The End of the World as We Know It
Matthew 24:35-39
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
The end. We all like to know how things end. We watch movies and get excited when the final part of the movie plays. We read stories as fast as we can just to get to the last pages and find out how the story ends. Some will cheat and read the last few pages to find out the ending then finish the story. In just a few days we will celebrate the end of the year. So it is with no small surprise that we all wonder how all creation is going to end. The world, this universe that God created will end, we have been told that. We don’t know exactly the how, and we don’t know the when.
The Bible does not offer a date for the end of the world, does not give any sort of time frame, not even a vague “a few hundred or thousand years after such and such event”. And this end of the world event is not just a Christian fixation. Many people of all faiths, and even atheists, are trying to pin down that special date. This has lead many people to make some, shall we say, less than logical deductions.
I found a site on line that lists 242 dates for the end of the world dating all the way back to 44 AD. In 53 AD, even before all the books of the Bible were written, there was talk that Christ’s return had already taken place. The Thessalonians panicked on Paul, when they heard a rumor that the day of the Lord was at hand, and they had missed the rapture. But the world continued. Because the book of Revelations stated a 1000 year reign of Christ, many people believed that January 1, 1000 AD was the end of times. During December of 999 AD, everyone was on their best behavior; worldly goods were sold and money given to the poor; swarms of pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem to be there for the return of the King; buildings went unrepaired, crops were left unplanted and criminals were set free. But the world continued. Many of the members here might remember Y2K and all the hoopla that surrounded that event, and in 2012 the world was to end on December 21 because the Mayan calendar ended on that day. But the world continued. According to The Church of Blair, the human race will probably be terminated at 3:28 AM (Soho, England time) September 14, 2047. The church teaches that if the human race does not discard their plastic conformity (whatever that means), then the gods will withdraw their protection. The gods don't want us to worship them; they don't want sacrifices or even offerings. They just want us to rid ourselves of our excessive “normalcy” (again, whatever that means). At that point, Astro-Lemurs (extra-terrestrials similar in shape to lemurs, but with rainbow colored bodies) will attack the entire human race and beat us all to death with gigantic burritos. Ok, so we have been warned. The Bible does speak of the end of times and to events that lead up this.
The Bible tells us there will be wars and rumors of wars. It has been said by many historians that in the 6000 years of recorded history, less than 300 of those years have seen no wars; less than 5 percent, and I’d be willing to believe that at least 150, but probably closer to 300, of those years had rumors of wars. This hardly helps. Basically, all of human history fulfills this prophesy.
We are also told there will be pestilences or plagues, famines, and earthquakes. 1 Samuel 5:6 records the Philistines were struck by plague for stealing the Ark of the Covenant. During the time of the Roman Empire, 165-180 AD, approximately 40% of the people in the empire died from a plague, most likely smallpox. During the time of the Byzantine Empire, about 40% of the European population died from a plague, probably bubonic. There is the Black Death from 1346-1350 which claimed anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of the population of Europe. Looking closer to our time the Spanish Flu epidemic claimed 75 million people worldwide from 1918 to 1920 and HIV/AIDS over the past 30 years has claimed just over 30 million worldwide. Genesis records a great famine that was foretold by Joseph that lasted seven years. Between 108 BC to 1911 AD, a period of 2019 years, no less than 1828 major famines occurred in China. In 441 BC a famine claimed many lives in the city of Rome. The Great Famine of Europe killed millions from 1315 to 1317. The Chinese recorded an earthquake in 1831 BC. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Colossus of Rhodes, was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 BC. An earthquake in Portugal in 60 BC was large enough to cause a tsunami, but we don’t have complete information because of the age in which it happened. In 17 AD, before Jesus began His ministry, a quake in Asia Minor destroyed 13 cities. San Francisco suffered major devastation in an earthquake in 1906. Alaska suffered an earthquake in 1964 so large that the tsunamis formed struck both Japan and Hawaii. Earthquakes, famines, and plagues have all happened before and after the birth of Jesus. Again, all of human history fulfills this prophecy.
Once you get past Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when haven’t people lived in perilous times? With the odd exception of small societies of people that live in relative safety with each other (and even these people are not 100% safe), all of mankind lived and continue to live with the threat of bodily harm from others, possessions taken from them, and abuses of all sorts. Powerful people and governments have in the past and will in the future force less privileged to become subservient to them. Cain murdered his brother Abel in a jealous rage. All people, in the past, now and in the future live their lives knowing that something perilous can happen to them at any time. Again, all human history supports this prophecy.
We are also told that in the last days people will become lovers of themselves and money. They will be proud, arrogant, disobedient of their parents, treacherous, swollen with conceit, and lovers of pleasure rather than God. People like Cain, Julius Caesar, the Samarian king Ahab, Herod the Great who ordered all the children in Bethlehem killed in an attempt to kill the Christ Child, Nimrod who ordered the Tower of Babel built, and all of these people lived before Jesus was born, I can certainly name many people who fit the above description after Jesus was born. The prophetic human traits that are supposed to signal the end of times are traits that have been part of all people since the fall.
How then do we know if we are in the end of times? It seems as though since creation we have been in a countdown to the end. The end of times happens when Jesus returns to earth, and you can’t return until you leave. Jesus came to earth for only one reason, to save all of us from ourselves. After His sacrificial death and glorious resurrection, Jesus’ job was done, what He was sent here to do was finished. When Jesus ascended into Heaven, the stage was set for His return, and the end of times began. Jesus could have returned as the disciples were still looking up watching the sky after He ascended into Heaven, and prophecies would have been fulfilled. We are living in the end of times right now, right at this moment.
Many people, both in the past and today, have forgotten about a passage in the Bible, and it’s one that I read today. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” The angels in Heaven don’t know. The people here on earth will not know. Jesus, in His state of humility, didn’t even know, just the Father alone. We can’t flip to the last pages of this one and see how it ends. The prophecies tell us the time is right for the Lord’s return now, not tomorrow. We’re not promised tomorrow, we’re not even promised the next five minutes. Jesus and other writers of the New Testament have stated that Jesus’ return would be like a thief in the night, cautioning us that we would not know the time. Just as a thief in the night will not announce his coming, neither will Jesus. Think how much better it would be if we knew when the end time is to come. We could do what we wanted, as we knew we would have time. We could wallow in the ways of the men, praise ourselves as we enjoy the fruits of the world. Then, just minutes before Jesus’ return we could get ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get this whole religious/salvation thingy taken care of and we can get to Heaven. Wouldn’t this a great way to praise our Savior and to bring honor to Him? Fortunately God does know our ways and our hearts and knows that without a doubt, many people would act in this very fashion. Because we don’t know when, we know we cannot turn our backs on God, for while we are away from Him, He might return. We must remain in faith.
And there will be an end of the world as we know it. Jesus told us in the text I read today that both heaven and Earth shall pass away. God’s creation will cease to exist one day, the Last Day, when Jesus returns. Everything done will be undone. But we will not need an Earth to live on then; all believers will be with God in Heaven with Him. The place of great joy and peace, the place that the forgiven will spend eternity in God’s loving presence. Jesus made sure all people were given the chance to join Him in Heaven. Jesus took the sins of all people and paid the price, took the punishment, for those sins. With His resurrection our perfection was returned to us, this perfection we lost in the Garden of Eden. We have regained our enterence to Heaven, and all those who believe in the promise, receive the faith, will enter in.
The end. In this case, the end is not written. There will be an end, as Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, and we do have indications on the how, but we will never know the when. This piece of information is forever hidden from us. And God in His goodness and mercy has made this so. Because we do not know the when, we must be forever alert, forever watchful, forever faithful. We must always be ready for Jesus’ return, always be ready for the end of the world as we know it. Amen.
