Nope, they didn't all die in the movie 2012. By virtue of human ingenuity, planning and science, some outfoxed the forces threatening worldwide, total destruction of all life on planet earth. The Biblical story of Noah's Ark is presented anew and this time three arks come sailing into Africa's Cape of Good Hope (sic!) to start again. True enough, billions did die, but some life survives on planet earth and the whole great process of evolution continues—I assume.
I was going to say, "Thank God," but then I remembered that God has nothing to do with it in 2012—or does He? Maybe it is the gods. Who knows?
OK, so much for this latest end of all things box office hit. It's been out almost two months and has grossed over $736 million worldwide against a cost of $200 million. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, Avatar has already passed it up with over a $1 billion gross worldwide in less than three weeks!
All in all, it looks like end-of-the-world entertainment is good, but 3-D and science fiction about other worlds and gods does better.
But back to the end of the world viewed from the Bible.
An interesting passage from the Apostle Paul must be considered.
"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently" (Romans 8:18-25).
That does not sound like total destruction of creation. Nor does the Bible teach such. God's creation will not cease to exist. Things as we know them now will indeed cease and die, even as our physical bodies must pass away. The promises of the resurrection hold the clue as to what awaits us and the rest of creation after death. Listen to Paul again.
"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive" (see 1 Corinthians 15:20-28).
What the Lord has planned for us, He has also planned for the entire creation. It is in bondage now. It will decay and die, but that is not the end, just as we saw in the passages referred to by Peter. All of it will be made new.
These changes have already begun. We can see them in the reborn lives of those called to faith in the living Christ. Paul again:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
No such newness dwells within fictional stories like 2012 or the imaginary prophecies quoted on the Internet or TV. But we already have it. We who have been reborn are "a new creation" and that creation will continue forever.
