I’ve noticed through the years that people, especially “Christians,” seem to be obsessed with the “end of the world,” meaning the apocalypse, the second coming or return of Christ as portrayed in the New Testament book of Revelation. I’ve noticed a renewed, fired up interest in the topic during the recent period of our previous president. I saw people really get excited about the end of the world coming very soon. Let me back up a bit to my time in college. Another time I experienced everyone around me of an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian persuasion getting all worked up about the end coming. People were really excited about this stuff. At the time, a very unusual book was on the best-seller list, Hal Lindsay’s “The Late, Great Planet Earth.” Hal Lindsay explained how the world was ending soon (he said the 1980’s would be the time, as did Billy Graham, by the way). He explained about how all the signs of the coming end times were playing out then, in the 1970’s. Oh, yes, he had it all worked out and everyone was excited (just like I experienced during the past four years of our previous president).
Well, I was in college and I decided to take a religion class ( I was attending a conservative Christian college). I took a class on the Book of Revelation. The professor was not known to be an exciting professor but it so happened he made a big impression on my life which I never expected. We were going to study the controversial book of the New Testament and I remember him saying that there were different views of the book, and scholars were seeing the writings very differently than the general Christian population, very different than Hal Lindsay’s interpretation.
Well, I studied the book and took in the scholar’s views on the apocalypse that was written long ago, like two thousand years ago. It was very interesting and enlightening to study the writings with that different perspective. I eventually wrote my term paper on the scholarly view that the Book of Revelation was just a vision of a man long ago and was written about the times it was written in, about events happening at the time in the Roman empire. Not a vision of a future “end of the world.” I did get an “A” on my term paper and now I wish I had saved that paper to read it today. I must admit, I was quite proud of my academic work in that class.
So, this recent renewal of interest in this subject has got me studying the subject again. It amazes me how people just follow and take in whatever their church leaders tell them about theological issues. How current events are interpreted to mean that the end is coming and then having an unbalanced leader doing and saying crazy things. To them, this is exciting “proof” the Christ is coming again, very soon!
Ok, my suggestion would be to read the book “A History of the End of the World.” That covers the subject very well and I certainly cannot cover this in a brief essay. The Book of Revelation has had a profound affect on the world since it was written. It almost did not make it into the Christian canon. It was always a controversial book. So much of world history is connected to that book and its horrific visions, etc. Okay, that cannot be undone, but going forward, if we view the book in a more realistic way, that it is not God’s plan set in stone and is going to happen, then we can live a more normal life. I wrote a previous blog on seeing things “one way,” and one way only. And thinking only one way, that is not a good idea, in my view, as I explained in that essay.
Yes, I take the more scholarly view on biblical and theological and religious issues now. When I went to theological seminary, I thought I was going there to prepare for the Christian ministry, but God, (as I see it now) had a different idea. It was a time for me to get a good theological education. Time to study deeply in a more scholarly fashion theological issues and religious and church history. It is now very useful, this theological knowledge. I am not under the spell of a charismatic evangelical or fundamentalist or cult leader. I can think freely and look at truth. I can live in a more sane world, even if many others are under the spell of religious leaders who are way off base, as I see it.
As I always preach, “don’t just accept what you are told, look at the facts, look at things with an open mind. Use your reasoning brain. Use logic. Think. Think deeply.
So, back to the subject at hand. Yes, the world is going to end. Science knows it is going to end. In many billions of years the sun will run out of energy and will die out. That will be the end of the earth. That I can believe. Science backs that up. And I do believe that we can destroy the earth ourselves if we are not careful. We have the means now with our weapons. If we get a crazy person to use those weapons, yep, it could be all over very quickly. Or, if we continue misusing and abusing the environment, we could end this earthly existence in a slower manner. But the vision of Revelation, just a bad vision that a man of long ago had and wrote about, is just that, a horrific vision. It can be a part of your religion, but that’s your choice. It’s not part of mine.
Wally