This is my keynote address to a Star Trek convention, if I were ever invited.
Fellow Trekkies--let me paint you a picture.
In the very near future, the Earth falls into a terrible war. Elohim, a very intelligent and good being, came to reconquer the planet. It had slipped into darkness following a sophisticated, shape-shifting alien who covertly invaded long ago. This hostile alien subverted humanity very cleverly in the past, and caused all of our species to forget our true origins.
Now in the near future, Elohim has returned with great tribulation that the planet has never seen before, nor will ever see again.
Dramatically, as the smoke clears, the Earth and all planets and stars are restored to their former glory and then some! Out of the sky comes a pre-constructed, ideal city full of homes and gardens and coffee shops. And it's full of people! People who lived in every culture, every country, and every time in history. Peace reigns and the Earth is now the capital of an ever-expanding peaceful government of human beings who have been put in charge of the whole universe. The Milky Way with it's 100 billion stars are open for exploration, discovery, tours, settlement and contact with new, peaceful lifeforms yet undiscovered. In the coming ages as the Milky Way is explored, millions of new galaxies are added to the list of "to be explored".
And there is a King. He's like the man you were always looking for to run for president--humble, not allegiant to rich interests, a servant of the people, a defender of the poor, a fair judge, very accessible, so wise. He as at the same time the most powerful man alive and the most tender and trustworthy man too.
If you love the Star Trek world now, Jesus would like you to enlist in the Federation Starfleet of the New Heavens and New Earth.
Elohim is the Creator God--the God of the Bible. He made us. Our origins aren't from a mysterious combination of amino acids in a primordial puddle. An intelligent being, God, created us in his wisdom and power. He laid out the Earth and the galaxies and told us to have dominion over it. Our assignment--enjoy God forever! But a hostile, cunning, alien shape-shifter invaded. His pitch--you guys don't need God, you can be God! We signed up for a human-centered world. This was a big mistake and let in all types of mistrust, selfishness, cheating and lying. Sinning against God had entered humans like a disease; and then death through sin.
Part of the punishment was forgetting where we came from, and what we were made for. Sometimes we remember what we were made for and it comes out in our deepest desires--like Star Trek.
Why haven't we made Star Trek a reality? Because we are too stupid, too wicked, too busy fighting ourselves. All of these are part of the punishment and frustration that God has placed on us for sin. Sin is like a trade we have made--the glory of God for the glory of images of created things. It's like the heavens being opened up before us with all the stars shining, but being too busy looking at ourselves to behold God's glory.
Such an exchange, when you look at it closely, is disgusting. God is good to send us off to a dark prison for that crime, and all the lesser crimes we've done. Our race is on the edge of perishing because of this.
But if it's true, why has God not yet destroyed us?
He is good and patient with us is our terrible condition.
He made a very detailed reconquering and rescue plan back when we first sinned. He would be very specific in how we should live. All people would fail to follow it. He would send his own son, Jesus, to come live along aside us in all our troubles. Jesus would live right, loving God, giving thanks, and loving his neighbor. Jesus, God's son, would be rejected by us, go to trial as an innocent man, be killed by crucifixion, be crushed by God for the sin's of the world, die, be buried, and come out of the grave. The door to a restored life with God would be flung open by Jesus, and all who came as beggars to receive eternal life would obtain it as a free gift.
People from every culture, every country, every language would a "good person" by God by faith. Not that their faith is worth something, but Jesus's righteous record would be given to them through faith by God.
At the end of the age, Jesus would return in power to bearing the sword to punish all evil--Satan and wicked people.
Including us. We are all infected self-centeredness; when we need to contagiously God-centered.
At the end of that war, this earth and this heavens passes away. Burned up. But God will make a New Heavens and a New Earth. Humanity will be restored. Death and evil will be dead. A new society will be formed that will delight in God century after century after century.
Who knows what adventures there are to be had? What new friendships there are to make, what new planets to explore, what new races of beings there are to encounter. Humans have thought of thousands of cool races of beings--Wookies, Romulans, Elves, Ewoks, Klingons--how many more has God dreamed up to introduce us to over the coming ages*?
And you know who he determined to greet them, and to help them, and the govern them? People! Humans are his favorite creatures. Jesus, who is God, was not sent to die for angels even though some of them rebelled like us. Jesus died for people. Not because we are that awesome, but because of his choice. God does not love us because we are lovely. We are lovely because God loves us.
So if your heart yearns for another world, it's because you were made for one! But our sin has disqualified us and made us even blind to our terrible condition. But God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Don't be stubborn. Seek God while he may be found. Soon the door will close. For those of us who are relying on ourselves to make things right, we will recieve a fair judgment from God and the prison sentence that goes along with it. For those who would forsake their own deeds, and cling to Jesus as their only hope to make things right; they will be welcomed by God. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore. Eternal life is knowing him the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.
*Note: I do not have assurance that God will create other races of intelligent creatures, but it stands to reason. 1. He has already made the angels. 2. God acts for his glory--wouldn't more species of intelligent beings display his glory? 3. Christians are told that they will reign with Christ and even judge the angels. Doesn't it make sense that reigning may involve other intelligent creatures too. 4. If we fallen, finite humans have thought of many such fictional races, wouldn't we expect God to not only think of more, but also bring them into being?
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