An image of the end of the world

I’ve never seen or imagined anything like this. An inconceivably massive “wave” of mud and debris picking up buildings and sweeping them along, sweeping over what looks like farmland, then finally coming to a stop, having covered the earth in what looks like 30 feet of mud and ruin.

I suggest turning off the volume, as the reporters are just chatting and distracting the viewer from the horrifying spectacle. I’m stunned by what I’m seeing.

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Jack W. writes:

People disbelieve Noah’s flood—that something like that did or could happen. However imagine 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rain, flooding, mud slides and tsunamis. Not just for several hours as in Japan but 960 hours of the same (40 days x 24 hours). Indeed that was the end of a world. And there WILL be another end.

2 Peter 3:5-12:

That by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Joseph M. writes:

I have been reading the Bible for over thirty years and never realized the following point until I saw the 2 Peter entry at your site:

The NAB writes it as, “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!”

The RSV has it as, “Looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.”

In all cases what caught my eye was the “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”

Peter is telling his audience, look for that day; earnestly desire the coming of that day. Why? How come? This is the day of the complete destruction of the world! Who would wish that?

And then I asked myself, what good are the continents the human race inhabits? What is desirable these days of Africa? Or Australia? Europe? South America? The Middle East? Totally corrupt places. And America? I’ve shut off the news in order to spend my last decade here on earth in peace and quiet. I had never noticed before the apostle advocating the hastening of that day, the desire for it until I saw it in the context of all the entries at VFR (and other websites). From Tokyo to Cairo, this has been a week of calamity. Who would not want God to purge this earth and start afresh? Have we proven that we can actually do anything worthwhile here? Maybe it is his time to step forward and say, “That’s it folks, you’ve had your millenia of effort and the returns you have achieved are minimal and meager; this time we do it my way.”

Is it not time for him to purge the Middle East of all its Muslim folly? Is it not time for him to cleanse America and Europe of their “liberal” uses of evil? Is it not time for him to dissipate the darkness of Africa? We have made such marginal “progress” on the infinite time scale of history while people die daily in misery left and right. Perhaps it is his time …

LA replies:

I obviously disagree with the commenter’s view that all human life and achievement add up to a nullity. It sounds like nihilist cry of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity, all is vanity.” At the same time, given the staggering mess of so much of human life on earth, given the sheer madness and sickness of so much of our own society, his feeling is an understandable one.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 11, 2011 11:47 PM | Send