Board index ‹ The End of the World

[Newbie]

A large meteor just passed the earth. It wasn't close enough to hit us, but maybe one of these days one will. How does the Bible say the world will end?

[jimwalton]

The book of Revelation contains many images of global and population disaster. When we reach those dreadful times, the Bible predicts:

1. A great planet-disrupting earthquake (Rev. 6.12)
2. Chaotic meteor showers (6.13)
3. Tectonic shifts (6.14)
4. Either great natural disturbances, or nuclear war (Rev. 8.7-12)
5. Population-destroying warfare (Rev. 9.17-20). We may not have to wait for natural causes to destroy humankind; we may do it ourselves. We're so afraid of meteors and earthquakes; we should be more afraid of the growing evil.
6. Plagues, disaster, and warfare (Rev. 16).

But none of these will end the world. Actually, the Bible predicts that the world will not be destroyed, but radically transformed (Rev. 21.1) at the end of time.

"Why," you may want to know, "does the Bible try to scare us with all this bone-chilling talk?" Here's an answer you can trust:

1. If you knew a devastating earthquake was coming, would you tell people in your neighborhood or keep it to yourself? Of course you'd tell. If you love people, you wouldn't hide something like that, even if it was "bone-chilling." It would be rotten of God to keep it to himself, now, wouldn't it?
2. When all these things happen, you need to know that God didn't fall asleep or stop caring. Don't go around blaming God for letting it happen.
3. Since you know ahead of time, you can approach it with an attitude of patient endurance (Rev. 13.10). You've been warned, so prepare yourself.
4. 2 Chronicles 7.13-14 tells us that bad stuff like this can be a very effective wake up call. The point is: God wants us to be part of his family. When the bad stuff starts happening, if you haven't yet turned to God, then would be a good time (Rev. 16.11; 18.4; 9.20). The bad stuff will remind you that life can end at any time, and you should turn to God while you have a chance. As a matter of fact, don't wait. Get right with God now, and live your life in his grace and freedom.

[gmw803]

I just want to put this on the table. There is far too little actually known to divide over this.

I am not sure how "radically transformed" the earth will become. I actually see the New Jerusalem as a separate place - the eternal state. Now my biases presuppose that at the end of a tribulation age, Armageddon will separate the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). The sheep will enter a 1000-year kingdom. And the goats will go into eternal punishment. For a brief moment, all living humanity is saved - until the first baby is born in the kingdom. The end of the Kingdom will feature a world-wide revolt against King Jesus. And then Jesus convenes the Great White Throne Judgment where all non believers of every age are cast into Hell, and Hell is cast into the Lake of Fire.

And the believers of every age are escorted into the New Jerusalem. Isaiah 24 and 25 actually provide some fascinating details. And if you give it some thought, chapter 25 occurs slightly before chapter 24. Chapter 24 describes the empty earth (v 17 calls Isaiah earth's only inhabitant), and Chapter 25 describes the populated New Jerusalem.

After the earth is emptied and all humanity of all time safely settled in either the Lake of Fire or the New Jerusalem, Isaiah 24:18ff provides the most vivid description of the end of the earth:

18 For the windows of heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken,
the earth is split apart,
the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth staggers like a drunken man;
it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls, and will not rise again.

We can speculate on the causes, but "the earth is utterly broken" seems to suggest an explosion (nuclear?) that breaks the earth into several rocks.

The way I read 24:23

Then the moon will be confounded
and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts reigns
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders.

earth is the only structure so devastated. For the sun and the moon remain intact. Yet the earth's destruction will have many unpredictable side effects. For instance, the moon will be confounded. It will have nothing to orbit around. It may attempt to become a planet all its own, something it lacks the mass to do. The sun will be ashamed because it loses one of the satellites that it was entrusted to maintain. The entire gravitational structure of the Milky Way Galaxy will be disrupted.

Or, I could be wrong.

[jimwalton]

The apocalyptic descriptions of the end times are assuredly cosmos-rattling: stars falling, blood moon, sun blackened. Because the style of apocalyptic literature is extreme descriptions of cosmic failure, it's hard to know how much is literal and how much is symbolic. As one might expect, one can find scholars on every tick in the continuum.

In response to your post, I would offer a quote from Douglas Moo, in JETS 49/3 (Sept 2006), pp. 464-466, from an article entitled, "Nature in the New Creation: New Testament Eschatology And the Environment." Moo says,

"The continuity of the present world and the next is difficult to determine. But at the least we can say that the new world is a place of material substance. The phrase “heaven and earth” is a merism that refers to the entire universe. This verse predicts not merely ethical renovation but transformation of the fundamental cosmic structure (including physical elements). This language warns us against the persistent tendency in Christian tradition to picture the saints’ eternal home as an ethereal and immaterial place up above somewhere. In fact, the NT, contrary to popular Christian parlance, does not usually claim that we will spend eternity in heaven, but in a new heaven and a new earth: a material place suited for life in a material, though of course transformed, body. Jesus’ resurrection signals God’s commitment to the material world.
What is envisaged here is not annihilation and new creation but radical transformation. The ultimate source of the new heaven and new earth language is Isaiah 65.17 & 66.22-24.
The language here certainly suggests that a new heaven and new earth replace the old, but it’s not completely clear. The language could refer to judgment, not destruction: the sinful form of this world will pass away, rather than the world itself. In v. 5 God proclaims he is making everything new, not necessarily making all new things."