A Doomsday Vault?

It is called "The Doomsday Vault", a term that conjures up numerous negative scenarios at once. A quick consideration would suggest a mode of survival in the midst of some massive threat to life as we know it. But this time, the term is not about people, at least not directly speaking.

This time, it is about a protective structure. But instead of housing people and the immediate necessities to extend life, as did the so-called bomb shelters of decades ago, this vault is about 'seeds'. Scientists have been collecting one and a half billions seeds representing nearly all of the earth's crops. The idea is to place them in a protective structure near the North Pole where they would be safe from climate change, nuclear war or any other unexpected disaster.

The enclosure itself was built to last 10,000 years and is a supposed guarantee that the world could restart its agriculture should some mega-disaster strike. Norway paid for the construction of the 9 million dollar 'seed safe house' and Microsoft's Bill Gates paid for its shipping and the actual seeds from nearly every nation on Earth. Cary Fowler runs the Global Crop Diversity Trust set up by the United Nations and a group called Bioversity International. He feels content that the project has finished his life’s work. He has stated, "So, if worst comes to worst this does save the world,"

The theme of a coming doomsday has for a long time been in the mind of man, and especially since humanity developed the ability to bring itself to that point. But according to the Creator of all things, there will indeed come a time of doom for man's habitation, but not in the form most might imagine. Even the great battle of Armageddon and other staggering end time events will not fully finish off mankind and his planetary home.

The physical doomsday for earth is seen in 2 Peter 3, being described as follows in verse 10. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." But doomsday on a spiritual level can occur at any moment when a man or woman draws their last breath - if they have never trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. This doomed existence will proceed throughout an endless eternity. There is no biblical hope given for restarting life and choosing the alternative message of redemption and everlasting life in heaven.

Back in his first letter, Peter makes reference to the solution for those who realize that their coming doom is caused by their own sin against a holy God. In chapter 1 he speaks of salvation and refers to the necessity of being reborn from above as Jesus forcefully taught in John 3:7. Verse 23 reads, "Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever." Being 'born again' provides absolute forgiveness, the blessed hope of a reservation in heaven, and the ability to resist sin as seen in 1 John 3:8-9. "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God."

There is a day of final and physical doom for planet earth. But more importantly, there is coming day of spiritual and eternal doom for those who neglect to have God's seed implanted via faith into the soil of their heart. In that way, ultimate survival and the restarting of life really is all about a saving seed.

Bill Breckenridge