The End Of The World As We Know It

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.