One of our members once told me that when his dad was dying, the father confessed, “Son, it shouldn’t be this way.” He was right. The world really should not be as the world is. The world we see is not the world God originally created, nor is it the world that shall be some Day. Three big events have shaped the world we now experience.
First, God’s FIAT created the world. The word “fiat” refers to an absolute command that creates what it commands out of sheer will. In Latin, it means, “Let it be done.” In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:3). In this way, God created all that fills the heavens and the earth, even man himself (Genesis 1:26). If this were all that there was to our world, it would be just as “very good” as the day God pronounced it so, but two other events occurred.
Second, man’s FALL brought a curse on the world. When we look at all the misery in this world and wonder how a good God could allow such to occur, we must not listen to our pride. We object because we assume that we are basically good (though imperfect), not realizing that it was on account of our father Adam’s sin that God brought not only us into the bondage of sin and death, but also the earth itself and all it contains into the bondage of futility (Genesis 3:17-19; cf. Romans 8:19-22). If Adam had not sinned, lions would still be eating grass, as they will someday (Isaiah 65:25), instead of devouring flesh. Death is indeed unnatural. Death is the result of man’s sin.
Third, the great FLOOD filled the world with fossils and warns us that God will one day destroy the universe with fire by the same word that initially created it (2 Peter 3:5-7). We should not deceive ourselves into thinking that most people will be saved from that fire. God only saved eight individuals through the flood, and Jesus said that “few” find eternal life (Matthew 7:14). That God has not yet sent the Great Fire is a sign of His patience, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). This world is not as it should be, and those who recognize that fact should own up to their sin, turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, and seek a better world. Through Him, God has promised that He will make a “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).
Which world will you have? You can only have one (Mark 8:35).
Spring Branch Academy - Jonesville, Michigan 