Whew! We escaped the latest doomsday scenario of September 23rd, so let’s party on, right!? Not so fast! What about the super volcano sitting under Yellowstone National Park? According to Brian Wilcox of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the threat to our planet from a super volcano is exponentially greater than being hit by an asteroid or comet from outer space.
In the article first published in August 2017 by news.com.au, the Yellowstone super volcano is a greater threat to Earth, and if it were to erupt it would bury much of the United States beneath a thick layer of ash and lava. Not to mention the “real” global climate change that would ensue. The article highlights NASA’s plans to diffuse this possibility by monitoring the magma temperature, and if it gets too high, drilling vents to let off steam, thereby preventing an eruption.
I don’t know about you, but this still sounds a lot like science fiction. But there you go. Life on this planet most of the time, is stranger than fiction.
I guess the bottom line for me is this. While I love my life here on planet earth, and on most days I feel very privileged to be alive, and blessed beyond reason, I have a fundamental understanding that this is not my long-term dwelling place. I understand that part of our responsibility on earth is to be good stewards of this planet. It was part of the basic directive which God gave Adam (subdue it).
Genesis 1:28
Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Mankind is to be the “good” steward of the planet. There is no other way to interpret this directive. That said, mankind is considerably more corrupt and sinful today, than when these words were spoken in the idyllic setting of the Garden. It bears out in logic and reasoning then that we might want to look elsewhere in God’s revealed Word, about what might be coming next on our planet based on humanity’s current level of depravity.
The Book of Revelation and its apocalyptic nature, has been the fuel of many debates over the centuries. Chapters 16-18 describe the very end events as God rains judgment on evil men in what are called the Seven Bowls of Wrath. The seventh bowl is seen in verse 21 of Revelation 16.
And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.
One hundred pound hailstones? Really? How is that even possible? Where would these hailstones have to originate? Could a super volcanic eruption result in this kind of phenomenon? Is this a symbolic term, or a literal description? See where I’m going with this? Whether literal or symbolic, what is God trying to communicate to us here? What does He really want us to know?
If all we do is read chapters 16-18 about a coming judgment, and then quit reading because it’s too hard to understand, then we miss the most important part about what God wants us to know.
Jesus said to His disciples…
John 14:1-3
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
In Revelation 19-22 Jesus reveals to John more of the details regarding the “I will come again and receive you to Myself” part of this promise. One of the details in Revelation 21 is a new planet. John says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”
What we can know from this is the one we inhabit now, this tired old planet, will not be our final home. Living now as though it is, is to contradict what God’s word says.
So Peter instructs us… 1 Peter 2:11
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
Billy Graham encourages us… “My home is in heaven. I’m just passing through this world.”
Jesus promised us a place to be with Him, and that He would come and take us there.
This planet my home? I don’t think so.
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As I was saying... 