A World Without Christians

I don’t regularly watch very many TV shows, which is not to say that I don’t watch too much TV, but that there is only one prime time drama that I watch regularly. Otherwise, I watch news and very little fiction. However, I recently became intrigued with the title of the new drama, Salvation. I knew that it had nothing to do with Biblical salvation, of course, but I do like a good “end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it” story, so I started watching the first episode. I don’t think I completed it before I got bored with its standard-fare story about the imminent danger of an asteroid hurling toward earth while the paternalistic government tries to cover up the story by keeping this truth under wraps, thus preventing global panic and chaos and their losing of control, and giving them time to find (against all odds) a solution to the problem. Then there is the “hero” with the Avant Garde solution of removing the best and the brightest from the earth in a spacecraft in order to return them back again when the crisis is past.

There is accompanying all this the sub-plots of conspiracy, intrigue, murder, presidential assassination, and all by the “bad guys” who want to wrest control from the “good guys” (in this case, relative terms at best); as I said, your typical doomsday story. I lost interest in it early on, but Sandi has continued to watch it, so I have seen snippets of it since then. Having said all this, I give the disclaimer regarding what I am about to say, that perhaps I have not seen enough of this show to support the observation that I am about to make.

My observation is that in this, and in all the “doomsday” dramas that I have seen in the last few years, there are no characters who portray Christians! It is not particularly that surprising that non-Christian writers do not include any real evangelical believer-type Christians, and I am not trying to bring out any sort of idea that the Christians have already been raptured. I am simply observing that without any believers present, the whole “end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it” scenario is extremely different than it would be if they were present.

I think that perhaps the theory behind this omission is that in the case of “the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it”, the secular writers involved think that the Christians would act like everyone else. Or perhaps they feel that whatever the Christians do, it would be irrelevant. At any rate, the story is the same in that regard as it is in all the recent genre’ of doomsday stories.

So how would the story be different if Evangelical Christians were present in this pre-doomsday world? First, presuming that this is a “normal” run-of-the-mill natural disaster, and that there had been no rapture of Christians, and additionally presuming that the truth of the emergency was revealed to them, I think first of all, that there would be a world-wide outpouring of prayer that God would intervene and avert the crisis.

There would also be an outbreak of evangelistic activity as the believers would discern a greater imperative to win as many as possible to Christ. Regardless of who might perish from this earthly life, it would be important to them to establish the eternal destiny of as many as possible, as there are worse scenarios than an asteroid strike involved.

Another big item that the Christians might do is to come up with their own disaster plan, including “doomsday shelters” and supplies, and plans to transport other believers to safe locations as it may be determined what part of the earth is most out of the way of where the asteroid would strike, in this way, assuring that the mission of Christ’s Church would go on after the global crisis was past.

To be sure, the true Christians would be about the business of ministering to the world in any way possible in such a time as that depicted in this drama, as their hope is in the One who transcends the impending emergency circumstance.

Finally, a major component of the Christian response would be to become examples of the positive attitude that would become a person who believed in a great God who is in control, and who would bring good out of this disaster

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”     (Romans 8:28; ESV).    

Real, true believers in Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, would rise to this occasion and minister in their Lord’s name to a world that would be falling apart. Paul tells us:

“If . . .  we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”  

(1 Corinthians 15:19; ESV)

Indeed, all whose hope is only in this world would probably perform just as depicted in Salvation, but add in a few million (billion?) born-again believers and the whole scenario would play out differently.

Thanks for indulging my fantasy response to this fictitious story.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.