The toney New Yorker magazine has a leading article on how some of the more wealthy among us are preparing for the end of the world.

It highlights those most concerned about the three horsemen of the secular apocalypse: nuclear war, climate change, or the next COVID pandemic. The piece opens explaining that “billionaires have recently been spending millions building themselves customized bunkers in the hopes that they can ride out the apocalypse in splendor.” Such dooms day facilities appear to be cropping up all over the country, even if they are not all funded by billionaires for their own safety.

Such fears are driven by the fact, according to The New Yorker, that “thirty-nine percent of Americans believe that we are living in the end times” and this is why “the market for underground hideouts is heating up.” A 2023 YouGov poll showed that most Americans believe the world will end by “an act of God” over other things like nuclear weapons, climate change, pandemics, even declining fertility.

But the same poll showed that citizens who believe the end times will be ushered in by God’s hand are far less fearful of that fact than those who believe it will occur due to the other fear-of-the-month cataclysms.

The market for existing “end-of-the-world” bunkers from the Cold War era is tightening because people are feeling a new anxiousness to hang onto them. Many of these are high-level professionals who confess to “being in the know” about scary truths regarding national security and the risk of colliding planets and asteroids. Others report seeking protection from an “NBC event” or “Nuclear, biological or chemical devastation” and the civil unrest that can result from such happenings.

As those with means build elaborate, but likely unsuccessful protections from such events, it is important that Christians have a proper view of our posture in light of such threats.

Far too many wrong-sighted Christians have held that believers should not be concerned for the whole of God’s created order and human society because, as one famous and otherwise strong Bible teacher once said, “You don’t polish brass on a sinking ship.” Another well-respected pastor and Bible expositor said engaging in culture amounts “to little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to give everyone a better view as the ship sinks.” Another regularly says we should not concern ourselves with society getting worse, in fact we should welcome it, because it means Jesus will come all the sooner and all believers will go to heaven.

All of this is simply bad theology.

Jesus’ redemption of all things does not start at the supposed end of the world. It started in His lifetime with His coming and is happening now through the redemptive presence of His church throughout the world.

Jesus told us in Mathew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That same statement can be interpreted as “the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

We are living now, presently, in the redemptive age of God’s world. God’s Word tells us so in Revelation 21:5 which states,

And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (ESV).

Scripture tells us it is trustworthy and true that Jesus is certainly not just saving individual souls after their lives end, but is presently making all things new.

God is redeeming all His creation, restoring it to what He originally intended. And we must note that “all” is a definitive fully-encompassing word. All is all.

Why is Jesus redeeming everything?

Because He is the Lord and Creator of everything. Colossians 1:15-17 tells us,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

This is the first and central truth of Christianity, that Jesus is Lord of ALL creation and is redeeming ALL things. Christian philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer used to explain it directly as follows: “The Lordship of Jesus applies to all of life and the cosmos, and all of it equally.”

Thus, Christians are to show the Lordship of Christ over all of creation and human experience by bringing His truth to bare upon every aspect of human culture and to do so faithfully until He comes again. In Luke 19, Jesus speaks to his disciples about what godly stewardship looks like in God’s Kingdom.

In the King James Version, Jesus commands his followers “Occupy til I come.” The English Standard Version translates it as “Engage in business until I come.”

As John Stonestreet of The Colson Center has said so well,

Christian citizens of a democratic republic should strive, with humility and wisdom, to influence and govern and live together as if Christ is over it all, because He is. We contend for the wellbeing of our neighbors, even when it’s unpopular. The question isn’t whether Christians should engage politically, but whether we will do it well.

The Daily Citizen has written on this essential truth in Christian discipleship here, here, and here.

Image from Shutterstock.