By Elizabeth Prata*
I mentioned before that any time there is a large earthquake, this blog sees an increase in views. People are somehow more unsettled after an earthquake than most other natural disasters, though any disaster sees people flocking to sites in search of the meaning of it all.
Personally I think quakes unsettle people because this is the very ground we walk on that is moving, splitting, and otherwise kicking up. If solidity isn’t solid, than maybe invisible God is real…The subconscious thought or fear is likely, “If the earth isn’t solid, then what is?”
God of course.
But any natural disaster sends people searching for what, where, why. God is creator. He made the earth and the stars and the heavens and the stars and everything in between. He made it…and He can UNmake it. He plans to unmake it, during the Tribulation
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| Wikipedia photo, Linnaean taxonomy |
Man assigns lists and categories to everything in the natural world, trying to organize it, in order to understand it. I remember in my 30s being very interested in the biological taxonomy of mollusks. Wikipedia explains taxonomy–
The establishment of universally accepted conventions for the naming of organisms was Linnaeus’ main contribution to taxonomy—his work marks the starting point of consistent use of binomial nomenclature. During the 18th century expansion of natural history knowledge, Linnaeus also developed what became known as the Linnaean taxonomy; the system of scientific classification now widely used in the biological sciences.
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| Initiamenta conchologica, or, Elements of conchology Printed and published by Reeve, Brothers,1846-1849. biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54210 |
I bought plastic divided tackle boxes at Wal-Mart and collected shells from all the oceans I sailed on and all the beaches I walked on, and labeled them and placed them within a taxonomy … and it felt so good to organize the world. I felt that if I could organize it, and then I could understand it, and then I could control it.
Of course that is a mistake in reasoning, no matter how fun it is to study natural history. But I wasn’t saved then and I didn’t know God.
The earth is not as solid as we think and the wind is not as constant as we think and the sun is not as active (or inactive) as we think. The Tribulation will be a time when all the cycles and taxonomies and orderliness of what has been a seeming normal will morph into a new normal: the horror of uncreation. Man wasn’t around when God created the stars and the earth but he will be around when He uncreates it.
For example, the wind won’t blow.
“After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of
the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree” (Revelation 7:1).
The sun my be going through a periodic cooling cycle now but later it will turn hot, so hot it will burn men in an instant–
“The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory” (Revelation 16:8-9)
Hail will be supersized, 100 lbs, and crush mens’ heads.
“And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.” (Revelation 16:21)
The Tribulation will be a time when God will uncreate the earth, unspooling it from the seeming normalcy humanity has enjoyed, to now when things are starting to go haywire, to future then when nothing will be normal. You notice in Revelation its orderly uncreation, when there will be no rain, hydrologic cycles fail, the ocean exceeds its boundaries, life in the ocean dies, vegetation withers, geologic upheavals even the sun goes dark- no light.
Spurgeon wrote that in the creation, “The light which broke in upon the primeval darkness was of a very mysterious kind, and came not according to ordinary laws, for as yet neither sun nor moon had been set as lights in the firmament.”
MacArthur wrote of the uncreation of Revelation: “The present laws of thermodynamics, which state that matter can not be created nor destroyed, will no longer be in effect. As a result, “he universe “will be burned up,” it will be totally consumed. (2 Peter 3:10-13). The absolute reverse of creation will occur. It didn’t take eons of evolution to create the universe, nor will it take eons to uncreate it. The uncreation of the universe, like its creation, will take place by the word of God.” (source “Revelation 12-22 MacArthur New Testament Commentary By John F MacArthur”)
All praise our holy God who creates, makes things orderly in their time, makes things disorderly in their time, and will dissolve the universe when it is time!
*A version of this essay was first published on The End Time in September 2013
