13
predominate in the end. If expansion predominates, then cosmic history will last forever. However, eventually
everything will grow steadily colder, more dilute, and eventually "all will decay into low grade radiation." On the
other hand, if gravity predominates, expansion will eventually be halted and reversed and the universe will cease to
exist. "What began with the big bang will end with the big crunch, as the universe implodes into a cosmic melting
pot. . . . [Thus] however fruitful the universe may seem today, its end lies in futility."
58
It is at this point that
Polkinghorne finds a challenge to which theology must respond. While God may allow the universe to "make itself,"
at some point he must decisively step into the picture to save the cosmos from certain destruction. Thus "if the meta-
story [that there is an ultimate fulfilment in Gods creation] that theology seeks to tell is to carry conviction, it will
have to include elements of both continuity and discontinuity in the linkages that it makes between the present
universe and its destiny beyond its death."
59
Polkinghorne thus asserts that the ultimate future does not belong to science, but to divine faithfulness. The
presence of continuity and discontinuity each point to something beyond the ultimate futility of scientific
extrapolation: continuity to the idea that divine faithfulness will intercede to prevent the ultimate destruction of the
cosmos, and discontinuity to give hope that the next world will not simply be a repetition of this present one.
60
Polkinghorne believes that "eschatological discontinuity will not be so abrupt as to be an apocalyptic
abolition of the old, wiping the cosmic slate clean in an act of almost magical tour de force and so severing all
connection between the old and the new."
61
Rather, there will be a sufficient continuity that will arise "ex vetere, out
of the old, as the latters redemption from futility." Discontinuity will be present so that "the new is not just a
repetition of the old, as if it were just a further turning of the evolutionary wheel of change brought about through
death and decay."
62
Thus the new world, while also having a developing history, will be characterized by "persisting
58
Ibid., 9.
59
Ibid., xviii.
60
Ibid., 12.
61
Ibid., 15.
62
Ibid.