Time Travel

The notion of having some kind of machine or other medium allowing people movement between fixed points in time has been an intrinsic concept in sci-fi and fantasy fiction for a while now. The idea of visiting your past or future self, perhaps repairing a broken relationship, or thwarting a disastrous event and altering outcomes is an intriguing premise that has served many a creative storyteller extremely well.

Movies such as Back to the Future, Terminator, and Groundhog Day became not only box office bonanzas but cultural talking points as well, with key lines (like “I’ll be back”) from them still used in conversations today. Like a mechanistic—rather than mystical—“crystal ball”, the possibility of time travel machines allowing us to discover what will happen in the future remains a long-sought vision by mankind.

Only God Knows

The fact is, only God knows the future. God created the universe, which consists of time, space, and matter.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

Many verses in Scripture (in both the Old and New Testaments) make it clear that God knows what the future holds because he is all knowing and sovereign over all his creation.

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” (Isaiah 44:6)

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)

We, of course, are finite, dependent upon the Lord for our very breath and existence and are extremely limited in our ability to know about future events. However, the Bible (the only source of absolute knowledge) provides us with many indicators of what the future may or may not hold, depending on the fulfillment of certain conditions and contingencies laid out in God’s Word.

For example, Romans 10:9 says,

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead [condition], you will be saved.

Now, the exact nuances of how and why this or that condition will or won’t be met has been debated among theologians, but whether or not the result will occur (salvation) when the proper conditions are met is not in dispute. So, in that sense we can know what will happen in the future should certain criteria be met.

Of course, some of the “if this/then that” conditions laid out in Scripture (primarily in what is known as wisdom literature in the Bible) is more like “best practices” rather than absolute statements. For example, even though Proverbs 22:6 says,

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Unfortunately, many Christian parents can testify that although they raised certain children up to honor the Lord, not all ended up doing so. However, we understand that the verse is characterizing the raising of children in a proper Christian environment as significant to the goal of producing godly children.

Another type of example is given by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel.

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. (Luke 6:40)

Of course, the statement doesn’t say that a student will always become exactly like their teacher, but there is a strong emphasis and warning here that young minds can be strongly shaped by those in positions of direct influence over them.

What Will Our Future Be?

Many Christians have shaken their heads in the last decade at the cultural collapse that has become so evident in society, wondering, “How on earth did we get here?” and trying to divine the future by pondering, “Where are we headed should this continue?”

Well, “a good indicator of where a society will be 20 years from now is to take a look at what its educators are teaching today. As students absorb the information and adopt it into their worldview, then start living their lives accordingly, society will reflect the beliefs of its citizens more profoundly.”1

Obviously, the most pressing concerns most conservative-minded people have (let alone Christians) are the degradation of or outright abandonment of yesteryear’s moral and ethical standards across the broad spectrum of society—especially concerning issues surrounding marriage, identity, and sanctity of life.

As an example, abortionists originally began by advocating for the destruction of babies during the first trimester as acceptable by arguing that the little one inside the mother was somehow not a “real” baby or somehow not human. But many modern abortionists have “moved on” from that and are comfortable stating what the pro-life camp has always stated—it’s a human baby being destroyed.

One example is abortion lover Mary Williams, who calls out fellow abortionists who claim unborn babies are “just a clump of cells” on their dishonesty. Here are some quotes where she admits that life starts at conception, and that the baby is fully alive and fully human.

When we on the pro-choice side get cagey around the life question, it makes us illogically contradictory. I have friends who have referred to their abortions in terms of “scraping out a bunch of cells” and then a few years later were exultant over the pregnancies that they unhesitatingly described in terms of “the baby” and “this kid.”

So what if abortion ends a life? . . . a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

I believe that life starts at conception . . . I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice.

All life is not equal . . . If by some random fluke I learned today I was pregnant, you bet your ___ I’d have an abortion. I’d have the World’s Greatest Abortion . . . I would put the life of a mother over the life of a fetus every single time—even if I still need to acknowledge my conviction that the fetus is indeed a life. A life worth sacrificing.2

In no uncertain terms, what this person is ultimately confessing is that murder is acceptable. And lest someone say her view is some one-off, aberrant opinion, perhaps they should consider that in most western societies, Mary’s opinion is fully supported by the law in those countries (whether or not others agree exactly with her opinions).

The end results of her opinion are mainstream. So how did society get so comfortable with this? Well, a good question to ask might be, “What have leading ethicists been teaching students regarding life issues recently?”

Killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Very often it is not wrong at all.3

This quote is from Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer, the current Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. His specialization is in applied ethics, and as an atheist and evolutionist, he approaches ethical issues from a secular, utilitarian perspective.

He “has advocated for a 28-day time period [after a child’s birth] for parents to decide whether they kill their child. And he is not alone in his thinking about killing children after”4 they’re born.

John Harris, a bioethicist from Manchester University has said,

I don’t think infanticide is always unjustifiable. I don’t think it is plausible to think that there is any moral change that occurs during the journey down the birth canal.5

These ideas have been seeded into higher education for years now and have become the norm. Which is why the Journal of Medical Ethics (It is hard to understand how they can justify that name) was comfortable publishing an article titled “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?” in 2012, which stated,

Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.6

Going Forward or Backward?

One can see where this is going because we’re familiar with human history. These are similar positions to those the Nazis held on life during WWII and are reminiscent of the barbaric infanticide laws of ancient Rome.

And where will it stop? “The chilling reality is that once you accept a non-absolute moral system there is no line.”7 No matter the days, weeks, months, or years, once you adopt murder as acceptable, the age of the victim is inevitably inconsequential.

Change the Past—Change the Future

However, adopting these ideas did not happen by chance. Undergirding all the moral decay we see is the abandonment of the authority of God’s Word—the inevitable result of which is the collapse of God’s moral law. Christians need to understand exactly how that was done if they wish to change the future trajectory of our world.

Although many Christians continue to simply not “get it,” the answer to how we got to where we are in our society is literally under their very noses most times they go for a drive in their cars. How many times have you seen either a “Christian fish” or a “Darwin fish” stuck on the back of the vehicle in front of you?

Many people miss the significance of what those two emblems symbolize, but ultimately they represent God’s Word as truth vs. man’s word as truth. Why? Because they represent two completely contrasting worldviews. One symbolizes a recognition that they were created in the image of God, that there are moral absolutes, and that we are responsible to God and His word. The other symbolizes the idea that we are simply evolved animals and not responsible to anyone but ourselves. As atheist Jeremy Rifkin said,

We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else’s home and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of pre-existing cosmic rules. It is our creation now. We make the rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world, and because we do, we no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe. We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever.8

Teaching a False Past Affected Our Real Future

What most Christians miss is that the teaching of the story of evolution to millions of students for generations now has provided Bible skeptics and naturalists with a solid platform from which to build their entire humanistic ethos and disseminate it into society.

Teaching evolution is synonymous with teaching atheism, as it fulfills the requirements of what all atheists have to believe, which is: God doesn’t exist and there are materialistic explanations for all of reality.

Is the Future Looking Bright?

Of course, for believers, the question of whether we can hope for an optimistic future is ultimately yes!

For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:8)

God’s Word is clear that there will come a day where Christians will be united in the new heavens and new earth, where there will be no sin or death.

However, believers need to be mindful that our near future here likely includes increasing pushback and persecution against God’s people and his Word. Young people are being educated in a system that teaches there are no absolutes—that people can simply will themselves to be whichever gender, “race,” or even fantasy species they wish to identify as.

Pedophilia is being advocated for by organized groups, with “age of consent” laws being lowered further and further. Communism is openly taught as a viable and preferable political system. Should this next generation fully adopt these views and live them out, our near future could be quite ungodly, to say the least.

However, believers should not despair, as we know that the Lord has accomplished miraculous turnarounds in history before.

Ultimately, as the days get darker, the light appears even more bright. As despair grows, many people begin looking for hope, which often opens the door to gospel witness in areas that previously seemed closed and guarded.

So, let’s continue to teach the true history of the world recorded in Genesis as the foundation for why the gospel message is of ultimate importance—to set the stage for a better future here on earth now and continuing into eternity. As his Word says,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)