Many people believe that we are in the last days, and that the Lord is going to return soon. One argument that many people have for this viewpoint is that the events going on in the world today closely resemble the events that are likely to occur prior to the days predicted in prophecy books like Revelation, Daniel, and Ezekiel, which outline what is to come in the last days. There is another sign of us being in the final days before Christ’s return: the Earth is wearing out. While many people are doing their best to conserve the planet and “go green”, the Bible predicts that the Earth will have a finite life span. Hebrews 1:10-11 states: “And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands: They shall perish; but Thou remaindest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment.” There are many signs all around us that the world is wearing out. You only need to look at the changes in the last few hundred years to realize that the planet is wearing down.
Animal Life
You don’t have to look very far to see that there have been changes to the animal life in the last couple hundred years. The changes that have taken place on Earth really hit me earlier this year as I was teaching a history class to my daughter: we were reading about John Cabot’s expedition to Newfoundland; there were so many fish, all they had to do was lower down a basket, and it would be full of fish when they pulled it up. In Laura Ingalls’ book, Little House in the Big Woods, Laura recalls how her father would go hunting in the forests of Wisconsin, which were full of bear and panthers; you could walk for a day without seeing another human being. Wisconsin is not covered by the vast forests that it was 150 years ago. Similarly, the buffalo that once roamed the prairies have been hunted; most that exist today live on farms.
Desertification
The deserts of the world are spreading; this process has gained the name “desertification.” The world has not always been covered with deserts. Lot once looked on the land of Sodom and Gomorrah and saw that it “was well watered every where” (Genesis 13:10). Israel was described as a land flowing with milk and honey. Today, this land is a hot, dry desert. Most of us think of the area today as a desert, but the truth is, this area was not always that way. The land covered by desert is spreading, which is another sign that the Earth is wearing out.
With all the signs of the Lord’s imminent return, we do not need to be in a panic about the resources of the Earth being depleted. This is not to say that we shouldn’t conserve what we have, plant trees, and recycle, but we don’t need to panic. The Lord predicted thousands of years ago that the Earth would get old; he also predicted that he would return one day (in a time period a lot like today) and remake the Heavens and Earth into a much more improved model.
