Examine the main religious and secular eschatological and apocalyptic teachings. (45)

Introduction: * Eschatology literally means ‘the study of the end things’ and it is a part of the theology or philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world and the ultimate destiny of humanity. * Apocalypse means ‘lifting of the veil’ and apocalyptic teaching focuses on revealing or ‘unveiling future events’.

Paragraph 1: * In Christianity, eschatological teaching focuses on teaching humans about the values of living a good moral life whilst on earth and the rewards that humans will reap in heaven as a result. * Matthew 25 contains 3 parables of eschatological literature: 1. The Parable of the Wise and Foolish bridesmaids (1-13) – the five virgins who are prepared for the bridegroom's arrival are rewarded, while the five who are not prepared are disowned. The parable has a clear eschatological theme: be prepared for the Day of Judgment 2. The Parable of the Talents (14-30) - the overall theme is end-time events, warning, and parables. "The direct cautions and warnings must be for the disciples (his audience)—warnings to be watchful and to be ready for Christ’s coming". 3. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (21-46) - The common futurist explanation of the discourse is that it tells of the Last Judgment, and the division of all the world'speople into the blessed, on the Right Hand of God, who are welcomed by the Father to inherit the Kingdom and eternal life, and the cursed, who are cast into the eternal fire along with the devil and his angels.

Paragraph 2: * From a secular viewpoint beliefs about eschatology can be separated into 3 categories; the end of the universe, the end of the world and the end of life on earth. * Scientists believe there are 3 possible scenarios for the destiny of the universe. * They claim that the universe has been continually expanding since the Big Bang, which occurred 15 billion years ago. If the universe continues to expand forever it will gradually be pulled apart into a cold desolate wasteland of dying or dead stars and black holes – the Big Freeze. * If the universe stops stretching and springs back on itself it will shrink until galaxies begin to collide, causing the Big Crunch which will be terminated in a huge black hole. * Finally, if the universe gradually slows down to a halt, a state of precise balance will be achieved, space will be saved for a period of time and eventually the earth will succumb to the Big Freeze. * Frazer Cain illustrates his view upon eschatology in his article ‘will the earth survive when the sun becomes a red giant?’ He claims that the sun will expand to a size large enough to be a red giant, in the future and will consume the earth and its orbit. * Astronomers Schroder and Smith claim the earth will not survive this as once the Earth is in the suns atmosphere it will collide with ags particles, its orbit will decay and spiral outwards. *

Paragraph 3: * When talking of apocalyptic teachings from a secular viewpoint, climate change also plays a primary role – it is believed by many scientists that we are already experiencing events of the apocalypse. * Many in the developed countries such as the UK and the USA may not have felt the extreme effects of this yet however those in third world countries believe they are living through events of the apocalypse today e.g. the sufferers of the Haiti earthquake and more recently the sufferers of the Tohoku, Japan earthquake and following tsunami in 2011. * These ideas about an apocalypse appear to have crept into mainstream thinking and is illustrated in the media – increasing production of movies on the issues such as ‘The day after tomorrow’ the ‘Dark age’ ‘2012’ and ‘2D years after’. * Ideas such as John Frum – the new Messiah? In approximately 1940 this little man with a high pitched voice had an apocalyptic vision where the mountains would be flattened, old people would reign their youth, sickness would vanish. He also predicted a second ‘parousia’ for himself where he would bring a new coinage stamped with the image of a coconut, which resulted in the inhabitants going on a wild spending spree. * Harold Camping claimed that the ‘end is very near’ and was certain that the end of the world would occur in 2012 – his prediction caused a woman to murder her children as she came to the conclusion that it would be better for her children to die because of her instead of the apocalypse event killing them.

Paragraph 4: * In regards to religion, there have been many predictions for the end of the world. Primarily in the book of Revelations written by John. * The book contains a lot of symbolic language numbers such as 10, which represents completeness and 3.5 representing incompleteness as well as 6 including the biblical number of evil. * Colours are also included – red being war, green/grey being death and black being lack of something. * Revelations was written in the time where Christians were being persecuted by the Roman Empire, referred to as Babylon throughout – the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed and Christianity lost he protection of Judaism. This could have been under rule of Emperor Nero. * Revelations is meant to encourage the faithful to resist idol worship but warns them that a showdown between God and Satan is imminent. Ultimately believers will come to no spiritual harm as when Christ returns the wicked will be destroyed forever and God’s people will be eternally blessed. * Daniel’s dream – he saw a statue and focuses on God’s kingdom and Jesus as the son of man – His dominion is everlasting, He is the new Israel “descended from heaven” to bridge the gap from heaven to earth.

Paragraph 5: * Many other religious people such as Jehovahs Witnesses and Rapture Theologians have strong beliefs about when the end of time will come. * JW’s believe that in order for a Parousia (second coming) to occur, the world must be completely rid of sin and perfect – 144, 000 people will be saved from the danger and have he name of God on their foreheads. * Rapture Theology is the belief that those who believe will be brought/lifted up at the end of time to stay beside Jesus for zoe aionios (eternal life). * ^The idea comes from Matthew 24:30 “At that time the sign of the Son of man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn”. * Afrikaner Calvinists (religious development programme among Afrikaners) believe that the world will end imminently (2020) due to earthquakes, floods, famine etc.