Because of the corrupting influence of sin, everything in this world is running down. When God first created the earth, all that’s in it, and man himself, the result was good and very good. Had things remained that way, we wouldn’t find ourselves in the predicament in which we’re currently living. What is that predicament? That we are a world approaching the end of the line. That we are nearing the point of God’s wrath upon this unbelieving, God-rejecting earth. That the chaos and violence erupting in both the natural realm with its deadly physical effects (e.g. drought, wildfires, plagues and pestilences of every variety, approaching famine, etc. etc.) and throughout the peoples of the nations (e.g. as they riot, burn, and loot) are becoming greater. The introduction of sin from that first temptation and bite of the apple are the root cause. Biblically, we are told that what we’re seeing develop all around us must reach a crescendo until it rises to the point of utter destruction. (I haven’t adopted the nickname of Mr. Doom & Gloom for nothing!)
Here is what Paul wrote in Romans 8:20-21 regarding this:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
In other words, Satan’s efforts caused our downward slide into this morass of degradation and depravity. It will get worse, but then, because of the redemption of a remnant of mankind as the children of God, freedom from the bondage of sin will come.
As I write this, the book I’m presently reading is a dystopian novel written back in the 1950s called The Death of Grass by John Christopher (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0DJM3X/). In the story, a virus originates in China that initially wipes out all the rice crops. It mutates into a plague that destroys all wheat-related crops. Famine begins encompassing the earth, starting in the Far East and moving toward the West, eventually reaching England where the novel takes place. Because the UK government determines it must eliminate a huge swath of the population in order to save the rest, the protagonist and his family flee north from London to what they hope will be a safe haven. In the process, their thin veneer of civilization begins to strip away.
Much like what William Golding portrayed in The Lord of the Flies (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OCXIRG/) with the group of English boys marooned on an island, with the resulting breakdown of all moral sensibilities in that desperate situation, we see that the prophet Jeremiah was correct in saying that: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9) Mankind has an innate sense of self-preservation that causes people to do whatever is necessary without regard for the lives of others. Humanity has a sickness in its heart, a wretched corruption that nothing within us can cure. The earth itself is affected by the sin of man and itself groans for release from this heavy burden.
Don’t you feel that a dystopian reality is overtaking us right now? You should. The shadows of the coming Tribulation are long. The autocratic tendencies of government elites as they use the tools of control at their disposal are increasing daily. It won’t be long before the facade that overlays the world and which gives us civilization will be stripped away.
These fiction novels portray the utter hopelessness that we face in a world without God. I read such stories and hope against hope that somewhere in them there will be a spark of the light that only Jesus Christ brings. However, written (presumably) by unbelievers, no such possibility of true redemption exists.
As a follower of Jesus who wants to glorify God, the approach I’ve taken in my storytelling is one that incorporates the hope that salvation brings: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B014MZC06K. When I came to the Lord, the one thing I knew I must do was to glorify Him in whatever way He made possible for me. My books typically depict difficult times and hard subjects as man and the world approach the Tribulation, but salvation and the Word of God are integral to the novels.
There is hope, but it’s found only in Christ. It is through Him alone that we can view the coming catastrophe of the literal collapse of this world and not despair. Paul puts it well in telling us why in Romans 8:37-39:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The dystopia is coming. Make no mistake. Everything that we know about this world is being shaken. But God is allowing that for a very good reason. He wants mankind to wake up and turn to Him in our desperation. Those of us who continue to cling to Him, and those newly born again will experience the peace that only the Holy Spirit can bring in troubled times. More than that, we can look up and know that our redemption from this alien, sin-drenched world is at hand.