The Day of Judgment, God
presides an angel sounds the last trump the virtuous, by
Luigi Schiavonetti.
. .
— Buy this art print at AllPosters.com.
In the Biblical story of Noah, the flood
opened the way for a regeneration of the world and a new humanity. Because
wickedness persisted, however, another cataclysm became inevitable. Nearly all
modern religions have taken up this kind of mythology, looking forward to an end
of the world, a new creation, and a judgment on humanity for its deeds.
Myths of the end of the universe are
incorporated with beliefs about death and the fate of humanity afterward. In many
mythologies the dead may be rewarded or punished. It was inconceivable to most ancient
peoples that humans would not survive in some form after death.
Egyptian kings made elaborate preparations for the afterlife.
In both Judaism and Christianity, quite complex visions have
been devised about the end of the world, the final judgment, and a new creation. The basis
for these ideas is in passages from the
Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the
Book of Revelation in the
New Testament, and portions of the
Gospels. In contrast to
mythologies of India, the end of the world is supposed to happen only once.
There are no cycles of destruction and regeneration.
The End of the World
For Judaism the coming of the Messiah
will announce the end of the present world and the restoration of paradise. For
Christianity the end will precede the second coming of
Jesus and the last judgment. After
these events the whole universe will be renewed and made perfect. All evil and misfortune will be abolished. Many Christian groups
that have made the doctrine central to their faith have interposed a 1,000-year period,
called the millennium, between the second coming and the end of the world. During this
time only the saints will dwell on Earth. Then Satan
will be unleashed to stir up a period of terrible persecution. After that
the end will come, followed by judgment and a new creation. Some groups put the
second coming after the millennium. Most traditional Christian denominations,
however, reject the notion of a millennium altogether.
In the West, in almost every generation there
have arisen groups with an apocalyptic worldview and an expectation that they
are witnessing the last days of human history. Not infrequently, these groups go
so far as to set a specific date on which the endtime events will be initiated.
Basic to such groups have been a ‘‘historicist’’ reading of the apocalyptic
passages of the Bible, in which the prophetic texts are seen as referring to
contemporary events. The failure of the proposed events to occur on time always
creates a crisis in apocalyptic groups. Only rarely do they admit any
significant error. Rather, they suggest that the date was incorrect and propose
a new date, or, more often, they spiritualize the prophecy and suggest that it
really occurred, but in an invisible spiritual realm. . .
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