The End of the World

The End Time Believers (you can call them Fundamentalists, Christians, Cult Members) see the inhumanity and natural disasters of today as proof that it's happening just as the Bible predicted. They like to expound on the fact that these terrible times have been preordained. "This is to be expected. This has been foretold in the Bible. These are the exact signs, exactly as Saint John wrote to forewarn us that the End is Coming." Another segment of the population believes a similar production will occur, but space aliens or superconscious powers will arrive rather than the Son of God.

According to those who profess to be experts on the End, the scenario is something like this: After the shocking and deplorable events of the Apocalypse (i.e., the End), the devil (Antichrist or various other evil gods) will be defeated and sinister forces will be obliterated. Of course, this will not happen without various heroic and vicious battles; those who are involved and those who save the day vary according to the scriptures and the soothsayers.

After the End Time's catastrophic events, a new world will awaken. Regardless of the exact details of destruction and the myth source, in the "after days" most predict that supreme love will be everywhere. After the End "Have a nice day" might not just be a nauseating cliche but a global slogan.

For those who predict the End— often relishing in the hideous technicalities of what happens to sinners or disbelievers before the salvation and judgment time—the "new world" concept provides hope. Yes, it will be pollution-free, inexhaustibly fertile, and brimming with virtue and harmony. Those who survive the holocaust of the End will reside in a world that will be preferred to our wildest fantasies (perhaps a combination of winning a million dollar jackpot in Vegas and going to a high school reunion in the same size clothing as worn on graduation day).

Common among all groups is a myth of a calm inaugural and a riotous finale, great suffering and fear. As the drama unfolds, two extraordinarily powerful antagonists are circling in an intensive battle. Eventually, evil is defeated, and there is paradise for a gentle one thousand years before the final judgment takes place.

As we approach the year 2000, it's important to be aware that even before recorded time, there were groups in the world who believed that in some future period there would be a kingdom ruled by God (a divine being, the messiah, a Christ, or an appointed supervisor). This myth crosses all governmental and cultural boundaries—and it's not simply Christian sects who believe and have believed that the End is near or here. Although the evidence is in some cases extremely sparse, the Guarani of South America, the Aztecs of Mexico, the Karen of Burma, the Lakali of the island of New Britain and the Native American Indians of the Pacific Northwest had rituals and rites in regard to the myths of millenarianism.

Commonly called Doomsday, this period has been forecast since well before the writings of the Bible, although even here there are disputes about the exact time and way the end will come. For Christians, the End is chronicled in the Old Testament's word of Moses and in the New Testament's Book of Revelation with interpretation by today's biblical teachers. For New Agers, it's seen in works of various prophets including Nostradamus, Alice Bailey, end Jeane Dixon. Buddhists await the new spiritual leader Maitreya who will sweep in at the height of catastrophes in this coming age. Hindu tradition implies that we are approaching Pralaya or Doomsday in their eschatological scheme which is believed to come at the end of the fourth and worst era, yugas.

Nostradamus, believed by many to be the greatest forecaster and psychic of future events ever to have lived, chronicled the End in his elusive, sometimes intangible writings. The prophet's journals included dates and times (arrived at through occult and meditational practices), and more recently, even television and radio evangelists have forecasted and broadcasted the dates of the End (according to their own mathematical format). Alas, with some groups, it's been necessary to change the exact time with each reprinting of their books and church materials.

Why the fascination with the end of the world? This obsession is more than a personal curiosity for a great number of people. As I learned when digging through Mt. Everest quantities of texts, the greater the concerns are with a society (crime, violence, obscenity, poverty, disease, breakdown of the family unit, civil atrocities, war, etc.), the more concerned a population becomes with the End. Viewing the End and the New Beginning as a heaven on Earth, these same believers take solace in knowing that once this agonizing time passes, they will have deliverance in glorious, perhaps fairy-tale-style nirvana, a genuine Shangri-La. So they manage to cope, believing that in their next existence, life will be less painful.

As we approach the year 2000 and in the years that follow, the fervor, zeal and intensity for speculation on the End will probably become more passionate. We will see more cults come to the front, perhaps more horror as we recently experienced with cult suicides such as Heaven's Gate and others. I agree with the theorists who concentrate their studies on Doomsday prophets, sects and cults and believe this is exactly what will happen. (Unless, of course, it is the End and an end- times is right.)

When will the End come? When is Doomsday? Will anyone survive to tell about D-Day? Or more importantly, will it come? Who'll be right about the End? Does anyone really have "special" knowledge?

These are the questions I investigated while writing Eve of Destruction. Yet one question opened the door wider for more and the conclusion, to me, seemed simple. Rather than write The History of the End, Part I, the book I compiled provides "best guess" predictions, accounts, and philosophies along with those opinions from prophets, psychics, and church leaders who were miles off the target.

Throughout history, there have been many who have prophesied and charted the destruction of earth, sometimes to the End. Hellfire and brimstone, blood in the ocean, fire from the sky, always accompanied by shrieking babies and the hideous torture of souls has been the typical version. Jesus and the eloquent prophets of the Bible were not alone in this attention-getting approach. Confucius, Nostradamus, William Miller, Edgar Cayce, Elizabeth Clare Prophet and others sought to document the when of our demise, after discussing the why to the End. These learned oracles threw in plenty of gruesome details, guaranteed to produce the desired results of repentance in the most skeptical of interested Earthlings. Even today— right this minute—somewhere on the planet are people carrying signs and shouting: The End Is Here!

While I hold a doctorate in Eschatology, I chose not to write a Biblically based book. I wanted to emancipate free thinkers and provide a spectrum of Doomsday philosophies. Therefore, the prophecies of the Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, and Islam sects along with the Fundamentalists and UFO-ers have a chance for their day in the Doomsday sun . . . their time to speak.

I felt compelled to address beliefs of cults, sects, the occult and New Agers who channeled information straight from the spiritual beyond and other galaxies and put them shoulder-to- shoulder with religious leaders, scientists, environmentalists, skeptics and philosophers.

Until the End comes, I believe, conjecture is the only way to make sense out of the chaos. And yet perhaps by reviewing the past, we may be provided with a guidebook to future events.

Eva Shaw, PhD. holds a doctorate in Eschatology She is an award-winning writer with more than 30 books to her credit; she teaches writing through the Universtiy of California.