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Paradise on Earth Earth’s coming glory "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements...or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone…? ...Have you entered into the springs (sources) of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep (abyss)?...Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this." (Job 38:1‑18) The unfortunate Job had nothing to say. In the face of this interrogation from the Most High he had to admit that with all his knowledge and intellectual acumen, which had made him renowned and respected among men, the things he did know were as nothing compared with those he did not know. His lifetime’s learning of the world in which he lived was infinitesimal compared with that knowledge of the world to which he had not attained, and which, perhaps, was forever beyond his reach. In a flash his confidence in his own wisdom and his own understanding vanished, and in a moment of self‑revelation he answered the Lord "I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted; Who is this that hides (am I who cherishes) counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, (beyond) which I did not know (the power of my intellect)...I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:2‑6) Here was a man who honestly confessed that he could not be expected to understand all the workings of God, that the world in which he lived must present many factors in its creation and its continuance which held elements beyond his understanding. But one thing he did know and was assured of God had all power and in no way could his purpose be thwarted. Despite all human reasoning to the contrary, God’s word must and will be fulfilled, and the fact that the level of human knowledge at any one time in history presents reasons for doubting or denying its possibility makes no difference to that. Paul’s words to the Corinthians are apposite (relevant) here: "Our knowledge is imperfect...but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spake like a child...when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully..." (1 Cor.13:9‑12) More than in perhaps any other field are these sentiments true in that sphere which has now to be considered, the sphere of so‑called "natural disasters," earthquakes volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, typhoons, tidal waves, and the like. The question inevitably comes up for consideration, if the Millennium is to be a time of peace and security with no fear of injury or death, are all these phenomena of Nature to cease instantaneously, and if not, how will redeemed humanity of that Age escape their menace? The short answer, viewed from the standpoint of existing and ever expanding scientific knowledge and with all the optimism and faith that can be brought to bear on the subject, is, we simply do not know. There are many existing death‑dealing scourges which at present afflict humanity, such as war, famine, pestilence, which are capable of elimination by mankind if only man would set his mind to overcoming them, and previous sections of this treatise have shown the possibilities inherent in the administration of the Millennial Age by means of which this desirable end can and will be effected. But when it comes to volcanoes and earthquakes and tidal waves, never in the wildest flights of human fancy has it been imagined that man can suppress these. Further, the best scientific thought of the day is that these things are inherent in the nature of the planet itself and must continue as long as the earth endures. And this poses a real problem. This is where the words of the Lord to Job so long ago must be remembered. Whilst rendering all due acknowledgement to the marvellous discoveries in recent centuries relative to these natural phenomena, it must be realised that even so people do not have the whole story and are not aware of all the factors which must be considered in solving the problem. Just to illustrate: there was a time in the emergence of the earth from chaos at the hand of its Creator, estimated by geologists as being several thousands of millions of years ago, known as the Protozoic. The earth it is thought was a flaming mass with continuous earthquakes and volcanic eruption over its entire surface. All water and many chemical elements had gone up into the skies as vapour and enshrouded the earth in an impenetrable canopy which shut out the light of the sun and left the only light that which came from the flaming fires of the interior. Now, if it could be conceived that there were living scientists in the midst of that maelstrom of flame and convulsions and it was prophesied to them that in a future day the earth would be quiet and relatively peaceful with fertile land clothed with grass and trees, calm seas upon which ships could sail, brilliant sunlight illuminating the earth by day and soft moonlight by night, earthquake and volcano a relatively infrequent occurrence, one could imagine those scientists from the standpoint of their knowledge dismissing the whole idea as fanciful nonsense. Yet so it has been. And we, like those imaginary scientists, can only view the future from the standpoint of our present knowledge—unless we bring the foreknowledge of God into the picture. Which is where we go back to Job. With all our boosted knowledge of the natural phenomena of the earth, we simply do not know what possibilities the future holds. But God does know. He who is the great creative Power has ordained what we call the forces of Nature to achieve at the last the end He has in view, the establishment of the Earth as the home of a happy and peaceable community of ever‑living human beings. It must follow therefore that no paroxysm of Nature, whether a tropical rainstorm or a volcanic eruption, will be a menace to human life or comfort. It might reasonably be thought that since these phenomena have undeniably lessened in their intensity through the long pre‑human ages of earth’s history, the process will continue into the future until, their work done, they sink into quiescence. The giant reptiles of the Triassic period, long before humans, must have had their place and purpose in creation, they have long since gone, and no one wants to see them back. The factor which has to be borne in mind is that all the experts admit that even in the present time there is no real certainty about the precise cause of these violent convulsions of Nature nor how they may be expected to develop in future ages. It is obvious that they originate from deep down in the interior of the earth but just what are the conditions in that interior is still largely a matter of interpreting the facts and data obtained from monitoring equipment and analysis of lava. The generally held theory is that volcanic eruptions derive from the accumulation of intense pressure of gases in what is called the second sublayer of the upper mantle, a region of almost fluid rock at high temperature and pressure about a hundred miles beneath the surface, forcing molten rock upwards through weak portions of the earth’s crust where a channel to the top has been formed. Is this high pressure being constantly renewed or will it finally expend itself and volcanoes be no more? No one really knows, though in 2018 a prediction was made by the International Union of Geological Scientists that the earth’s mantle will cool in 1.45 billion year’s time. Earthquakes have been the subject of many theories as to their cause too; currently it is that the earth’s crust is extensive blocks of solid rock called "plates," on average eighty miles thick and hundreds of square miles in extent, are "floating" upon the previously mentioned fluid rock and from time to time exert a tremendous strain on each other until something "gives" and the earth’s surface above is affected accordingly. There are now seismic listening stations all over the world which can detect these movements and give advance warning of the imminence of an earthquake. (It has been observed for ages past that animals and birds give evidence of sensing earthquakes before they happen.) It was said by one leading seismologist that continuing earthquakes can be expected "if the accumulated stresses in the earth’s crust have not yet been fully released" which is another way of saying that a time could come when the earth will have so adjusted itself that the pre‑disposing causes of earthquakes will have disappeared. With that would come the cessation of tidal waves (tsunamis), which are caused by earthquakes in the bed of the ocean. Incidentally, the assertion sometimes met within some quarters that earthquakes are increasing in frequency at the present time is based upon a misapprehension. It is true that in recent centuries the reported ones do show a substantial increase but this is due to the improvement of world communications and technological and scientific equipment. Every country in the world is now on the lookout and many earthquakes which in the past would have gone unnoticed outside the immediate locality are in the world’s media at once. Due to improved reporting it is possible that there were less earthquakes in the later centuries than the earlier. Another question put to exponents of the Biblical doctrine of the Millennium is that the earth is known to have passed through several Ice Ages, during which sizeable portions of the globe became uninhabitable, and the experts predict that more Ice Ages are inevitable in future times, and what of the Millennial earth then? It is true that our planet does show signs of having passed through such aberrations of Nature—the last Ice Age seems to be generally agreed as having ended about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, being succeeded by a warm and genial period in which the earth was fertile right up to the poles and conditions were eminently suitable for human life. All of which makes it look as though Adam appeared upon the earth at just about the right time! Like so many other extreme conditions in the developing earth before life appeared on its surface, the Ice Ages may well have served some essential purpose and come to their end before man appeared. There remains the question of the Polar regions. Contemporary generations have never known anything but ice at the Poles and so it is generally assumed that it has always been so and always will be so. Modern climatologists such as Brooks and Lamb tell a different story. From the close of the last Ice Age ten to twelve thousand years ago to about three thousand years ago, there was no ice in the Arctic. There was then a sudden degeneration and the ice began to form. However, it is recognised there were times since of less ice in the medieval warm period 900 AD to 1250 AD. The Vikings from Denmark and Norway were colonising Greenland and reaching as far as the eastern coast of Canada. One Viking ship is reputed to have found the famous "North‑West passage" around Canada and sailed down the Pacific to California. But about 1400 AD the ice returned again, the Greenland colony died out. Since 1880 average world temperatures have risen by one degree Centigrade according to Statista and the ice has commenced to recede. It follows that the Arctic has been ice‑bound for only some 2,000 years out of the last ten thousand which does not look as if it is a permanent feature of the earth’s ecosystem. Studies including flights over some areas and satellite imagery of Antarctica show underneath the sea ice and the glaciers there is land and mountainous rocks and evidence of once fertile ground, some water lakes and ice free mountain areas. In Antarctica there are numerous research stations representing many nationalities studying the ice levels and the Climate Change effects. In June 2026 discoveries were made of the Constitution of icebergs; how pre‑frozen surface water and brine from the sea alter how they fracture– what are known as ice shelfs. These findings have significance on the predicted models of sea level rises as the ice melts. So data will need to be recalculated to take accounts of the research. Summing up if the climatologists are to be believed, these cataclysms of Nature which loom so large in our minds, and would seem, if continued, to constitute a menacing blur on the fair Millennial landscape, have themselves been possibly of comparatively transient a nature in the historical past and may well be still less so in the future. Over the period which up‑to‑date Bible history indicates as being the time of humankind inhabiting the earth, less than 8,000 years, the Poles have been permanently frozen over for possibly less than one‑third of the time. Periods of intense volcanic activity, with which must be associated continuous severe earthquakes—one for five centuries soon after the Flood, one for five centuries just after the Jews’ return from Babylon, and one for three centuries in the days of William the Conqueror. Periods of intense cold have alternated with periods of greater warmth with consequential storms and floods of colossal extent. But in all this there is a possible pattern of the earth slowly emerging into a final state where all these disruptive influences have settled down and the earth is at rest. The storm rages through the night, the lightning flashes, the thunder peals, the rain lashes down, and one wonders when it is all going to end. Then, almost suddenly, the last peals die away in the distance, the last light flickers on the horizon, the rain ceases and there is a wondrous calm. Perhaps, for all we know, the last stages of the physical development of the earth were ordained to be played out during humankind’s experience of sin and death, so that it too may enter into the eternal state simultaneously with redeemed and perfected man. Of one thing we may be sure, when the Lord said, of that future blessed state, that "nothing shall hurt or destroy" (Isa.11:9 NLT) He certainly did not forget that there are natural forces as well as man‑made ones which do most decidedly hurt and destroy. Although we may not understand, with our limited knowledge, just how these forces will be tamed, He does know, and at the right time will say to them, as Jesus did to the raging waters on the sea of Galilee, "Peace, be still." (Mark 4:39) There will then be a great calm. To be concluded |
