The Death of the First Man on the Moon

In 1969, the world watched as Neill Armstrong took his “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” and became the first human being to put a footprint on the moon. Television showed the dramatic moment. But television didn’t show us everything.

What only a few knew at the time was that a protocol was already in place, in place, just in case Neill Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin didn’t make it home. The fact was that the lift-off from the moon to go home was the most dangerous part of the mission. NASA knew it; as did the astronauts. If the moon lift-off failed, there was no back-up system. There would be no rescue. Such would be impossible. No hope. Stranded, abandoned on the moon, farther from home than anybody had ever been.

The powers that were in existence at the time already knew what they would do if the moon lift-off did not occur. The plan was ready. When they learned that lift-off had failed, they would shut down all communication with the stranded men and leave them, as the plan said, “to do what they had to do . . . to perform self-deliverance in privacy without an audience.” They had their suicide pills, or they could choose to die of starvation.

After shutting down all communication, President Nixon would then go to the telephone and call each of the two widows-to-be and express his condolences. The government had already planned a national funeral (perhaps holding it while the stranded men were still alive).

A clergyman would conduct the service as if it were a burial at sea; he would conclude with the Lord’s Prayer. Nixon would then make a speech, one already written by William Safire. Nixon would say, “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay to rest in peace . . .” The nation would mourn. Then, it would all be over.

In the above pre-planned scenario, they failed. Communication cut. It’s suicide or, if not that, it’s eat your last government meal and a little later, die by starvation. It’s up to you. Whatever you do, we’ll grant you privacy to do it.

What a picture! Men deserted on the moon and no rescue. There’s nothing anybody can do. The very words hurt; the scenario grows more awful in contemplation.

In Genesis 3:8, two rebels hear a sound; the sound of God’s walking in the Garden. They’ve sinned and they know it. They deserve physical and spiritual death, a forever separation from God, and they know it. They deserve abandonment, a cut-off in communication, and they know it.

But the sound of God’s walking in the Garden is the sound of grace. When He meets with them, they and we realize that there will not be a cut-off in communication. When He meets with them, we realize that there will be no abandonment of them “to do what they had to do … to perform self-deliverance in privacy without an audience.” His plan is a protocol of hope and grace, not of despair.

In Genesis 3:15, we see that, far from cutting them (and us) off, one day a Deliverer will come to do all it takes to effect the rescue. When we read the rest of the Old Testament, we see that, far from cutting us off from communication, there will be a succession of communication and communicators sent from God Himself, all pointing to that One to come who will save us, the One who will come with and as the ultimate Communicator (Hebrews 1).

There’s no need for the suicide pills that desperate men issue to other desperate men. It’s sad that such is all we could think of back in 1969. Man with all his technical excellence is still finite. He can’t pull off the rescue.

There’s a picture there-without the God of grace who communicates that grace, it would be hopeless. Without such a God it would either be the pills or the one last desperate meal for all of us.

The climax of the story is the God-worked rescue. It’s a tremendous story and it’s all there in the gospel of John, summarized in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor

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