{"id":3647,"date":"2024-05-13T07:25:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3647"},"modified":"2024-05-13T07:25:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:25:11","slug":"hope-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/13\/hope-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope for the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Nuclear weapons, ominously, have found their way into both entertainment and the evening news in recent months.

Oppenheimer<\/em>, the story of America\u2019s development of nuclear technology in World War II, recently took home seven Oscars, including Best Picture.\u00a0Fallout<\/em>, a post-apocalyptic TV series set in bombed-out Los Angeles, is a hit on Amazon Prime. And Russian president Vladimir Putin continues to threaten the use of real nukes on any nation that resists his expansionist ambitions.

Interestingly, the term \u201catom bomb\u201d was coined by a novelist even before the start of World War I \u2013 almost 30 years prior to the Manhattan Project.\u00a0

British author H.G. Wells foresaw the global devastation that would be caused by a nuclear conflict, and didn\u2019t hesitate to announce what he thought was the only way for humanity to survive.

In his 1914 book The World Set Free<\/em>, Wells predicted that by the year 1933 nuclear technology would release \u201cworlds of limitless power.\u201d He also predicted \u2013 accurately, as it turned out \u2013 that it would quickly be weaponized.

Wells imagined a global conflict in 1956. He guessed \u2013 wrongly, in this case \u2013 that once an atomic bomb had been dropped, it would continue to explode for years on end, gradually burrowing deeper and deeper into the Earth. There would be no way to control the devastation.\u00a0

According to his futuristic novel, more than 200 major cities would be annihilated. For a world that had grown \u201cold, ill, and confused,\u201d it would be the ultimate wake-up call. In a sense, human progress would be accomplished by means of an apocalypse.\u00a0

The survivors would recognize that humanity needed a major change of heart. The only hope for a bright future would be the establishment of an ideal society \u2013 certainly not through the ballot box, and not through any kind of legislation.\u00a0

Salvation would come through a panel of experts and scientific elites.\u00a0

The world would be set free from its foolish, self-destructive behavior (hence the book\u2019s title) only if civilization were entrusted to Very Smart People.\u00a0

In the book\u2019s last chapter, Marcus Karenin, one of those elites, looks ahead to better days. He argues that knowledge and power, not love, are what it really means to be human. \u201cThere is no absolute limit to either knowledge or power,\u201d he assures the reader.

The notion of placing our lives into the hands of a panel of experts is a very old story. It goes all the way back to Plato\u2019s Republic<\/em> in the fourth century B.C.\u00a0

The esteemed Greek philosopher proposed that society should be divided into three classes.

At the top there should be a ruling class. Plato suggested they be called the Golden Ones, or Guardians. The Golden Ones could be both men and women \u2013 individuals who innately know what is good and right, and who would therefore always make wise decisions.

They should have absolute power over life and death in the wider community.\u00a0The Golden Ones would control who breeds with whom, and what children would be worthy of growing up to adulthood.\u00a0Plato further proposed that the Golden Ones should pick their own successors.\u00a0They would be a self-replicating, self-sustaining clique \u2013 essentially the crowd that no one wanted to sit with back in high school.

And what would everybody else in the community be called to do? They would faithfully meet the needs of the Golden Ones.

The second class, the Silver Ones, would be a kind of standing army to defend the Golden Ones and the community at large. The lowest class, the Bronze Ones, would be the worker bees.\u00a0As those charged with doing the grunt work, they would constitute the great majority of society. The Bronze Ones would be the farmers, artisans, laborers, and servers. They would receive no privileges. Their lives would be expendable.\u00a0They would exist basically to make sure the Golden Ones\u2019 coffee was always hot.

As you might guess, several figures in history have thought that Plato\u2019s ideas ought to be implemented.\u00a0They include Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin.\u00a0

To their everlasting credit, the citizens of Athens turned Plato down flat \u2013 especially when it became clear that Plato fancied himself as the obvious leader of the Golden Ones.

Talented, insightful people can certainly be a gift to the wider community.

But God loved so loved the world that he did not send a panel of experts.

Humanity does indeed need a change of heart to ensure a bright future. But it will come not through the exercise of knowledge and power \u2013 not through the directives of Very Smart People \u2013 but through the renewal of human hearts by the love of Jesus.\u00a0

Plato insisted that apart from a government of the elites, there can be no order. H.G. Wells declared that apart from scientific experts, there can be no hope.

Jesus begs to differ.

He has entrusted his global mission of love and redemption to every member of his Body.\u00a0 In his view, everybody matters.

\u201cGod\u2019s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God\u2019s Spirit. God\u2019s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God\u2019s Spirit. God\u2019s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits\u201d (I Corinthians 12:4-7, The Message<\/em>)

The wonderful news is that you don\u2019t have to be an expert to be on the front lines of what God is doing to bring hope to the world.

Since every member of Christ\u2019s Body bears the image of God and is indwelt by the Spirit, each of us brings something irreplaceable to the table.

And not just the skill of refilling the boss\u2019s cup of coffee.\u00a0
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Nuclear weapons, ominously, have found their way into both entertainment and the evening news in recent months. Oppenheimer, the story of America\u2019s development of nuclear technology in World War II, recently took home seven Oscars, including Best Picture.\u00a0Fallout, a post-apocalyptic TV series set in bombed-out Los Angeles, is a hit on… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,733,508],"class_list":["post-3647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hope","tag-nuclear-bombs","tag-spiritual-gifts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3649,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions\/3649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}