Mayans, Zombies, World Calamity and What It Says About Us

Now that we are done with the Mayan calendar obsession, I thought it would be good to reflect on what all this paranoia about the world ending says about us.  After all, this is not an isolated event.  Have you noticed that a year rarely goes by without some group somewhere or some self proclaimed prophet predicting that on such and such date all heck will break lose and the world will end?  And have you noticed how eagerly popular culture laps it up?

American culture apparently is fixated on the idea of global extinction.  If it's not preachers talking about Armageddon, it's scientists talking about global warming, politicians warning of a debt bomb or economists about the fiscal cliff.  Scores of movies have come out in recent years pointing to certain global destruction whether it be meteorite, pandemic or nuclear holocaust.  Not that any of those things aren't important to talk about, it's just the over- hyping of them that interests me.

The idea of world calamity has become such a fascination there is now an entire sub-group in American culture called "Doomsday Preppers."    

Many of the most popular shows on television have apocalyptic themes.  Shows like "Walking Dead", "Fringe" and "Revolution" are just a few examples of how American culture can't get enough of the idea of world wide destruction.  

What does all of this say about us? 

Perhaps the answer is less sociological and more theological.  Could it be the reason we look around our world and say "some day all this will burn like straw" is because that in a very real sense that truth has been in-scripted onto the human heart?   

Here's what I mean, the Bible teaches that the human heart has an ontological sense about it.  Consider this verse in Romans 1:20:

²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

The Bible teaches that there are certain things about God's creative work that the human heart understands instinctively.  It only stands to reason then that the contrast of this is that we can look around our world and see that something is eroding and deconstructing what God has perfectly made.  Just as we have an innate sense that God's hand is in all of creation, we can also see that something has gone wrong and that some kind of curse has been unleashed on the universe.

In fact the Bible teaches that as a result of the fall, all of creation is in a constant state of "groaning" (Romans 8:22, 2 Corinthians 5:2).  The word to groan in this context is a word that describes a deep emotional sense of dissatisfaction.  To groan is to say to ourselves that life is not holding up and that something has gone terribly wrong.  A part of the reason we are fascinated with world destruction is because we know in our hearts that the world is indeed deconstructing.

So in other words, the human heart wants something more, and incidentally, that sense is the best evidence I know outside of biblical revelation of the existence of God.   I remind you again of one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes:

“The Christian says, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.”

So the next time you find yourself in a conversation with your friends about some version of the apocalypse, be encouraged to talk about the "reason for the hope you have."  (1 Peter 3:15)  Point others to the biblical version of last things and that Christianity teaches that although life is falling apart, the end of the story is that through Christ it will all be put back together again.  Tell them there is a perfectly logical explanation to why our hearts are fascinated with end times.  That one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth and every tear will be dried and every tragedy will become untrue, that the curse will be reversed and all of us spiritual zombies will stop groaning.