Nuggets from “An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith” by Dave Hunt
What Hebrews:11:3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
See All... [“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews:11:3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
See All...)] tells us is that the visible universe was not made out of anything visible, for that would mean that something visible always existed and the universe was simply manufactured from materials at hand. On the contrary, that could not be the way it came about, because nothing visible is eternal. Any “material,” therefore, would have entropied during the endless time before it was allegedly used to create the universe—and who might have done that? In fact the universe was created by the Word of God: “God said, Let there be…” (Genesis:1:3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
See All...,6,9, and so on), and everything that is visible came into existence in obedience to His Word. That same Word, which created all and holds all together, will speak again, and all that is visible in the old creation will dissolve back into nothing:
“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word [by which they were created] are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter:3:7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
See All...).
The English translation, “kept in store” and “in Him all things consist” (Colossians:1:17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
See All...) have the connotation in the Greek of being “held together.” Peter goes on to describe the destruction of the universe” as being “dissolved” in a “fervent heat” that will burn up the very elements. The English word, “dissolved,” is translated from the Greek luo, which in its forty-six usages in the New Testament denotes a loosing, or letting go, of something being held together—a scientifically accurate description of the loosing of the force binding the nucleus of the atom together.
All matter is made of atoms, which consist of negatively charged electrons orbiting around a nucleus composed of positively charged protons and neutrally charged neutrons. The electrons are of course held in orbit by the positively charged nucleus—but what holds the nucleus together, since its protons ought to repel one another?
Physicists hypothesize a mysterious “strong force,” or “cosmic glue,” which overcomes the electromagnetic repulsion that otherwise would push the protons apart and destroy the atom. Without this mysterious force, the very elements of the entire universe would dissolve in one giant ball of fire—exactly as Peter describes.