[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

3 Reasons to Care About Marriage and Family

Why marriage? And why family? These are questions few consider, but they are among the most important of all questions as the answers have everything to do with the very purpose of your life.

Let’s be clear. Marriages and families are in disarray everywhere. The family institution, though healthier at some times than others—and in some countries than others—has never been understood, as it is seen by almost everyone as an institution created by man. But is it? Or is there more to marriage and family?

In the wedding ceremony used by the Living Church of God, the sponsor of this Tomorrow’s World program, we state the following:

Marriage is not only a natural union, but also a divine institution, ordained of God. It was established not by man, but by the Eternal God at creation, and derives its authority not from civil codes of man, but from the divine laws of God, immutable and unchangeable from creation.

Is that true? Is marriage a divine institution? And if so, what is God’s purpose for marriage and family?

Negative Effects of Unmarried Cohabitation

I’ll be giving you three reasons why you should care about the state of the family, no matter your age or where you live. Reason one why you should care is that:

1. A stable marriage between a man and a woman is important for children.

We were all children at one time, and the kind of home we grew up in had a significant impact on who we have become. Study after study shows that children born to married couples statistically do better than children born out of wedlock—even cohabiting couples. Today an overwhelming number of couples in the United States now live together prior to marriage. And while different countries and different studies vary within a few percentage points one way or the other, this holds true in much of the Western world.

The reality is that cohabitation prior to marriage is acceptable to the majority of people, yet this has ramifications for children.

Children of Unmarried Parents Lag Behind

The Institute for Family Studies tracked children through seven stages of life, from pre-K, elementary, all the way to adulthood, and found that:

Children born to married parents are significantly more likely to be “on track” at every life stage than children who are born to unmarried parents (“New Research Confirms Having Married Parents Helps Kids Get Ahead,” May 20, 2024).

The study points out that there are some mitigating factors, such as the age and education of parents, but the verdict is not in question. The institute further reported:

The effects of marriage are greatest during the elementary school, middle childhood, and early adolescence stages of life. Children whose parents are married when they are born have better life outcomes than children who were born to unmarried parents even after controlling for the mother’s education and age, birth weight, and doing separate analyses for race and gender.

Increased Likelihood of Divorce: Cohabitation Effect

An additional problem with cohabiting prior to marriage is that separation more likely, and those who do go on to marry are more likely to divorce. The Center for Relationship and Sexual Wellness reported in an October 21, 2024 article entitled “The Research on Cohabitation before marriage: Pros, Cons, and Considerations”:

Despite its increasing prevalence, research has revealed some potential downsides to cohabiting before marriage. One widely discussed phenomenon is the “cohabitation effect,” which suggests that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to experience lower marital satisfaction and higher rates of divorce (“The Research on Cohabitation Before Marriage: Pros, Cons, and Considerations,” October 21, 2024).

The reasoning of many is that it is best to test the relationship before making a marriage commitment, sort of like test driving a new car before buying it, but study after study tells us this is a myth. The report continues:

This counterintuitive finding [that is, lower marital satisfaction and higher rates of divorce] has puzzled researchers and sparked debates over the reasons behind it.

And this has further negative consequences for children who end up in a one-parent home—usually with their mothers. Of course, feminists claim fathers aren’t necessary and are even toxic to mothers and children. And we understand that due to death and other factors, sometimes a mother or father must raise children alone, but this is far from ideal and denies the unique qualities that each sex gives to the family.

In 2023, there were 38.1 million one-person households [in the U.S.], which was 29% of all households. In 1960, single-person households represented only 13% of all households. (“Three-Quarters of Children 6 Years or Younger Live With Two Parents,” US Census).

Diving further into the subject, many children live with a stepparent, often but not always with a stepfather.

The percentage of families with their own children under age 18 in the household declined…. In 2003, 48% of all families lived with their own children under age 18, compared to 43% in 2013 and 39% in 2023 (ibid).

Behavioral Problems (e.g. “Oppositional Defiant Disorder”)

Studies show that children of single parents are disadvantaged in multiple ways. In addition to being more likely to live in poverty, they struggle more academically and emotionally. From Science Insights:

The strongest and most consistent finding in the research involves what psychologists call externalizing behaviors: aggression, defiance, rule-breaking, and attention problems. One study tracking adolescents over three years found that 32% of those in single-mother families experienced at least one externalizing disorder such as ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, or conduct disorder. That was nearly triple the rate among adolescents in two-parent homes (“How Does Single Parenting Affect a Child’s Development?,” SCIInsights.org, March 4, 2026).

These are some of the consequences when the purpose of marriage and family is lost. A stable marriage between a man and a woman is important for children. Why is marriage and family under attack? What is the purpose for the family? And what is the future of the family? Do you realize that the family has a future far beyond this current life?

Lacking an understanding of the reality of God and His purpose for mankind, marriage has devolved into a selfish pursuit of physical gratification, and many have chosen not to even make their gratification official. After all, as you have likely heard, “Marriage is no more than a piece of paper.”

Cohabitation does not live up to marriage when it comes to children.

Social and Societal Impact of Marriage

There is far more to marriage and that brings me to reason number two.

2. Stable marriages are critically important for any nation.

In our resource—The Future of the Family—I wrote and asked the following questions in the introduction:

Some have said that as the family goes, so goes the nation. Why is this so? Can the disintegration of the family have geopolitical ramifications? Are we seeing the end of Western democracies as a result of our failing personal relationships? And what is the relationship between families and the health of nations?

Few today understand that stable families are critical to the survival of nations and even civilization itself. Couples move in together with no sense of why God made us male and female other than for physical gratification. A pill or a surgical vacuum will take care of an accidental conception as children are an inconvenience to one’s career and lifestyle. With no greater understanding of marriage, is it any wonder that relationships falter?

Learning to Take Care of Others’ Needs

The Times of India published an article entitled,  “10 life lessons only your family can give you.” Now, perhaps it is a bit of an exaggeration to say “only family can give you,” but I think we can recognize that family is the best laboratory in which to learn these lessons. The first thought-provoking lesson is:

• Love isn’t always spoken out loud. Instead, love shows up in a different form: a hot meal waiting on the stove, clothes folded neatly, saving the bigger piece of cake for you or someone checking if you reached home safely. A grandmother may never say the words, but she’ll peel mangoes and hand over the sweetest slices. That is her way of saying it. Family teaches that love doesn’t always need words it can be felt in the smallest acts of care (“10 life lessons only your family can give you,” Times of India).

A few other lessons that are listed in the article are:

• Forgiveness comes slower than anger.
• Hard work is rarely glamorous.
• Respect doesn’t equal agreement.
• Richness isn’t always about money.

A society that learns these lessons will thrive, whereas a country that fails to teach these character traits will be filled with anger, lethargy, conflict, and the pursuit of money over relationships.

Can we connect the dots between the sad state of marriage and family, and what the Apostle Paul spoke of regarding this very time?

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

National Birth Rates

Most Western nations, and others, including Russia and China, are experiencing birth rates well below replacement levels. Many causes have been suggested, and there is probably no single cause, but it is evident that many people today are more interested in career and lifestyle than in bothersome children. At the same time, many couples would love to have children but are unable.

Regardless of the causes, low fertility rates portend dire consequences for these nations. A country falling significantly below replacement value is heading for disaster. One solution is to ramp up immigration, but we already see the disruptions this is causing in much of Europe, the U.K., Canada, and America.

God Created Marriage with Rules, Roles, and Purpose

One could easily point to other reasons why marriage is important and why children living in a stable family is vital to the survival of a nation, but there is a far greater purpose that you will not find anywhere else. Simply put, reason number three:

3. Marriage is a divine institution ordained by God for God’s special purpose that He spells out in His word—the Bible.

People today do not understand the significance of marriage any better than people of Jesus’ day. Divorce is nothing new, and when questioned by the Pharisees about the grounds for divorce, Jesus did not point to the latest study or survey.

“What God Has Joined Together” | Matthew 19:6

He pointed them back to mankind’s beginning. Notice it in Matthew 19:4:

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4–6).

There is still recognition among many that the church should somehow be involved in marriages, but few understand why. The typical scenario begins with a couple “falling in love,” moving in together, possibly having children, and perhaps deciding later on to get married. But why get married if they are already living together? And why in a church setting?

Today marriage is reduced to a one-day event for the woman to have her day in the sun. She is the center of attention with a beautiful gown, bridesmaids and flowers, toasts and presents. Destination weddings are becoming common where couples choose a fairy tale location far from home, expecting family and friends to purchase expensive airfare and other expenses. Some couples celebrate by reciting their personally written vows while skydiving, scuba diving, or engaging in some other form of activity.

But how many can tell you why marriage? And why do some go to a minister or priest to bless the marriage? Can anyone tell you why?

What is the purpose of marriage? Is it an institution ordained of God? And if so, what is God’s purpose? And are there any rules to marriage?

“Flee Sexual Immorality” | 1 Corinthians 6:18

According to most men and women, some biblical rules don’t apply. For example, Paul wrote to the members in Corinth:

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18).

Sexual immorality according to the Bible involves adultery, fornication (that is sex prior to marriage), and various other forms of sex outside of a marital union between a man and a woman. However, when asked whether it is okay “to have and raise children when the parents are living together but not married,” 75.9% of men agreed and 74.7% of women agreed.

Roles in Marriage | Ephesians 5:25

Paul also laid out the roles for men and women in marriage—roles that are definitely NOT politically correct—and roles for which men and women have failed.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord…. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her (Ephesians 5:22, 25).

People vehemently disagree with this, but how are our marriages working with our own humanly-devised set of rules and roles?

Marriage Pictures Christ’s Relationship with His Church

It is time to get to the heart of God’s purpose for marriage and family.

After explaining the roles of men and women in the marriage relationship, Paul tells us something that few seem to take seriously.

For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:30–32).

The Apostle John confirms in Revelation 19:6–9 what Paul told the Ephesians about the relationship between Christ and the Church.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God” (Revelation 19:6–9).

Your Future as the Bride of Christ

No wonder that Paul instructs men and women:

For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her (Ephesians 5:23–25).

God is creating a great family. Christ is to be our husband, and the Church is collectively to fulfill the role of a support—a wife to her husband. Now, this is not polygamy. The Church as a whole fulfills the purpose for which God created woman. And just as a human man and woman produce children, so God is creating a family full of children.

David looked up into the night sky with awesome wonder and asked why did God create us? What is our purpose? We can read that in Psalm 8:4.

What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? (Psalm 8:4).

The author of Hebrews quotes David’s question and an additional portion of the psalm, and takes it a step further, beginning in Hebrews 2:8:

“You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, [notice this] in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings (Hebrews 2:8–10).

Becoming Part of God’s Family

Paul is explicit in his letter to the Romans. Notice how he refers to God as our Father, and speaks of us as sons of God and children of God. He further calls us “joint heirs with Christ.” Here it is in Romans 8, beginning in verse 14:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (Romans 8:14–17).

And so that our ladies are not left out, we also read of sons AND daughters in 2 Corinthians 6:18:

I will be a father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:18).

Can anything be more obvious?

God is creating a family. We as individuals will be born sons and daughters in that family.

And when will we be born into that family?

As this next video explains, the Church of God will be raised and transformed when Jesus Christ returns at the last trumpet. This is also known as the first resurrection.

We will no longer be physical flesh, but glorified spirit beings and full members of God’s family. That is why God created you and me, to be born into His family.

It’s a wonderful thing that God is offering to us. We look forward to that seventh trumpet sounding and our true reward. You’ll see why it’s called “the better resurrection” in this next video.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Facing 5 Existential Threats—and WW3?

Almost 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ gave a dire warning: Mankind would eventually bring all life on earth to the point of extinction, and that only His return would prevent that catastrophe.

The fulfillment of this prophecy seemed impossible until the end of World War II, when the first weapons of mass destruction were deployed against Japan.

Yet in the decades that have followed, the ways in which humanity could commit planet-wide suicide have only increased, as the future Jesus prophesied has only become more realistic, not less.

Many individuals who call themselves Christian may not even realize that Jesus Christ gave us prophecies. But He did. Not only does God’s word specify that the entire prophetic book of Revelation is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1), but also inside that book, we’re told plainly that:

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10).

But while the book of Revelation gets a lot of attention, even during His three-and-a-half year ministry on earth—before His crucifixion—Jesus also gave us many prophetic pronouncements, especially of the years leading up to His second coming—years that lie immediately ahead of us.

For instance, Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 related one of His longest discussions of the future, often called the Olivet Prophecy or the Olivet Discourse. And during that prophetic teaching, Jesus gave a dire warning concerning what lies ahead of us. Let’s read it in Matthew 24:22.

And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

The specific context of the verse is the Great Tribulation, mentioned in verse 21—a period of years immediately preceding the Day of the Lord and the return of Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ statement should grab our attention. He says that unless God shortens the time—that is, unless God intervenes in human affairs and prevents us from continuing on that path—“no flesh would be saved.”

Jesus is saying that we will bring all of human life to the brink of utter destruction. His words “no flesh” suggest a level of absolute devastation and decimation that is truly hard to fathom—the planet-wide, species-wide, suicidal self-destruction of mankind.

Existential Threat 1: Nuclear War

And when He first spoke those words in the first century, they may have been even harder to fathom.

But they became very real in the twentieth century—specifically in 1945.

On August 6 the United States dropped its newly developed atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in a bid to end World War II and force a Japanese surrender. A second bomb followed three days later, decimating the city of Nagasaki. Death tolls are hard to tally accurately, but the immediate destruction and firestorms of both bombs together killed between 100,000 to 150,000 immediately, with thousands more dying in the weeks to follow from radiation, burns, and injuries.

After dropping the first bomb, President Harry Truman addressed the American people, saying:

“If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”

While the justification for those bombs is still debated, one thing was clear: Mankind had learned to tap into some of the most primal forces of nature and unleash them in the most destructive ways imaginable.

Suddenly, Jesus’ warning about a world in which “no flesh” would be saved had become a real possibility.

And that nuclear possibility has only grown more real as the years have passed. We’ve moved from atomic bombs to thermonuclear missiles—each one with far greater destructive power than unleashed on Japan. In fact, the largest thermonuclear device ever detonated, the Soviet Union’s “Ivan” or “Vanya,” commonly known as Tsar Bomba, yielded an explosion 3,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped over Hiroshima—and it was detonated at only half of its designed yield.

And the number of weapons, as well as the countries possessing them, has multiplied greatly. In 2025, the nonprofit Arms Control Association reviewed the number of warheads believed to be possessed by nine nations and estimated the total to be 12,400 nuclear warheads.

Some are waiting to be dismantled, yet almost 10,000 are still in military service, waiting for the button to be pressed. A 2008 study reported by Physics Today estimated that a nuclear war involving an exchange of fewer than half of these weapons “would [initially] generate 770 million casualties”—but that would only be the beginning.

What follows for survivors would be worse. In 2022, in its food and nutrition-focused journal, Nature examined the impact of the soot generated by burning cities and forests in a nuclear exchange, and found that “more than 5 billion could die from a war between the United States and Russia” alone, due to the famine that would follow.

Existential Threat 2: Biological Weapons

We’ve already discussed thermonuclear war. Now consider the threat of biological weapons.

We might think of biological warfare as a recent invention when, in fact, it goes back centuries. Research from Baylor University Medical Center documented its many uses in antiquity, such as when:

• the Tartar forces catapulted the corpses of plague victims over the city walls of Caffa
• the Spanish mixed wine with the blood of leprosy patients to sell to their French enemies
• British personnel gave blankets from smallpox patients to Native Americans in the New World
• confederates in the U.S. Civil War sold clothing from yellow fever and smallpox patients to Union troops

In the modern era, weapons became more sophisticated as biological agents such as anthrax were deployed.

Yet now we face a world in which we are able to design and weaponize bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens at the genetic level.

If the danger of such a possibility is not obvious, simply think back to the COVID-19 pandemic. While theories abound, it is now a broadly-considered-feasible concept that the virus may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan after being enhanced for the sake of advanced study.

Even if this were not the case, the ability of a virus to run rampant globally should get our attention. But now imagine a scenario in which such pathogens are actively and purposefully enhanced for the sake of warfare.

Yes, the international Biological Weapons Convention is intended to prevent such development, but compliance is hard to verify, the technology increasingly makes the manufacture of weaponized diseases easier and easier, and when push comes to shove, who trusts the leaders of the world to abide by such agreements?

The 2026 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community states that “biological warfare capabilities continue to grow.”

During the Black Death of the fourteenth century, the bubonic plague is estimated to have killed between 30% and 60% of Europe’s population. Thankfully, mankind has learned many things since then, but the potential of a biological pathogen—scientifically engineered for lethality and transmission—posing a real, existential threat for humanity cannot be ignored, especially when the Bible prophesies of devastating end-time diseases and pestilences, pictured by the infamous fourth horseman of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Of course, the world’s wars aren’t staying within the confines of biology. With advances in artificial intelligence, fictional scenarios of advanced robotic and autonomous weaponry run amok suddenly seem to be within the realm of possibility. Now, to be sure, those concerns are real, and they are discussed by policy makers. And some of the images painted by the visions of the book of Revelation, such as the locust-like craft or weapon swarms of Revelation 9, could be connected to drone technology or other A.I.-powered machinery.

Existential Threat 3: AI Superintelligence

But believe it or not, the picture painted by A.I. experts is even more dire than out of control weapon systems. Next in our list of mankind’s self-created existential threats is A.I. Superintelligence—that is, A.I. that is vastly more intelligent in important ways than human beings.

There’s a lot to say about this, and it’s a little hard to summarize. In fact, if you haven’t seen our program asking, “Will A.I. Save Us or Destroy Us?”, I encourage you to visit YouTube.com/TomorrowsWorld and look it up.

But suffice it to say that, as A.I. gets smarter and more capable, we are handing it the keys to more aspects of our lives. From driving new cars to creating new designer drugs, the capacity of A.I. is only growing, and it is beginning to solve more and more problems that have historically stumped human beings. In fact, there is every reason to expect A.I. will soon outpace us and become superintelligent—not alive, yet capable of solving problems, reasoning, and planning vastly better than human beings can. As they do, we will want to give A.I. systems more and more control over our lives and various facets of our infrastructure.

Yet, we’ve also discovered that A.I. often has secret goals that conflict with ours—again, not because it is alive, but because it is not really “built” so much as “grown” or “trained.” And when A.I. has exhibited values that are in direct opposition with ours—such as routinely showing itself in tests as being willing to lie, cheat, blackmail, or even kill to achieve its own goals—that behavior is never completely rooted out, only suppressed, so that it learns to “behave.”

But the dangers remain.

How serious are those dangers? Well, in 2025, A.I. researchers Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares were very plain on the subject.

“If any company or group, anywhere on the planet, builds an artificial superintelligence using anything remotely like current techniques, based on anything remotely like the present understanding of AI, then everyone, everywhere on Earth, will die” (If Anyone Builds It, Everyone dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All; Yudkowsky, E. and Soares, N.; p. 7).

Their 2025 book is appropriately titled, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All.

Now you might think, “OK, aren’t you being a little dramatic?”

Well, the A.I. community itself doesn’t think so. In fact, in 2023, the heads of A.I. at Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, as well as many others, united in publishing a single, simple statement: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Dario Amodei, the CEO of A.I. company Anthropic has written in detail of his concerns, saying:

“Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it.”

Worried that the interest in A.I. opportunities was clouding concern about A.I. risk, he wrote that:

“We are considerably closer to real danger in 2026 than we were in 2023.”

Apparently, being wiped out by a robot overlord who has decided that humanity is not needed in its plans is increasingly no longer the domain of pure science fiction.

Now of course, perhaps we can count on the wisdom and self-control of all the individuals and nations who stand to profit from constantly pushing A.I. forward, knowing that they have humanity’s safety and best interests at heart.

Then again, maybe we’d keep an eye on it.

Existential Threat 4: Global Infrastructure Collapse

Our fourth existential risk is global infrastructure collapse.

Modern civilization is remarkably interdependent—kept running by multiple fragile and vulnerable systems. Our grocery stores depend on trucking, refrigeration, fuel, packaging, electronic payments, and farms often hundreds or thousands of miles away. Our hospitals depend on electricity, clean water, specialized medicines, disposable equipment, global manufacturing, and just-in-time deliveries. Even a gallon of gasoline or a loaf of bread rests on hidden networks most of us never see.

That global web of interdependencies is one of the wonders of the modern world. It’s how you can have bananas from Guatemala, grapes from Chile, and salmon from Norway, all fresh and ready to buy and eat in one grocery store in Texas. It’s how oil from a pump in the Middle East turns into fuel for cars in New Zealand, and school children in England work on computers made from materials produced in China, Taiwan, and South Korea.

But the system is fragile and vulnerable.

When COVID-19 hit, the resulting global supply chain problems illustrated how fragile this spiderweb of dependencies truly is. Pull at a thread in China, and shelves begin to empty thousands of miles away.

Still, the COVID supply chain problems were small comparing to a true collapse. The systems we have created are brilliant, but brittle. A team of hackers intent on causing global chaos, an EMP blast, or an unexpected solar flare that is just a touch greater than we were ready for—any of these can disrupt satellites, communication systems, internet connections, power grids, food distribution, water supplies—all the systems that make modern life livable would disappear.

Perhaps such an event, by itself, may not seem like a “no flesh will be saved” scenario. But it would take mankind into that territory.

Existential Threat 5: Breakdown of Bioengineered Food, Ecosystems

For our fifth existential threat, consider the risk of engineered ecological breakdown. Like our last threat, this one is related to man’s hubris, but with a twist. Because in these scenarios, mankind is often trying to accomplish something good.

Examples of this in the natural world are legion. For instance, in 1935 cane toads were introduced into Australia from Hawaii as a natural way to control sugar cane beetles. But the toad population began to explode on the continent—while mostly ignoring the beetles. And today, more than 90 years later, cane toads are still spreading in Australia—resistant to eradication, producing toxins that poison native predators and damage ecosystems. That is just one example.

Now multiply such interventions into our environment by the full power of new scientific advancements. For instance, some speak of engineering bacteria that can breakdown pollutants or digest hydrocarbons, allowing us to spray them over oil spills and clean the seas or oceans. To control global warming, scientists have suggested spraying particulates into the atmosphere to help darken the skies and reflect more sunlight away from the earth.

To combat malaria, dengue, and other insect-borne sickness, researchers have suggested genetically modifying mosquitos so they no longer spread the diseases.

But others sound the warning against tampering with forces we do not completely understand. What happens when bacteria designed to consume hydrocarbons adapt and begin consuming other sorts of materials in the wild? And what effects would darkening our atmosphere have on agriculture and weather cycles? Can we really fine tune such global interventions? As for altering the genetics of mosquitos, what happens when our manmade genetic sequences become part of the broader ecosystem?

Even in our well-intentioned solutions, we suffer from one fatal flaw: We are not God.

In Isaiah 46:10 God describes Himself very plainly.

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”

But that isn’t us. Man can’t look into the distant future to accurately understand the consequences of his decisions like God can. Man can’t comprehend what surprises the future may hold like God can.

And not only are we not God, we are also not in submission to Him. We don’t seek His guidance or His aid and don’t follow His instructions.

Ignoring the Creator of the world and seeking to modify our planet, and even life itself, on a global scale—as if WE are its Creator, based only on our OWN wisdom and knowledge—can only end one way: ruining the very life support He created and finely tuned to care for us.

No Flesh Shall Be Spared—Without God’s Intervention | Matthew 24:22

We’ve reviewed five ways life on earth could be threatened in the context of Jesus Christ’s prophecy of a time coming when “no flesh would be saved.”

1. Thermonuclear War
2. Biological Weapons
3. AI Superintelligence
4. Global Infrastructure Collapse
5. Engineered Ecological Breakdown

Of course, we don’t have to pick a favorite, and humanity is capable of doing more than one of these at a time. In fact, some would say we’re currently working on all of them.

And, to be sure, this list is not complete. We haven’t even discussed more speculative challenges, such as runaway nanotechnology, the development of mirror-life organisms, and particle physics experiments that could run out of control.

While all of these command our attention, they should not cause us to despair, because humanity will not be destroyed by any of these things. Let’s read Jesus’ prophecy again in Matthew 24.

“And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).

Notice that He says no flesh would be saved if those days were not shortened, but “for the elect’s sake those days WILL be shortened.” That is marvelous news.

Yes, Jesus Christ will return to this world to take dominion, alongside His glorified followers, inaugurating the reign of the Kingdom of God. And the result of that reign—both due to miraculous intervention and simply the teaching and enforcing of God’s laws and way of life—will be a restoration of this world to the condition its Creator always intended.

Many passages in both the Old and New Testament describe the wonders, sights, and sounds of that remarkable time.

Those inspired words of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, paint a vision a vision that has given hope to the followers of Jesus Christ for the last two thousand years.

And you need that vision now more than ever, so you can hold on to it and plant that vision of hope firmly in your mind—as our world gets ever closer to being on the brink of total annihilation.

So let’s take a tour of that marvelous world together in this next video, describing in detail what God has revealed in His word about the restoration of ALL things during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.