by Matthew Marlow

Created on: July 24, 2007

Have you ever run across the old bearded man standing on the street corner waving his cardboard sign that reads "The end is near! Repent all ye people! Repent!" How close are we to the end, and why did HE get the message first? Let's take a look at the biblical view of the end of the world with a Christian's perspective.

There are thousands of books, videos, and movies that attempt to unravel the mysteries of biblical end-times prophecy. After weeding out the obvious non-Christian versions, and the fictitious ones, we are still left with a large collection of study material. I am very partial to sticking with the one perfect source to study with, that is to say the Word of God.

Fist of all, we need to define what we mean by the "end of the world". Biblically there is a literal complete and udder destruction of the current earth. Revelation 20:11 "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." You see the idea mentioned again in Revelation 21:1 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." The earth will be wiped out of existence by the glory of God the Father, but I am not entirely sure this is what people are thinking of when they mention "the end of the earth".

In the scenario above, Jesus has already spent 1000 years living with the people of earth, and Satan has been locked up for that whole period. This time will be tranquil and will have been a great healing time for the world. At the end of this millennial reign, God wipes the sleight of material existence clean and creates a new heaven and earth for its inhabitance. He will then dwell forever with man, eternally.

Sadly, I believe the more common conception of the "end of the world" is the idea that some traumatic or cataclysmic event will take place to utterly damage the earth and destroy huge portions of population. Unfortunately, this is also prophesied about in the Bible. Just about the entire book of Revelation walks us through a catastrophic destruction of earth and it's people. Staring with Chapter six, we see the seven seals opened which bring global war, famine, pestilence, major disruptions in commerce, and persecution of believers in Christ. Most would probably say this is not the end of the earth, but maybe the beginning of the end.

But as we finish up the seals in chapter six and move further into Revelation,

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