness of brokenness in our world. Despite our many advances in technology and medicine, all of us know that there is a day coming when our time will run out. Furthermore, most people have, as OT scholar Walter Kaiser, Jr. put it, “a deep-seated desire, a compulsive drive… to know the character, composition, and meaning of the world… and to discern its destiny.” Kaiser made this comment in relationship to Ecclesiastes 3:11, which says, “He has made everything beautiful in time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” I think part of humanity’s fascination with “doomsday” is rooted in our finite understanding of the world and its ultimate destiny.
Our Destiny in Christ
We know what we know, but we are unsettled by what we do not and cannot know, even if we think we can predict those unsettling things. But while scientists speculate about doomsday, Christians can have a more sure comfort in the future.
To be sure, God’s Word instructs us to live with a sober mind and open eyes, and discern the signs of the times and seasons. We are told that we have lived in the last days (Hebrews 1:2, James 5:3, 2 Peter 3:3) and even the last hour (1 John 2:8) since Jesus’ ascension into heaven. But as we reflect upon these “last days” and this “last hour” that we are living in, we do not do so as those who fear doom and destruction. In 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, the apostle Paul reminds us that those who are in Christ have “not been destined for wrath, but for salvation.”
Deliverance, not Doom
Thus, as time, as we know it, ticks away, we are called to live with hopeful expectation. We have nothing to fear. “For our life is safely hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then we also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4). Regardless of what happens with the “Doomsday Clock” on January 24th, we have nothing to fear. Doom is not the believer’s destiny. Instead, we await our full deliverance from this broken world into a new heavens and new earth to dwell forever with our God.
Casey Hough
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