The year was 1863. British chemist John Newlands introduced the first periodic table. It contained just 20 elements and the chart looked like the game Boggle. Today, that table has grown to 118 elements with the first 94 occurring naturally and the rest being synthesized.
Every chemistry student has had to memorize this chart. When I was in school, there were only 109 elements. But, with some time, you got acquainted with where they were on the chart, their abbreviation, their atomic number, and some of the more common elements’ atomic weights. Since I was a bit of a chemistry nerd, this was a fun challenge for me. Today, though, I remember some of the abbreviations but most of that chart is just a blur.
It all boils down to one thing is an idiom in the English language. This statement is especially true when you consider the elements. Roald Hoffman was quoted by Natalie Angier in The Canon. He said, “From the 115 elements you can build a near infinity of molecules, of any type you need, to get all the structural and functional diversity you can ask for. There are at least 100,000 different molecules in the human body… Chemistry is molecules. We are molecules. Chemistry is a truly anthropic science.”1
You may not care about the periodic table or have an ounce of interest in chemistry. But, one day, the world is going to become God’s chemistry laboratory, and everything will be boiled – rather burned down to one thing: the elements. And even the elements will evaporate.
2 Peter 3:10-12 says, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (11) Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, (12) Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”
This day of judgment will be followed by a great beginning. The next verse of this passage says, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:13)
We weren’t around when God created everything out of nothing, including the elements. We will get to be a witness to this new creation. Will there be new elements? Will He keep the essential elements that are already present? That’s something for the future.
What we can say for certain is this – it’s all element-ary!
1https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/General_Chemistry/CLUE%3A_Chemistry_Life_the_Universe_and_Everything/03%3A_Elements_Bonding_and_Physical_Properties/3.2%3A_Elements_and_Their_Interactions
