We continue today discussing the end times. The biblical worldview about how this world ends and how we come to death and what follows determines how we live right now. This biblical worldview of the end times as God has portrayed in His Scriptures is extremely important for living life now.
We are looking today at the issue of the creation itself. We live in a planet, a universe created by Almighty God. In the beginning God created all these things and we know it was very good when He created these things, and we find that in Scripture in Genesis 1 & 2. We also know that if we follow the biblical worldview that because of sin, initially Adam and Eve’s sin, corruption and pollution of sin has now laced everything in this creation and because of that we live in a world that is permeated with sin, wrongdoings, ugly things, awful things, and tough things. That is true even in our created universe. We live in a beautiful universe, there is so much to love and appreciate and adore, yet it does not take very long for us to realize that the world itself is laced with corruption.
What is going to happen to this created world? I am a firm believer that we should take care of this planet the very best we can. We are stewards of this planet. It is God’s creation, and we should not abuse it, we should take care of it. However, we need to realize we are not going to fix all the issues of corruption in creation. That is God’s prerogative. We find in Romans 8:19-20, “For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope.” The creation didn’t want to crumble, it did not want to be laced with sin, but it has been. Romans 8:21-22 continues, “that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption and to the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” He is using a metaphorical picture, seeing the world as if it was a live thing such as we are, but what He is saying is that the world itself groans and is looking forward to something new. A new creation. It is looking forward to its redemption in that sense and being set free from the pollution and corruption of sin. We should, as I have said before, do the best we can with this planet, but you and I are never going to set the world free from these things. We can improve some things, but as we look around and find so many things out of our hands. This is by God’s design because of sin. These awful things never happened until sin invaded our universe. Until things change and the Lord comes back and redeems this creation, we will be faced with these things . . .
