WEARING OUT LIKE A GARMENT
WEARING OUT LIKE A GARMENT
“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.” (Heb. 1:10 — 12)
There is obviously a difference between God and His creation. God is eternal. His creation is not. God is always the same and His years will never end. The heavens and the earth, however, are temporal. They will ultimately perish and wear out like a garment. No garment, as you know, lasts forever.
Science has discovered two basic laws that help us to understand this truth. They are called the 1% and 2™ laws of thermodynamics. The 1* law describes the conservation of energy. It states that energy can be changed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy in the universe therefore remains the same. The 2" law states that while the amount of energy remains the same, it’s availability for use is constantly diminishing. The whole of the universe is therefore like a giant clock with the battery gradually running down. This is known as “entropy”.
The word “thermodynamics” literally means “heat power”. The more heat, the more power. A steam engine is relatively cool, but the exhaust temperatures on a gasoline engine can run from 900 — 1100 degrees F. A turbocharged engine produces more heat and more power. It’s exhaust temperatures can be as high as 1,650 degrees F. But because the amount of energy in the universe is fixed we will some day run out of gas. Like giant glowing coals in a fireplace the stars in the heavens will someday burn up and the whole universe will be the same temperature. Scientists call this the “Big Freeze”.
The law of “entropy” proves that there is no such thing as perpetual motion. When we put a satellite in orbit there is just enough friction to bring it crashing back into the atmosphere of earth in some 10 — 20 years. The earth itself is also slowing down. Scientists estimate that we have lost 2.3 milliseconds per century since the 8" century B.C.
This big picture forces us to conclude that the universe cannot be infinitely old. Further, it demonstrates that the “law of entropy” disproves the “theory of evolution”. “Entropy” and “evolution’ mean exactly the opposite. “Entropy” literally means “a turning toward” or “turning in”. “Evolution” means the opposite. It means to “unfold” or “spiral out”. Both cannot be true!
Order does not occur without intelligence and effort. A cabin in the forest did not suddenly appear by accident. The cabin and the people who built it will both wear out like a garment. The same is true of a clock and the battery that empowers it to tell time. Neither is eternal. Energy does nor produce something useful unless it is guided by intelligence. It is both sad and comical that people who are desperate to avoid God postulate that the order we observe in the cosmos came from an explosion they call the “Big Bang”. Two of the biggest explosions known to man took place at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and neither produced order.
There is an old joke about the man who jumped off the Empire State Building. He was quoted as he passed 35" floor: “Everything is all right so far”. “So far” the earth is still inhabitable and you are still alive. Both the earth and you, however, are still in “bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:18 — 25). Both are waxing old like a garment. Caskets come in all sizes. Even little children sometimes die. Neither can we count on the earth surviving until the stars burn into ashes for the Scriptures teach that: “the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” (2 Pet. 3:10)
Peter then asked this simple but profound question: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” (2 Pet. 3:11 — 13)