In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let
there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was
good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day,
and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the
first day. Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Thus God made the
firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the
firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. -
Genesis 1:1-8.
So the evening and the morning were the third day. - Genesis 1:13.
It has now been 92 years since the tragic sinking of the Titanic on April
14, 1912. However, people are still fascinated by the Titanic, the people
aboard who perished, and the people who survived. The wreck was finally
located in 1985 two miles down in the North Atlantic Ocean about two miles
off Newfoundland. The Titanic at that time was in a fair state of
preservation and it was thought that little would be necessary to keep it in
that state. They were wrong. Tourists and scientists are speeding the
acceleration of the decay. Alfred S. McLaren, an ocean scientist and retired
submariner dived to the wreck in 1999 and again in 2003. McLaren said about
the state of the Titanic, I was shocked! Its much more heavily
deteriorated. I expected her to be in about the same shape as 1999.
But
theres more rusticles everywhere. Paul H. Nargeolet has explored the
wreck more than 30 times in a minisub. He says that each dive reveals more
damage. In regard to the accelerating decay he says, Things are going
quicker and quicker.
From a human perspective, everything is continually in a state of
deterioration. We start life in a state of youth and freshness moving toward
a state of deterioration with death being the ultimate form of that decay.
We see the same with plants, reptiles, and animals. It appears all of
creation is moving from life to death. Not only does life decay but
societies decay as well. The Titanic along with everything that we can see
and sense appears to be in a state of decay. Some things decay at a very
fast rate and some at a very slow rate but all things deteriorate.
God, however, has a different perspective. In the Kingdom of God things work
differently than what we commonly perceive as the reality of decay of life
and eventual death. God makes a statement of the spiritual reality in the
opening passage of the Bible. God indicates that we are moving not from
light to darkness but from darkness to light. So the evening and the
morning were the first day. So the evening and the morning were the second
day. So the evening and the morning were the third day. This continued
through the sixth day and on the seventh day, God rested.
As children of God, we are not moving from life to death, from light to
darkness. No, we are moving from darkness to light, from death to life. The
apostle Paul encourages us to look beyond to eternity to see the spiritual
reality. Paul says, Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward
man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day (2
Corinthians 4:16). Paul indicates also that someday the decay of all
creation will be ended, 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 (Roman 8:20-21).
We are moving from death to life, from the decay of our bodies to the
ultimate healing of our bodies. The apostle Paul puts it this way, For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this
mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that
is written: Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:53-54).