Since the beginning of time, people have conjectured about the final events in the history of the world. Sacred texts and folklore “predict” the end of times as we know it. Buddhists and Hindus believe in cycles of creation and destruction of the universe. To the Native American Hopis, the coming of the white man signaled the beginning of the end. Since the 1980’s, erroneous ideas about the Mayan culture and calendars have spread easily throughout the world, resulting in a great number of people believing that the world would end in 2012. Every year since then, new apocalyptic predictions waft through the dark fringes of the internet and the tabloid media. Many Christians hold the belief that the end of the world follows the golden age when Christ will reign.
The destruction of the world is commonly linked with the word “apocalypse,” although this word technically refers to the revealing of God as the Messiah. The apocalyptic literature of Jews and early Christians references events such as the coming kingdom, the resurrection of the dead, and judgment day. These prophetic writings were mostly written between the periods of the Jewish oppression under the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BC, the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70, and the failed Bar Kokhba revolt in AD 135.
Perhaps the origin of apocalyptic thought can be found in the Persian prophet Zoroaster, who in the sixth century BC connected the resurrection of the entire human race and the final judgment with the end of the world, when individuals would be rewarded or punished. In due course, Zoroaster’s teachings came to Christians via the Jews.
The Babylonian exile of the Hebrews in 587 BC left the national ego of the Jews at an all-time low. There was a great need to explain why God’s people were suffering and why the establishment of the kingdom was delayed. Under the Persian rule beginning in 539 BC, the Hebrew people became exposed to the Zoroastrian teachings. The concept of a final judgment offered a way of facing the injustices that had been so apparent in their life. The apocalyptic mindset of doom and destruction began to emerge as the Hebrews perceived the end of prophecy. This was perceived as a time when godly intervention would destroy their enemies and their loyalty would be rewarded, which gave the Hebrews hope and motivation to persevere.
History informs us that the apocalyptic movement grew stronger after Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Jewish Temple during his defiant occupation of Jerusalem in 168 BC. “About one hundred years before the days of Jesus and John a new school of religious teachers arose in Palestine, the apocalyptists. These new teachers evolved a system of belief that accounted for the sufferings and humiliation of the Jews on the ground that they were paying the penalty for the nation’s sins. They fell back onto the well-known reasons assigned to explain the Babylonian and other captivities of former times. The apocalyptists taught that the days of their affliction were almost over; the discipline of God’s chosen people was about finished; God’s patience with the gentile foreigners was about exhausted. The end of Roman rule was synonymous with the end of the age and, in a certain sense, with the end of the world. These new teachers leaned heavily on the predictions of Daniel, and they consistently taught that creation was about to pass into its final stage; the kingdoms of this world were about to become the kingdom of God.”[1]
Perhaps the most influential apocalyptic writing is the Book of Revelation. While there are various systems of approach to the study of John’s revelation, the most popular is the prophetic approach that addresses events that will take place at the close of the age, such as the second coming of Christ, the millennial age, the general judgment, and the resurrection of the dead.
For many Christians, the Book of Revelation has become the text by which every tumultuous event is measured to end-of-time prophecies. The father of modern Christian apocalypticism is, perhaps, the best-selling author Hal Lindsey, who created the modern interpretation of the Book of Revelation in his 1970 book The Late Great Planet Earth. Even though none of the catastrophic predictions in his book for the 1980s came true,[2]Lindsey is still regarded by some as an expert on prophecy.
Hal Lindsey’s apocalyptic best-sellers were surpassed in 1995 by the Left Behind series. The Left Behind novels, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, use the literal translations of biblical prophecies to develop a drama that deals with the physical disappearance of true believers (the Rapture), the ruling of the world by an Antichrist, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the adventures of the Tribulation Force that is “left behind” after the Rapture and dedicated to fight the seven-year-war with the Antichrist. A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that fifty-nine percent of Americans believe that the events in the Book of Revelation will become reality and almost a quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks.
It is easy to measure social disharmony and unrest to end-of-times prophecies. It is much harder, but much more conducive to peace and progress, to reflect on one’s own spiritual progress and genuine pursuit of truth. “Are my actions bringing God closer to me and others?” “Are they bringing others and myself closer to God?” The good effort of each person benefits all people, the error or evil of each individual augments the tribulation of all humanity. Pursuit of spiritual truth calls for questioning the coherence and consistency of our beliefs. For example, with regards our end-of-times understanding are we willing to reinterpret our beliefs, objectively considering the following:
1. The Book of Revelation, written by John Zebedee when he was banished to the Isle of Patmos for a period of four years, is incomplete and has been edited. “When in temporary exile on Patmos, John wrote the Book of Revelation, which you now have in greatly abridged and distorted form. This Book of Revelation contains the surviving fragments of a great revelation, large portions of which were lost, other portions of which were removed, after John’s writing. It is preserved in only fragmentary and adulterated form.”[3]
2. There will be a second coming of Christ, but the timing is unknown, and it does not involve the destruction of the planet.
3. There is a future age of light and life, a golden age when peace will reign on Earth. This high destiny of humanity in a settled planet is a result of growth in spiritual ideals and wisdom, culminating in cultural and spiritual progress.
4. While there may be a “judgment of the realm” at the end of every mortal epoch, it is not linked to the destruction of the planet. Rather, it marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new dispensation. The judgment of the realm is not a public or physical event.
5. The general resurrection of the dead does not mean awakening on earth with our previous flesh and blood bodies made immortal. Rather, it means that “sleeping survivors” will awaken in “heaven” in a semi-spiritual body, to continue their pursuit of God. Those who rejected survival will not experience awakening. Rather, they will be represented by their personal or group guardians at the roll calls of justice, which constitutes the formal recognition of their cessation of existence.
Disrespect of Earth, along with worldwide conflict, and increasing bigotry and contempt, informs us of our ongoing resistance to personal spiritual growth – the only course and opportunity every individual in every generation has to contribute to the collective increase of the human capacity to love and the eventual attainment of the brotherhood of man. The degree of tribulation that humanity experiences during each generation is, therefore, dependent on the moral awareness and spiritual progress achieved by individuals in previous generations.
Harmony among people cannot be achieved if ethics and personal religion are discarded for politics and power and if the recognition that we are all sons and daughters of the one and same God is ignored or denied. Scientific progress without moral and spiritual advancement only yields failed policies among nations and global wars. Individual moral and spiritual progress is a requisite to establishing an effective government of humanity, to the enjoyment of permanent peace, and to the blessed tranquility of worldwide goodwill among all people.
Christianity, the primary religion of the West, is hampered by spiritual confusion. Christians have adopted a plurality of beliefs, which has resulted in a range of attitudes from indifference to God to stifling fanaticism. When God is deemed unnecessary, culture slides into cheap values and situational morality. Furthermore, the tyranny of religious fundamentalism resists innovation and compromise, which results in stark yes-or-no and black-or-white reasoning. Such polarization derails moral and spiritual growth, with liberal materialism and narcissistic self-glorification on one side and self-righteous fundamentalism on the other. When a fundamentalist perspective or self-absorbed beliefs direct our lives, the fruits of our actions are likewise distorted, and our humanitarian efforts do not have the spiritual driving power to change the world.
Spirit unity can be won by moderate believers of all religious faiths who have the courage to relinquish the ancient past as the exclusive source of truth and recognize that truth is ever expanding, living always in the present and achieving new expression of higher spiritual values in each generation.
Our planet has a glorious destiny, a golden age, when contentious expansion and development is exhausted, and the spiritual status of its citizens has been stabilized. But it will take the effort of enlightened and farsighted generations to embrace the ultimate challenge of higher cosmic understanding and emerge from the troubles of a dysfunctional past.
[1]The Urantia Book. Paper 135:5, p. 1500:2.
[2]David Mathews, “Hal Lindsey’s Prophecies: A Study of The Late Great Planet Earth,”from David Mathews’s website, http://www.geocities.com/athens/agora/3958/hal1.htm.
[3]The Urantia Book, Paper 139:4, p. 1555:7.
