We are now officially 20years after the year The Jetsons promised us pollution-free manufacturing, robots, and flying cars. We still don’t have any.
We are now 21years past when we were promised Moonbase Alpha.
We are 19years past a promised orbital hotel/transfer point in 2001: A Space Odyssey which also had a moonbase of some kind under construction.
Not only are those things nowhere close to happening, we have to remind people of basic things like washing hands.
We are now in The Future.
And the future doesn’t look like anything Hollywood has been telling us it should be. We need to imagine a New Future that doesn't have a bunch of things we had been promised in the Old Future. We have some things Hollywood missed back then, but overall we are decades behind what was expected in the sci-fi media I read and watched growing up.
There are all sorts of reasons for this. The purpose of this post is not to identify all those reasons. Besides that, I don't think we know all the reasons.
There are some positive trends.
From one point of view, the world is definitely getting better. But the world is just as definitely getting worse. So let’s also brace ourselves in prayer for the resistance the world continues to put up to the only thing, and the only One, that can truly and finally save it.
We are now 21years past when we were promised Moonbase Alpha.
We are 19years past a promised orbital hotel/transfer point in 2001: A Space Odyssey which also had a moonbase of some kind under construction.
Not only are those things nowhere close to happening, we have to remind people of basic things like washing hands.
We are now in The Future.
And the future doesn’t look like anything Hollywood has been telling us it should be. We need to imagine a New Future that doesn't have a bunch of things we had been promised in the Old Future. We have some things Hollywood missed back then, but overall we are decades behind what was expected in the sci-fi media I read and watched growing up.
There are all sorts of reasons for this. The purpose of this post is not to identify all those reasons. Besides that, I don't think we know all the reasons.
There are some positive trends.
- Extreme poverty in the USA has declined since 1981 from 42% to 10%.
- As recently as 1950 27% of all children still died by age 15. Now that figure has dropped to less than 4%.
- In 1960, a majority of the world’s population had always been illiterate and lived in extreme poverty. By the time I die, illiteracy and extreme poverty may be almost eliminated — and it’s difficult to imagine a greater triumph for humanity on our watch.
- Freedom House’s most recent report says that “a total of 68 countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties during 2018, with only 50 registering gains.” When those countries on the decline include China, India, and the United States, the whole world has cause to worry.
- As Christians, we have additional reasons for concern. According to OpenDoors, an organization focused on persecuted Christians worldwide, “Five years ago, only North Korea was in the ‘extreme’ category for its level of persecution of Christians. In the 2019 World Watch List, as in 2018, 11 countries score enough to fit that category."
- Here in Canada, religious health-care professionals, lawyers, public servants, and organizations are under provincial and federal pressure to compromise their consciences. Significant shadows loom over the spread and practice of the Gospel.
From one point of view, the world is definitely getting better. But the world is just as definitely getting worse. So let’s also brace ourselves in prayer for the resistance the world continues to put up to the only thing, and the only One, that can truly and finally save it.
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