Two stories in the news stuck out to me. The first troubling story said that Twinkies may be going bankrupt. How can that be? Talk about too big to fail! But, alas, there's word that the company that makes Twinkies may be filing for Chapter 11. Perhaps, if I eat enough of them in the next couple of weeks, I can make a difference.
But, then, there's that other story that is legitimately sobering - sort of a mirror of the times we're living in. They just reset the Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight.
Since 1947, that symbol of the how close humans may be to imminent destruction has been set by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. In 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight. Its "happy hour" was 1991, when the Cold War thaw caused the Bulletin to set the clock at 17 minutes to midnight.
But as of this week, the dark shadows in our world have pushed the clock to five minutes before midnight.
So why do these world-watching scientists think it's so late? The Japanese nuclear meltdown in March didn't help. And most menacing may be the deployment of over 20,000 nuclear weapons "with enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants many times over." Also, "the prospect of nuclear weapons being used by [lone] non-state actors."
Personally, I'm very glad that the hand that sets the real "doomsday clock" is the hand of Almighty God. I'll go with King David's declaration that, "I trust in You, O Lord; I say,' You are my God.' My times are in Your hands" (Psalm 31:14-15).
The symbolic "last days" language of the Book of Revelation describes a time when "a third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur" (Revelation 8:18). Peter said that "the day of God...will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat" (2 Peter 3:12). Those are hints of something cataclysmic, but it's hard to know just what that will actually look like in earth's final act.
But honestly, I'm not worried about it. I would be if I wasn't sure about what happens when time is up - whether on this world's clock or, more personally, on the clock of my life. See, when Jesus came, He added a word to "life." "Eternal." As in life that nothing can take from you. Unending, unloseable life - even beyond my life's final breath or my world's final moment.
Days before His brutal death on a cross, Jesus announced, "The hour has come...What shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?' No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour" (John 12:23, 27). The reason He came. To die. Jesus, the one and only Son of God. Why? "He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree" so that "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (1 Peter 2:24; John 3:16).
That is the love that has captured my heart. Jesus took my spiritual doom on Himself, absorbing all the hell for all my sin. Then three days later, He proved He's the only One who can truly give a person eternal life - by blowing the doors off His grave on Easter morning.
God bursts the bubble of "I'll get to heaven by being good" when He describes eternal life as something that can't be earned - all we can earn is the "wages of sin" which is "death." He says, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). By faith, I reached out and took the gift He paid for with His life.
So there will be no doomsday for me - or for anyone who has made the Savior their Savior. Not because of anything I've done. But because of what He's done.
For sure, the clock on each of our lives is ticking - and we can't see the clock. Only God can. When it strikes our personal midnight, destination will be set by decision - the one we've made about Jesus. I know where I'm going when it's midnight. I'm going Home. Thank You, Jesus.