The Great Incineration: Are We Going to Occupy Mars?

In recent months, we have been introduced to Elon Musk because of his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). I recognize that Elon Musk is not new to America, but he has become a more prominent public figure with his recent work. This man is brilliant. His SpaceX company is on the cutting edge of rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight, and satellite constellation technology. It seems odd to me that a private company would be more advanced than the government's technology, but it was Musk’s rocket that successfully rescued the crew that was stuck at the Space Station for almost a year. Musk’s Tesla is the most successful electric vehicle ever manufactured. I don’t think I want or can afford a Tesla, but their owners testify to their efficiency and satisfaction.

Musk is driven by the idea that the planet Mars can be colonized. On Jesse Waters Primetime (May 1, 2025) on Fox News, Musk said, “So, eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun. The sun is gradually expanding, and so we do at some point need to be a multi-planet civilization, because Earth will be incinerated.” Waters replied, “I’m hearing this for the first time that we are going to get roasted by the sun.” Musk replied, “It is not a disputed fact. I don’t think there is anything that will disagree with that.” I dispute that. God is the one firing the sun, and it will burn out when He ends the world. Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). There is your answer to Who is firing the sun.

Musk went on to say, “We have several hundred million years. Don’t hold your breath, it’ll be okay. If earth has been around for 4.5 billion years which is what the fossil record suggests, earth only has about 10% more life in it before it gets so hot that life is impossible. It’s about creating a self-sustaining city on Mars with the fundamental fork in the road of destiny being that Mars is sufficiently self-sustaining and can grow by itself. If the resupply ships from earth stop coming for any reason, whether that be because civilization died with a bang or whimper, but if the resupply ships are necessary for Mars to survive, then we have not created life insurance for life collectively. So, that’s the key point in the future where destiny of life as we know it will forever be affected when Mars becomes self-sustaining.”

Here are a few facts about Mars:

 “The temperature on Mars is much colder than on Earth. But then, the planet is also farther from the sun. The small, barren planet also has a thin atmosphere that is 95 percent carbon dioxide. This combination of factors makes Mars a harsh and cold world whose temperature can drop to as low as minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit. As a point of comparison, the lowest recorded temperature on Earth is minus 128.6 degrees in Antarctica, where no one lives.  

Let’s suppose you were an astronaut who just landed on Mars. What would you need to survive? Here’s a short list: Water, food, shelter, and oxygen. Oxygen is in the air we breathe. Plants and some kinds of bacteria provide it for us, but oxygen is not the only gas in the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s not even the most abundant. In fact, only 21% of our air is made up of oxygen. Almost all the rest is nitrogen, about 78%. At the Hillsboro Spring Clinic, John Mitchell from the Christian Restoration Association preached on science and evolution. John spent many years working on submarines for the US Navy. He said they manufacture their own air on submarines, and if the air has too much nitrogen, people are wide-eyed, and if too little, they are lethargic.

The atmosphere on Mars is thin – its volume is only 1% of the Earth’s atmosphere. There’s 99% less air on Mars than on Earth. That’s partly because Mars is about half the size of Earth. Its gravity isn’t strong enough to keep atmospheric gases from escaping into space. And the most abundant gas in that thin air is carbon dioxide. For people on Earth, that’s a poisonous gas at high concentrations. Fortunately, it makes up far less than 1% of our atmosphere. But on Mars, carbon dioxide is 96% of the air! Meanwhile, Mars has almost no oxygen; it’s only one-tenth of one percent of the air, not nearly enough for humans to survive. If you tried to breathe on the surface of Mars without a spacesuit supplying your oxygen, you would die in an instant. You would suffocate, and because of the low atmospheric pressure, your blood would boil, both at about the same time. It doesn’t sound like Mars is as nice and pleasant as Earth to sustain life, does it?

The following are some conclusions about Musk and Mars:

When you don’t have a biblical worldview, as Musk does not, you arrive at 
desperate reasons to try to save humanity from the so-called destruction of the sun, also known as Climate Change. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God” (1 Cor. 3:19).

No matter how intelligent you are, and Musk is intelligent, any education that doesn’t start with God can never arrive at the proper conclusion about God’s world. Paul said,
“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Rom. 1:22-23). This is a description of Musk.

I don’t know why God made other planets; the Bible doesn’t address that subject. However, it is obvious that God created Earth to sustain life, and He created the other planets for reasons other than to sustain animate life. The proximity of Earth to the sun (93 million miles) is no coincidence. You might think that more people, especially like Musk, would conclude “In the beginning God…” (Gen. 1:1). “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Ps. 19:1). There is too much intelligence here for it to have happened by chance. For more on this, read Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe.

The earth is going to burn up, but not as Musk envisions by the sun. At the end of time on earth, Peter said, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat” (2 Pet. 3:10-12). This is God’s version of Global Warming!

As long as the Earth exists, it will continue to have seasons and its current atmosphere. This was prophesied immediately after the flood. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22). “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained...All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field. The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea. Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord. How majestic is Your name in all the earth” (Ps. 8:3, 7-9)!