Dystopian World by Nancy White
Apparently, we humans have a very dim view of our ability to actually better the world we live in or to rule it in peace and kindness, let alone love. According to Hollywood movies and the books some of those movies are based on the future for mankind is bleak. Literally, every futuristic movie I researched paints a dystopian future, mostly of our own making
We see our efforts to cure disease potentially going very wrong:
I Am Legend
Planet of the Apes
The Maze Runner series
World War Z, The Walking Dead and every other zombie movie or TV show
We see ourselves as having to fight evil dictators who have accumulated power:
Star Wars
The Hunger Games series
The Divergent series
We see ourselves as creating “haves and have nots” – hoarding resources and power:
Elysium
In Time
We see the machines we created to make life better, taking over and trying to snuff us out:
The Terminator series
I, Robot
Even when we see ourselves being ruled by a religious group, we don’t see it as resulting in love and peace: The Handmaid’s Tale
For us, according to Hollywood, every scenario and option for the future of mankind results in a dystopian world. Dystopian: relating to or denoting an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. That is what many, many popular books and movies predict.
I realize this stuff sells, primarily because the stories also include a hero of some sort who fights the zombies, destroys the dictators, rights the wrongs and wins the day. I guess what we really love is a rescue story.
Maybe that is why the Bible remains one of the top purchased books in the USA – at its heart, the Bible is a story of the dramatic rescue of all mankind from an evil dictator who is trying to destroy us.
And, realistically, if it were not for the rescue of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Hollywood and popular books would probably be right. But, SPOILER ALERT: I’m about to quote scriptures that reveal the truth about the future of mankind.
Revelation 20:10 [NIV] And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown…
= Satan gets put away forever. That’s the end of that evil ruler of this world!
Revelation 21:1, 5 [NIV] Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Verse 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”…
= We get a whole, brand new, shiny clean earth, not a toxic, polluted one.
1 Corinthians 15:52-53 [NIV] in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
= We get brand new, immortal bodies that will never get sick or quit working.
1 Corinthians 15:54 [NIV] When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” Revelation 21:4 [NIV] ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
= Not only will there no longer be death, we won’t even have any pain or crying.
The good news is that there is NOT a dystopian world awaiting us in the future, because Jesus has overcome the world. John 16:33 [ESV] I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
And the really good news is that we have victory over this world too. 1 John 5:4 [ESV] For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.
Mankind, according to Hollywood movies and popular novels, is destined to muck up this world. They are right, if you take God’s love and His plan out of the picture.
But God does love all of mankind and He has a plan that will save us all, if we accept it. John 3:16-17 [NKJV] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Thankfully, Hollywood is wrong about the future of mankind. Thankfully, there is something better awaiting mankind in our future. Thankfully, we have the Bible to show us the real future of mankind – the beauty, love, peace and joy that will be ours for all eternity. God speed that day.
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