Earth's Fate

by Owen D. Olbricht
Sherwood, Arkansas

Not many years ago some in the scientific community were very skeptical of biblical statements that the elements of the universe would burn up with intense heat. They made fun of Bible statements that the earth and heavens would pass away and be dissolved. They asked, "How can our vast oceans, the dirt, and mountains of rocks be burned up?"

Even though scientists are not purposefully trying to show that recent discoveries substantiate Bible statements, such is the case. A recent article in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Thursday, December 18, 1997, p. 3A, "Dying-star photo suggests Earth's fate," does just that.

The article began, "Photos of dying stars, glowing like Christmas tree ornaments against a black velvet sky, give a preview of what will ultimately happen to the sun and how Earth may be burnt to a crisp in about 6 billion years, astronomers say."

"The new images, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, show the death throes of stars about the size of the earth's sun and illustrate, astronomers say, how the sun will one day exhaust its nuclear fuel, flare into a red giant and then collapse to a white dwarf that cools and perhaps even disappears."

The article also states, "One theory about the sun's future suggests that its final sphere of hot gas could expand outward enough to envelope Earth, draw it toward the center and completely vaporize the planet."

"Under that scenario, Balick (astronomer at the University of Washington, Seattle) said, `We won't go to hell--it would come to us.'"

Later Balick stated concerning pictures taken by the Hubble telescope, "These pictures will change the textbooks."

These Hubble pictures help confirm previous predictions concerning the end of our universe made by astronomers Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin as reported in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, January 16, 1997, p. 2A, "The stars, the sun, the Earth...will evaporate into radiation. There will be no light, just a vast soup of subatomic particles."

These recent discoveries confirm what almost two thousand years ago the Bible had taught which until recently was thought by many to be absurd and unscientific. The destruction of the universe was accepted as a matter of faith by believers because they could not explain how non-flammable matter could be burned up. Their best explanation was that if God created it He could destroy it. Now it is evident that what the Bible stated would happen can happen.

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for the hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!" ( 2 Peter 3:10-12).

The probable fate of the earth and the rest of the universe has been scientifically described in the Bible.

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