Rapture and End Times

Harahel spots the anomaly at the very edge of the gravity well. He is in constant communication with the Historical Artifacts team that made the discovery, a castaway in a decaying orbit around the neutron star GX 301-2. They alerted HomeWorld of the arrival of a “very interesting object.” After a lengthily committee discussion, the decision was made to send him.  Now, he positions the grapple to retrieve the errant space ship. The time distortion at this close proximity is severe, and Harahel deploys mini-black hole generators to compensate. They begin to spin around the fragile ship, protecting it in a bubble of space-time. Very delicately, he slowly draws it into his saucer-class vessel. This process will take a while, so he reviews the team’s report and hyperspectral imaging documentary:

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Date: 529.327.13,753,729,925 AC

To: Harahel, Space Archeologist

From: Zophiel, Team Leader, Historical Artifacts Initiative

Re: Noah’s Space Ark

As you know, almost nothing survived from Old Earth after the supernova. As we continue to catalog the immediate area around the disaster site, we find only a few small probes. This fact is what makes the discovery so monumental. This craft has survived almost completely intact, due to being trapped by the immense gravity of this star and therefor  effectively quarantined from meteor impact.

This ship was evidently serving the sole purpose of being a backup of Old Earth’s biodiversity, as well as a multitude of artistic, cultural, historical and scientific achievements, in the event of planetary obliteration. This space ark includes cryogenically frozen seeds, spores, sperm, and egg samples from millions of species of animals. The treasure trove also includes a complete backup of something called “MetaGoogle,” with 15 Exabytes of data on every conceivable subject. There is an onboard Optoelectronic intelligence computer system with artificial general intelligence. It contains complete DNA information of a massive number of species on Earth. A functional 3-D printer can apparently manufacture these seeds of life when desired.

The star attraction of this message-in-a-bottle will undoubtedly be the AI, that includes the powerful and visionary virtual personality of a human known as “Sir David Attenborough.” Included is one of the more intriguing discussions we had with him.

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Harahel pauses his reading, and summons up the VR recording…

A sonorous and somber virtual impression of the naturalist and filmmaker appears, floating in front of him. The artificial intelligence projecting the personality of Sir David Attenborough speaks:

“Welcome! It is our hope that this message will explain the purpose of our Space Ark, in the event that Man does not survive.

On our planet, mass extinction has happened five times in life’s four-billion-year history.

The last time it happened was the event that brought the end of the age of the dinosaurs. A meteorite impact triggered a catastrophic change in the earth’s conditions. 75% of all species were wiped out. Life had no option but to rebuild. For 65 million years, it’s been at work reconstructing the living world… until we come to the world we know… our time. Scientists call it the Holocene. The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods in our planet’s great history.

For 10,000 years, the average temperature has not wavered up or down by more than one degree Celsius. And the rich and thriving living world around us has been key to this stability. Phytoplankton at the ocean’s surface and immense forests straddling the north have helped to balance the atmosphere by locking away carbon.

Huge herds on the plains have kept the grasslands rich and productive by fertilizing the soils. Mangroves and coral reefs along thousands of miles of coast have harbored nurseries of fish species that, when mature, then range into open waters. A thick belt of jungles around the equator has piled plant on plant to capture as much of the sun’s energy as possible, adding moisture and oxygen to the global air currents. And the extent of the polar ice has been critical, reflecting sunlight back off its white surface, cooling the whole earth. The biodiversity of the Holocene helped to bring stability, and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm… the seasons.

On the tropical plains, the dry and rainy seasons would switch every year like clockwork. In Asia, the winds would create the monsoon on cue.

In the northern regions, the temperatures would lift in March, triggering spring, and stay high until they dipped in October and brought about autumn.

The Holocene was our Garden of Eden. Its rhythm of seasons was so reliable that it gave our own species a unique opportunity.

We invented farming. We learnt how to exploit the seasons to produce food crops. The history of all human civilization followed. Each generation able to develop and progress only because the living world could be relied upon to deliver us the conditions we needed. The pace of progress was unlike anything to be found in the fossil record.

The global air temperature had been relatively stable till the 1990s. But it now appeared this was only because the ocean was absorbing much of the excess heat, masking our impact.

It was the first indication to me that the earth was beginning to lose its balance.

Right now, we’re facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.

This is the situation in the near future:

The Amazon Rainforest, cut down until it can no longer produce enough moisture, degrades into a dry savannah, bringing catastrophic species loss… and altering the global water cycle.

At the same time, the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer. Without the white ice cap, less of the sun’s energy is reflected back out to space. And the speed of global warming increases.

Throughout the north, frozen soils thaw, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide, accelerating the rate of climate change dramatically.

As the ocean continues to heat and becomes more acidic, coral reefs around the world die. Fish populations crash.

Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. Pollinating insects disappear. And the weather is more and more unpredictable.

Our planet becomes four degrees Celsius warmer. Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. Millions of people rendered homeless. A sixth mass extinction event… is well underway. This is a series of one-way doors… bringing irreversible change. Within the span of the our lifetime, the security and stability of the Holocene, our Garden of Eden… will be lost.

Unfortunately, the climate emergency was only one factor in our decision to make a backup of Earth.

This short presentation ignited our massive effort in creating and launching a modern Ark.”

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The AI narration concludes: “The continuation of our civilizations and the natural world upon which we depend is entrusted to this time capsule. Please review the extensive materials and instructions for use. These treasures of humanity are in your hands.”

Harahel is alerted that the ship has now been wrestled away from the gravity well, and is secure in the bay of his saucer. He stops the presentation, and thanks Zophiel and his team for the excellent work in preserving the find. They will be staying behind on a diplomatic mission to the “flatlanders” who are native to the neutron star. They apparently have a flat elliptical body about five millimeters in diameter and half a millimeter high. It was these tiny, amazingly advanced creatures, with a metabolism of nuclear, rather than chemical reactions, who protected the ship from the surface gravity of about 67 billion Gs.

Harahel activates the Drive and space folds around the ship, like a brilliant spiral. Next stop – the Hall of Remembrance!

On autopilot now, he has time to check on the delicate artifact. While walking around the Ark, and being by nature historically minded, he reflects on the deep history that lead to this moment. To him it is a great irony that the real cause of the “Great Devouring” was the sin of Man, not specifically any of the disasters they imagined. The rejection of the Holy One, and the evil perpetuated by the Dragon reached the tipping point. The Strong Delusion was the Dragon’s triumph, when he landed at the Vatican courtyard and declared himself the creator of Man. The resulting judgement of the Day of the Lord wiped out almost all life on Earth.

He thought about the intense suffering of the Tribulation, and the miraculous Millennial Golden Age. Earth was completely restored by their true Messiah, and the entire planet was a garden of Eden.

But, after a thousand of their years, there was a final Rebellion. The Self-Existent One appeared. Their Sun immediately went into supernova, and all of Earth was vaporized. The souls of the family of Adam were released into the awful and wonderful Judgement.

The saucer notifies him that they are approaching HomeWorld. He turns his mind away from the everlasting hell of the Lake of Fire, instinctively pulls his wings in closer, and walks back up to the command deck.

As the ship unfolds space, he is once again thrilled at the sight of New Earth. He can feel the aether vibrating around him, the very foundation of space-time rejoicing at the Presence of the Trinity. He would soon join his fellow angels, and witness once again the Mystery of Yahweh Shammah. No angel could fully understand the wonder of the joining of the Son of God and the bride. All he could do is marvel at the Body of Christ, each member glowing like the brilliance of a star. Harahel silently thanks the Lord for the completion of the mission. He gently lowers his saucer to the ground, and waits for the landing party to unload his historical treasure.

He could not help but remember a snippet of the song he found in the Ark’s historical records:

When we’ve been there, 10,000 years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.

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If you are not sure that you are saved, you can accept Christ into your life right now, by praying:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life.  I ask you in to my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior.”