The Lost City of Atlantis

 

  2,300 years ago a man told a story. Today films, books and tv all tell the same story, albeit with different slants and characters and details.

   A city, a continent, a civilisation the like of which the world has never seen. Advanced beyond the rest of the globe; an epic nation built on wealth and technology and art. The hub of the civilisation: a city built to the stars, surrounded by concentric walls and canals and roads; filled with marble temples and courts, statues and fountains. Truly a monument to human endeavour. A city like no other.

   These were no milksops. When faced by enemies they fought great wars and battles. They were a mighty naval power, or so we are told. Rival warriors, when faced by these forces, were beaten back to the very shores of their homeland- and maybe further.

    Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived around the 300BCs, wrote this,

“After the people of Atlantis became corrupt and greedy the gods decided to destroy them.”

    And if the Legend of the Lost City of Atlantis bears any truth then their demise was frightful indeed. Earthquakes shook the island/continent. But that wasn’t the worse of it.The quake was simply the beginning- shaken and disturbed, the sea rose up in anger and a great tsunami tore across the Atlantic towards the defenceless landmass of Atlantis. Waves of huge proportions struck the civilisation, and, when the storms had cleared, the mighty nation was gone.

 

    Did the City of Atlantis ever exist? Has it truly been lost? How did Plato discover the history of an extinct civilisation?

    

    I don’t know.

 

     Regardless of its truth, the legend can help us to see into the hearts of mankind. Why do scientists, geologists, historians and total weirdo's all obsess over finding the ‘lost’ city? I can think of at least 3 major films/books which picture Atlantis as a wonderful place where mankind has achieved his full potential. However when we examine the accounts of the city, it would appear to be a Babel-like place, where man worships his own works more than the God who created all things. If true, then it is a blessing that Atlantis was wiped from the face of the planet. Why do people persist in glorifying a civilisation which attempted, through the use of force, to dominate and enslave the whole of the earth?

    Maybe it is because, when man ‘does away with’ God, then mankind becomes its own God. We need something to worship. Why not worship ourselves, asks the atheist. If an ancient culture could build a vast city, reaching into the skies, then can we not create something much more lasting and glorious here, now?

   The answer, of course, is no. 

   When we read about Atlantis we cannot be sure that we are reading the truth. As a Christian, however, it is a joy to know that when I open the Bible I read only words of truth; words penned by an almighty God who loves me and detests sin. When our forefathers first attempted to build a mighty civilisation which would threaten the power of God they had a shock coming:

    And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

  The text goes on….

    And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

   Yeah, a real tall tower they built. God actually had to come down from Heaven so that he could see it!

   The Lord confused the workers by giving them each a different language! They rushed to and fro and got more and more confused until they gathered into tribes and clans and scattered across the world.

   But God didn’t abandon mankind to themselves. Instead he offered them something much greater than a really really tall tower (we have such small ambitions!). He granted mankind eternal life in an eternal home! Why settle for playing in the mud when we can live in Heaven?! Why settle for worshiping fallible mankind when we can worship the Lord God who created, not a big city, but the whole universe!

     Reuters News Agency announced in 2011 that a group of scientists had discovered a possible site for Atlantis in Spain: It is amusing that the pinnacle of man’s achievement is now a patch of boggy marshland where newts and frogs spend their days!