Jonathan Kirsch - A History of the End of the World

The world will end, or so are assured with absolute certainty by the findings of modern astrophysics. One day, sooner or later, the sun will run out of hydrogen, its primary solar fuel. When it does, the sun will turn into what scientists call a red giant as its superheated atmosphere expands across open space to embrace the near planets, including our own, thereby incinerating every living thing on earth. At that moment, perhaps 5 billion years from now, history as we understand it will be over and done. Then the sun will turn into a white dwarf, cold and dark, but human beings will be long gone from the cosmos.

The sure and precise knowledge of when and how the world will end can be terrifying to contemplate, as I mused out loud to a friend and colleague of mine, science writer K. C. Cole, on an otherwise bright and cheerful day in sunny Southern California.

“Oh, I can tell you about much worse things,” remarked Cole with a laugh, “that could happen much sooner.” 149

With the insistent truth telling that is the stock-in-trade of science, Cole reminded me of the whole catalog of God-less apocalypses that are worth worrying about. If we survive the accidental or intentional use of the tens of thousands of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons that are stockpiled in arsenals around the world, we might still suffer the catastrophic consequences of pandemic disease, climatic catastrophe, or overpopulation of Malthusian proportions. And even if we manage to survive all of these potential doomsdays, some stray asteroid might still collide with our little planet and put an end to life on earth while the solar furnace is still fully functional.

Scientific doomsaying changes nothing at all for apocalyptic true believers. The end of the world, whether caused by accident, error, disaster, or the slow but sure process of solar combustion, is still seen as the fulfillment of the divine prophecies that are described in Revelation. If God is capable of creating the earth, the argument goes, then God is also capable of destroying it, whether by means of nuclear weaponry, infectious disease, global warming, or the exhaustion of the solar fuel that allows the sun to shine. That’s exactly why the Christian scriptures begin with Genesis and end with Revelation, and that’s what the Lamb of God means when he is quoted as saying “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending.” 150

But any contemplation of the end-times, whether it is rooted in religion or science or some combination of the two, poses the same moral risk that has always confronted human beings who seek a revelation in the original sense of unveiling what is concealed. The apocalyptic texts of both Judaism and Christianity tempt us to occupy ourselves with fantasies of revenge and redemption while watching for signs and wonders that augur the end of the world. And more than a few readers and hearers of these texts have taken it upon themselves to do God’s work of revenge and to hasten the end-times. But the most exalted and exalting passages of the Bible, both in its Jewish and Christian redactions, plainly instruct us to put aside the pursuit of “secret things” and call on us to answer the urgent needs of the hungry and the homeless, the prisoner and the patient, all in the here and now. 151

Some true believers, as we have seen throughout the history of the end of the world, are willing to stand and fight over the right way and the wrong way to understand the Bible. The rest of us, however, still regard ourselves as free to choose how to read the scriptures or, for that matter, whether to read them at all. But the choice is not without consequences. That is one way to understand what the biblical author means by the oft-quoted and highly provocative words of Deuteronomy: “I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse, therefore choose life.” 152

Some Bible readers, of course, are instructed by the book of Revelation to read these words as a death sentence pronounced by God himself against men and women who make the wrong choice. Others read the same words as a challenge to “do justice, and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God,” according to Micah, and they ignore the apocalyptic preachers in favor of the biblical prophets who, like Isaiah, urge us “to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home.” 153The fact that both teachings—and many others, too—can be extracted from between the covers of the same book is what has always made Bible reading such a crazy-making experience.

Nowadays, of course, the apocalyptic idea works its powerful magic on plenty of people who never open a Bible, and for them, God is no longer necessary or sufficient to solve the mystery of when and how the end will come. On one point, however, we all seem to agree: somehow and someday, sooner or later, whether by the hand of God or the hand of humankind or the mindless workings of the cosmos, the earth itself and all living things upon it will pass away. Ultimately, we are compelled to decide for ourselves how to make sense of our lives as we continue to wait—as men and women have always waited—for the world to end on time.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The entire text of the book of Revelation, exactly as it appears in the King James Version with conventional divisions into chapters and verses, is reproduced here. For the convenience of the reader, I have added headings to indicate major themes, figures, and incidents.

1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

1:2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

1:9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;