The important connection between Sci-fi and Advent – 2 Thessalonians 1, Preview

How do you feel about science fiction?  Are you a sci-fi lover?  A sci-fi hater?

I love sci-fi.

I love pretty much any sub-genre within the larger sci-fi umbrella.  What’s not to love? Time travel, futuristic technology, spaceships, lasers, intergalactic travel, and of course, aliens.  Sci-fi has it all!  I recently started watching a new streaming TV series called Invasion, and the premise of the story is the question, “How would people really respond if powerful aliens attacked earth?”  To answer that question, the show follows the lives of four very different people in four very different places in the world as they react to the invasion.  But that’s show biz for you, where aliens are real.  They’re not actually real, though, are they?

Do you ever wonder if UFOs are real?  Unidentified Flying Objects made the news recently as the government has declassified documents, and there seems to be a movement to search for alien life!  Some people claim that our planet has been visited many times.  These most recent declassified documents include videos of Air Force pilots seemingly mystified by what they are seeing on their radar screens.  Objects in the air making movements and traveling at speeds that no human object is capable of.  Maybe it was just a fleck of paint on their camera being blown by the wind, or maybe an extra-terrestrial has been spying on us. 

Advent is the season of the year that reminds us that an extra-terrestrial has already arrived.  But not the extra-terrestrials of ET or Alien.  God has arrived.  In fact, Advent means “arrival”.  The Son of God, the Messiah, Jesus, arrived. God became flesh.

Advent also reminds us that Jesus is coming again!  That’s why our 2021 Advent theme is “Ready for the Return,” and we’ll be studying the New Testament letter of 2nd Thessalonians.  Why 2nd Thessalonians?  Because whenever you think of Advent, you obviously think of 2nd Thessalonians, right? 

Take a moment this weekend to read 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, or perhaps the whole letter, which is only 47 verses, to see if you can determine why this short letter might be the perfect study for Advent.  Then check back in to the blog on Monday as we’ll begin discussing 2 Thessalonians 1 and Advent.

Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash