The newspaper headline was attention-getting: HOW CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT IS HUMANITY?
Each January for the past 75 years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published the Doomsday Clock. The meaning of that, if not obvious, can be guessed. The clock suggests just how close—or far—humanity is from the brink of destruction. On January 24 the clock was moved forward, announcing we are 90 seconds to midnight.
The decision to move the clock 10 seconds forward this year is largely due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation, the Bulletin said in a news release. The continuing threats posed by the climate crisis, as well as the breakdown of norms and institutions needed to reduce risks associated with biological threats like Covid-19, also played a role.
Although the clock has been an effective wake-up call when it comes to reminding people about the cascading crises the planet is facing, we know that the health and life of a nation is related to the moral and spiritual climate.
If my Momma was living today, I would hear her proclaim as I heard it often when she was living. “What’s the world coming to?” We have had three mass killings thus far this year. The two major political parties can be judged more readily by their hatred than their cooperative commitment to the common good. Even the leaders of our public school system are making that the setting for social and political indoctrination. Abortion and right to life has become one of the largest political issues in our nation.
As Christians, we readily connect this notion of doomsday with judgment. Though we may not discuss this much in our mainline church, Scripture is clear: judgement is a part of God’s created order.
Because God is righteous, judgment is the divine reaction to sin. In Romans 1:18, St. Paul declared, “God’s wrath (or judgment) is revealed from heaven against all human wickedness.” Unfortunately, in too many Christian settings, it is not politically correct to talk about judgment. While we must practice tolerance as a cardinal virtue, that doesn’t mean we tolerate those things that God’s word says is intolerable. My friend, Bill Bouknight has the best comparison when he responds to the ultra- tolerance of too many: “It’s like keeping rattlesnakes in our homes as pets. Their coloring may be pretty, but they are deadly.” God’s judgment is as certain as the sunrise. Some of it is immediate; some delayed; but it comes, and someday there will be a doomsday, a final judgment. As the preachers of my growing up years would say, “Are you ready for it?”