THE DEAD CAT BOUNCE

Scripture citations are the King James (Authorised) Version.

IT ISN’T the name of a dance, though there have been some odd names for dances over the decades black bottom, truckin’, twist. No, the term is derived from the world of finance, courtesy of felines. That remarkably agile creature, the cat, may fall upside down from a considerable height, but will flip itself over and land on its feet. The ‘bounce’ is the cynical assumption cat lovers avert your eyes and cover your ears that even a dead cat, dropped from a considerable height, will rebound at least once, though not very high. In its original sense, the jocular term came into use in the Wall Street of the 1980s, with reference to a stock or security which though in steep decline in value, experiences a brief rally. By extension, it has come to mean a resurgence within an otherwise terminal condition.

Not So Fast . . .

By their disobedience against God’s direct command, Adam and Eve incurred the death penalty, the inevitable and irrevocable consequence. The process of dying would most surely lead to death. ‘[T]hou shalt surely die’, was the pronouncement in Genesis 2: 17; 3: 19.

The dying bit is all too evident at the individual, personal level. And the few decades of life which we experience usually feel too short. But from the collective standpoint, that of humanity as a whole, human life has been around for so long that it’s easy to believe it will go on without end. The biblical notion of a divinely-imposed death ‘sentence’ has for the most part been lost in the mists of history, and alternative explanations for man’s condition have been fabricated in the meantime. In today’s materialistic view, dying however unwelcome is viewed as simply the normal process of evolved DNA, a decay at the cellular level which might be addressed by science or bioengineering. Perhaps, so the reasoning goes, the process can be paused or slowed, and the morbid finality pushed back. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of man’s biblical death are regarded by Science as an exaggeration.

Technology To The Rescue

Societies which over generations lived precariously (as some still do), constantly threatened by assault from enemies or the natural environment, frequently accepted death with equanimity an inevitability which ought not to be resisted. Being in close contact with the cycles of sowing and harvest, birth and death, fostered in many primitive societies a sort of resigned piety.

That people in developed nations are truly living longer is a welcome change, and the result of a combination of factors. Not least of these are long-term improvements in hygiene and medicine, a stable supply of food, the erecting of barriers against a hostile environment, through heating, cooling, better housing, water purification, and so on. Such interventions have improved the quality of life immeasurably, delaying the onset of death for countless millions. These improvements naturally encourage optimism. Or, to put the sentence the other way round, these improvements encourage natural optimism the sort of optimism which rests on human achievement, rather than on faith in God as mankind’s Benefactor.

Curiosity Has Landed

This is not the curiosity which killed our hypothetical cat, but the one which recently landed on Mars. In a stunning, combined ballet of science and technology, NASA deposited this car-sized vehicle on the planet, after a journey of eight months or so. Equipped with several high-resolution cameras, Curiosity is transmitting its photographs across vast distances to Earth.

The exploration of space is a forward-looking endeavour, the embodiment of human optimism. Driven by a search for signs of existing or previous life, various space agencies around the world share the evolutionary belief that humanity is the incidental offspring of mindless, materialistic forces, nothing at all to do with any sort of god. As with the advances in the quality of living, modern feats in earth and space science tend to edge out religious faith and replace it with a generalised confidence that Man is in charge of his own destiny.

Life Goes On And On And On . . .

Positioning himself at the end of the ages, the Apostle Peter writes of those in the ‘last days’ who scoff at God’s prophecies and who ask, in facetious tones, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? . . . all things continue as they were from the beginning’ (2 Peter 3: 3, 4).

It’s hardly surprising that the public has no interest in prophecy. So many failed and dire prognostications have been issued by a variety of religious groups over the decades, that the subject has lost credibility. Although the question has been the subject of debate and disagreement for a long time especially among Dispensationalists no one has pinned down the exact time or method by which the expected ‘end-time’ cataclysm will come about. Some who once laid great store by Bible prophecy in their younger days, have become less sure of their ground as they approach old age. For the average non-Christian, the debate is pointless, as the world seems to be going in a direction that has nothing to do with the Bible or with God.

Synchronise Your Watches

Continuing in v. 7, the Apostle writes, ‘But the heavens and earth, which are now’ that is, the components of present society, ‘are kept in store’ restrained, ‘against the day of judgment . . .’. In v. 8 he puts time itself into perspective with his declaration that from God’s standpoint a thousand years is like a day, and vice versa. In v. 9, he says, ‘The Lord is not slack’ or tardy, ‘concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering [towards us], not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’.

So God’s sense of time is apparently very different from our own. We can get some idea of the truth behind this statement from Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, which suggests that one’s perception of the passage of time varies, depending on where the observer is situated in the Universe. Jehovah is never too early nor too late in the carrying out of His plans, regardless of how we humans see things down here – ‘as some men count slackness’.

If we judge God’s action (or inaction) by our own faulty sense of the passage of time, we’ll miss the point. Our perspective is that of a brief and dying life, whereas God’s is that of the Eternal, to whom the past and the future is as an open book. He works His plans thoroughly and fairly, the object in view being the salvation of mankind.

Meeow . . .

Which brings us back to the dead cat bounce the temporary respite. Just because you aren’t dead yet, doesn’t mean you won’t be. Likewise, just because the forecast Day of Judgement hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t. Mike Campbell, a character in Hemingway’s, The Sun Also Rises, was asked how he went bankrupt. ‘Two Ways’, he replied. ‘Gradually, then suddenly’. So, writes the Apostle Peter (v. 10), the day of the Lord will come like ‘a thief in the night’. And elsewhere we read, ‘For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them . . .’ (1 Thessalonians 5: 3).

However, the emphasis in this particular article is less on the ‘destruction’ a complex subject which requires more explanation than will fit here but rather more on the thought that one shouldn’t dismiss prophecy because it ‘hasn’t happened yet’. We should not be lulled into complacency by the seemingly slow pace of events. Like a terminally ill patient in remission, it is possible that present detrimental trends will get better before they get worse the bouncing cat.

We should not be surprised at this. Society in the main will inevitably deteriorate on most levels, to the point that no solution can be found in any combination of human effort or technologies. The outcome is certain and necessary. This ‘present evil world’ must eventually draw to a close, not because God enjoys inflicting pain and punishment on His creation, but rather that the Kingdom of Christ may replace it, and be established in the earth, so that the willing and obedient of mankind be delivered from death. This is unlikely to occur tomorrow or next Tuesday – perhaps not even in our own lifetime – but it will surely happen.

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