Is this the End of the World? / Part 1

Listen to radio interview

The Byte Show

Lately I have been thinking about the end of the world; not because I expect the world to end tomorrow or even next year or the year after or even in this decade but because it is 100% certain that it will end sometime soon, and there is a very high probability that it will end sometime by the middle of this century. The end of the world conjures up visions of nuclear holocausts, zombie like hordes of starving humanity, charred and deserted cities, desert wasteland like country sides, dried riverbeds, burnt out trees and other such apocalyptic imagery. In truth the end of the world will see many such ‘Mad Max’ movie like scenes played out in reality but the question is when can we expect the end to begin, and how long will it be before the world has actually ended? The ‘end of the world’ is also a term that holds different meanings for different people. So in this series of articles I will define the term as found in the Bible and also attempt to establish a realistic timetable as to when we might expect ‘The Apocalypse’ to overtake the planet and how long we can expect it to go on. Roughly 25% of the Bible is calculated to be prophetic; it a prediction of yet future events, related mostly to the ‘Day of the LORD’ which is a period of time immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ, and of the end of the world. It is a time of catastrophic destruction, and of great distress for all nations and peoples.

Joel 2: 1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

The idea of the world coming to an end has been ingrained in the psyche of the people since very early on in human history. As a matter of fact, the prophet Enoch is identified as the first prophet in the Bible and according to the NT book of Jude he warned the then living inhabitants of the earth that the world would experience the judgment of God because of the evil of man. The judgment of God therefore would be the cause for the end of the world. In the days of Noah, Enoch’s great grandson, the global deluge destroyed the world that then existed. Noah is called a ‘preacher of righteousness’ and surely warned the inhabitants of the day that the world was coming to an end. As an aside I do not believe that the so – called book of Enoch, actually the books of Enoch, are worthy of being accounted as scripture. I do not believe the authorship of the books can be attributed to the patriarch Enoch who was translated by God, and did not see death. An article on my website disputing the authorship of these books is a must read for all students and believers of God’s Word. Click here to read the article titled ‘Debunking the book of Enoch’.

·         Jude: 14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

·         2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly…

Since the days of the flood, all cultures have told tales of a world or worlds having been destroyed in the past, and have prophecies and predictions of the world coming to an end again in the future. There is a great deal of ambiguity and vagueness in the prophecies of tribal cultures and myths of various peoples, as for example in the Mayan calendar based predictions of the end of the world. What we are told by promoters of the Mayan calendar hype is that the calendar of this Mexican / Central American culture, which is supposedly very scientific, comes to an end in Dec. 2012, and therefore the world will come to an end at the same time. The cause of the end is not explained, neither is the process. In the field of prophecy the Bible stands alone in contrast to all other prophetic sources, be they the Mayan calendar or tribal myths or the 'Tibetan book of the dead' or any other religious writings. The sheer volume of detail in the prophetic portions of the Bible, particularly the book of Revelation is truly astounding. On the basis of the number of prophecies alone the Bible stands head and shoulders above any other prophetic source. But it is on the basis of the amount of detail in the prophecies that we find evidence of Divine inspiration. God alone could have prophesied events yet thousands of the years in the future, and have absolute control to ensure that all events transpired exactly as prophesied. All prophecy has to be based on God’s Omnipotence, Omniscience and foreknowledge of all future events. God not only has to have knowledge of the future, He has to have planned the future, and He has to have the power to execute His plans to perfection; this is the only basis on which He can be certain that His prophecies will indeed come to pass as prophesied. The following scriptures, among many others, tell us that this is exactly the case, that God is Omnipotent, He is Omniscient (has infinite knowledge), and that He has perfect foreknowledge of all future events.

·         Revelation 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

·         Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

·         Isaiah 46: 9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure...

Biblical prophecies about the events that must ‘shortly come to pass’, just prior to the end of the world are so detailed that it would be impossible to miss them when they will be occurring; there is no ambiguity in these prophecies. All other prophetic sources borrow from the Bible but add nothing to it. The following video is one example of thousands that ignorantly or deceptively lump all prophetic sources together with the Bible to make it seem that Biblical prophecies are the on the same plane as the rest. They fail to acknowledge that the Bible attributes the cause of the coming catastrophes to a higher power, the Almighty God, not to some mysterious planet X or the Mayan calendar. In this series I will detail not only the actual events that we might expect to see in the future but why they must happen, and the processes employed to make them happen. There is nothing random about anything that goes on in this world or in any other world, this is the reason is why the Bible stands apart from all other prophetic, mythological, and religious texts.

To establish the fact that the Bible does indeed teach that the world will end let us look at the following scripture: 

• Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

What is apparent from the above scripture is that the disciples firmly believed that Jesus would indeed return to Earth again, and that the world would indeed come to an end some day. The response that Jesus gave to this question in the gospel of Matthew, chapters 24 and 25 was very detailed and did not dispute either of the two assumptions the disciples made, first about the return of Jesus, and second about the end of the world. Those who call themselves believers should have no doubt that Jesus will return to Earth as King of kings and Lord of lords even as He came as a humble servant 2000 years ago. If He came once as was prophesied and promised long before His first advent, He will undoubtedly come again as has been prophesied and promised. The disciples intricately connected the return of Jesus Christ with that of the end of the world. Having agreed with the disciples that the world would indeed end, Jesus gave them a detailed list of signs to look for that would indicate that the time was near. And He also intimated that the time period from beginning to end would be no more than one generation.

• Matthew 24: 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Jesus taught the disciples that the very generation that began to see the fulfillment of ALL THE SIGNS that He gave would not pass away until everything prophesied had been fulfilled. In the wanderings of the Hebrew people in the desert under Moses, one generation was deemed to last 40 years. It would then appear that the end time prophesies of the whole Bible must be fulfilled in a time period lasting no more than 40 years. So the year in which we begin to see a global fulfillment of all prophesied signs it would be safe to surmise that the end would be no more than 40 years away. In my estimation 2011 or 2012 may be the year that marks the beginning of the end, so it is likely that the world, as we presently know it will end no later than around 2051 or 2052, let’s say around the mid mark of this century. This time-frame is considerably longer than most Biblical scholars and prophecy teachers would assign to the duration of apocalyptic events recorded in the Book of Revelation and elsewhere in the Bible. However my studies of scripture do not allow me to compress all these events into a 3½ or 7 year time frame which is commonly taught by many pastors, authors and prophecy teachers. As I begin to list the sheer amount of prophetic scriptures, primarily from the NT and the book of Revelation, it will become clear that a much longer time-frame is required to see the fulfillment of all prophecies. And Jesus’ teaching of these events possibly lasting a generation would also prove the same.

So having established that the Bible teaches that the world will end, and having been given a rather long list of signs to watch for, a good place to begin the study of prophecy and the subject of the end of the world would be to list all the signs given by Jesus in the gospels, and elsewhere in the Bible. In part 1 of this series, rather than list each individual sign such as major earthquakes in rapid succession, or even to categorize the signs, I feel it is more important to first of all clarify from a Biblical perspective what the term ‘The End of the World’ signifies. First of all the end of the world does not mean the end of the planet Earth. We will not see the Earth blown up into its constituent elements anytime this millennium. It is true that God will make a new Heaven and a new Earth but that time is still at least a thousand years away. It would be useful to define the word ‘World’ to understand what it means in the Bible.

·         WORLD / G165 (this is the Strong’s Concordance number in his Greek NT concordance). The world in the original Greek language of the NT is the world aiṓn, transliterated as EON. The word has the meaning of AGE, as in a certain period of time which is distinguished from previous and future periods due to certain peculiarities that make it unique.

The peculiarities of any given age are not based on the geography of the planet or the Cosmos but rather the system that governs life for the inhabitants of that particular age. As proven in previous writings and audio programs such as ‘The Chronology of Creation’, and ‘Pre – Adamic civilizations’, the Bible teaches that more than one age of time spanning millions of years or more predates the present age of modern man, the age of Adam and his descendants. Therefore in the Bible, ‘World’ has the following meanings:

1. A period of time of a certain length (an age). This present age began with Adam about 6000 years ago and will come to an end at the return of Jesus Christ to Earth. It does not mean that the Earth began 6000 years ago just the present age.
2. It means the ‘System’ that governs life during that age.

Thus the Biblical doctrine of ‘The End of the World’ means the end of this age by the termination of the system that governs the lives of the majority of the people on our planet today. The ‘System’ that governs life on Earth today is the system of commerce, of buying, selling, trading, merchandising, trafficking and banking. Basically life on Earth revolves around money for most people. The Bible tells us that the ‘love of money is the root of all evil’, and with the majority of people involved in the pursuit of money, is it any wonder that evil permeates the very air we breathe in this world? The ‘System’ keeps people so busy trying to earn a survival wage or hypnotized by mindless drivel called entertainment that few realize the true depth and magnitude of the evil of the ‘Babylon’ merchant warrior banking system. It is no wonder that God will judge the system that is personified in the Bible as the ‘Whore of Babylon’. The world will literally end when the whole system is judged and destroyed by God, as well as all those who will fight to protect it. So at the end of the world the present age will come to an end and a new age, the age of Jesus Christ will be ushered in, and the system of merchandising, of buying and selling will forever come to an end.

 Incidentally the system of commerce, of buying and selling God’s creation and His creatures began in an age long ago in which evil was first birthed through the ‘anointed cherub’. This account of the origin of evil is given in detail by the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 28 of his book. The story of the ancient origin of evil was expounded upon in a previous article titled ‘The Mystery of the sons of God Part 2 B – were they angels?’The ages preceding the present one were necessary for creation to begin, for evil to be birthed and to mature, and in the coming age for evil to be forever exterminated from God’s creation. Evil serves God’s purpose which is why He planned to allow it to come into existence but also planned its extermination in a later age; that age is now fast dawning. The dawn of the age in which evil is judged and destroyed is indeed a momentous one and it goes without saying that evil, as personified by Satan, will not ride off into the sunset without putting up a fight, and the fight will cause catastrophic loss of human life. It is this judgment upon evil, not just that of man but of the Devil and his evil spirits as well, that will bring catastrophic destruction upon the planet. Though the end of the world does not mean the end of the planet, yet the planet will suffer tribulation such as was not since the world began as Jesus forewarned in Matthew 24:21. I will summarize part 1 of this series as follows:

·         The process of the coming end of the world will result in loss of human life on a truly Biblical scale, and the planet itself will suffer catastrophic destruction so that the Earth will little resemble its present day form in the next two or three decades. Some places will be devastated by earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, powerful storms, and by cosmic bombardment by meteors, asteroids and other such projectiles. Other areas will be rendered uninhabitable due to radiation or as a result of pandemics arising from deadly viruses. The geography of whole continents will be completely changed; I believe the geography of all continents will be changed to a lesser or greater degree. Many islands such as the Hawaiian Islands, Bermuda and others may sink beneath the surface of the ocean. Many mountain ranges will be leveled, and many plains will become mountainous areas.

·         The actual end of the world will signal the termination of this age and the beginning of a new one at the return of Jesus Christ to Earth. Immediately preceding the return of Christ, there will be a ‘rapture’ like event that will unite the whole body of Christ, all believers in Heaven and on Earth. The word rapture is not found in the Bible, what I am referring to here is a 'catching up' of believers still alive on Earth at Jesus' return. Please read my articles on the 'Rapture' for a better understanding of the many fallacies associated with this doctrine as taught by many in mainstream religious circles.

·         The coming age will truly be an age of peace under the Prince of Peace, it will be an age of equity of righteousness where no one will hurt nor kill in God’s holy mountain and on His Earth, it will be truly a golden age. It will be the government of the Righteous Governor, and then the Earth shall be like Paradise once again. Peace talks that the present day world leaders seem to be engaged in constantly always end in failure. But when the Prince of Peace returns, He will make all wars to cease and bring true peace to this world.

·         Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

·         Psalm 46: 8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. 9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

·         Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

The establishment of God’s Kingdom in the coming age was purposed before there was any world or any age, before the beginning of time and space. Both the beginning of this world and its end have been predetermined; the plan has been in execution for eons. We, who are blessed enough to have been chosen to live in this age will witness the culmination of God’s eons old plan, and that plan involves the end of this present day world. In part 2 of this series I will begin to categorize and list all of the signs that Jesus gave us so that we will not be caught by surprise as the prophesied events begin to rapidly overtake our world.

To be continued