Study Says Universe Will End in a Big Crunch in 20B Years

The Universe Had a Big Bang of a Beginning

Centuries ago, many cosmologists believed that the universe was static—that it had no beginning and would have no ending. Both propositions were in disagreement with the Bible. It begins (to make an unintended pun), “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1.1 NIV). And the last two chapters of the Bible state, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21.1).

In 1929, the Hubble telescope affirmed Albert Einstein’s discovery that the universe has been expanding. Years later, scientists discovered that the speed of this expansion has been greater than the speed of light and that it has been increasing. This expansion has been calculated and thus determined that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, so that it had a beginning, called the Big Bang. But will the universe keep on expanding forever, resulting in a slow death called the Big Chill? Or will this expansion reverse itself so that the universe will have an ending called the Big Crunch?

New Study Affirms the Big Crunch

Cornell University physicist Henry Tye has updated a well approved theoretical model of the universe, and for the first time he has included Albert Einstein’s “cosmological constant,” which has been much debated by physicists. The result is surprising. Tye says, “For the last 20 years, people believed that the cosmological constant is positive, and the universe will expand forever. The new data seem to indicate that the cosmological constant is negative, and that the universe will end in a big crunch,” in which it will collapse back to its origin. His paper about this study has been published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics and entitled “The Lifespan of our Universe.”

Tye continues, “People have said before that if the cosmological constant is negative, then the universe will collapse eventually. That’s not new. However, here the model tells you when the universe collapses and how it collapses.” Tye says that according to this data, the universe will end in about 20 billion years for a total lifespan of about 33.8 billion years.

Bible Prophecy Sort of Affirms the Big Crunch

I have a chapter entitled “Cosmology” in my STILL HERE Book 2, Warrior from Heaven, that tells about the Big Chill, Big Crunch, and Big Rip theories. It begins with a quote from Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in which he predicts, “‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken’ (Mark 13.24-25 NRSV).” This is what the Bible refers to as “the end of the world.” Then Jesus will descend from heaven to earth in what Christians rightly call “the second coming of Christ.” So, the Bible’s predictions about the end of the world seem to sort of affirm the Big Crunch.

How Long Until the Big Crunch?

But there is surely a big difference between what Mr. Tye says and the Bible says about the timing of the Big Crunch. That is, I don’t think it’s 20 billion years from now. Jesus said no one but God the Father knows “the day or the hour” of the end of the world. But I believe that the closer we get to it the more that biblical futurists will understand about how far off it is. In my STILL HERE Book 1, The Third Day Bible Code, I estimate that it will occur between the years 2070 and 2250.

This “end of the world” predicted in the Bible does not mean the universe will vanish. Rather, it means it will be a great transformation. The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 102.25-27 in saying, “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing; like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed” (Hebrews 1.10-12 NRSV).

At the Big Crunch, God Will Make All Things New

In this renewed universe God will come down from heaven to dwell with his people. The author of Revelation proclaims concerning the new heavens and the new earth that there will be “the holy city, new Jerusalem,” and then says of it, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21.3-4 ESV). That is when God will declare, “Behold, I am making all things new” (v. 5).