The Twin Paradox

Albert Einstein proposed a principle of relative time that gave rise to what’s known as the twin paradox. Einstein suggested that if an organism were placed in a box and left on earth, while an identical organism was placed in a box and sent on a space journey at the speed of light, when the space-traveling organism returned, the other organism would have gone through several new generations. With human twins, the space traveler would look much younger than the twin who stayed home (which raises a paradox about time and space).

So much of space travel and theories of evolution are based on the relativity of time. Scientists tell us that our world is constantly changing, islands are sinking or rising, and three days ago, they revealed that a ‘fake moon’ called “2023 FW13” has been rotating around the sun since 100 BC but was discovered only this March!

And yet, if Christians were to propose alternatives to standardized theories of evolution or speak about the future of the cosmos, they get upset and even mock Christians for our “non-scientific” thinking. Peter was aware of such critics.

“Foremost know that mockers will come in the last days mocking based on their own desires and going about saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? From the time our ancestors died, everything has remained the same as from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Pet 3:3–4)

Their mockery was specific to the return of Christ. When the Lord Jesus was taken up to heaven, the angels proclaimed that just as he left, he would return. The critics, however, find no substance in this claim. They argue that nothing has changed or will change and believing in his return is folly.

Peter’s answer was,

“It escapes their mind that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was separated from the water and sustained by God’s word. Through his word, the then world was destroyed by a deluge, and the present heavens and earth are stored and kept for fire in the day of judgment and ruin of the irreverent people.” (2 Pet 3:5–6)

They have short-term memory, from Peter’s perspective. They had forgotten that the heavens existed long before God created the land from the waters. After a while, he used the same water to destroy the then world. Similarly, one day he would judge the irreverent people with fire. God did all these merely by his words. If his words were powerful to create and destroy, what he had said through the prophets and the Lord through his apostles were equally powerful (3:1–2).

While the world questions the validity of Christians’ descriptions of the past and future, sometimes Christians also say unsubstantiated claims. In this verse, for example, they claim the world will be destroyed by fire when the text only speaks in mysteries: “The present heavens and earth are stored and kept for fire in the day of judgment and ruin of the irreverent people.” Fire can destroy or purify. After a harvest, for example, agrarian cultures burn the leftover plants and roots before they till the ground and sow the seeds. Perhaps Peter’s fire was a purifying fire that removes the irreverent people than a fire that destroys the present earth. We must wait and see.

Nevertheless, Peter’s message was that God achieves everything in creation and salvation with his words. What he says comes to fulfill. That’s why we stress the importance of knowing and believing his words – they never go unfulfilled.