The end of the world- Should Christians look forward to it or fear it?

Editor: By look forward to, I mean what follows immediately after the end, that is, the second coming of Jesus and a new earth and heaven. The Bible tells in detail how the earth and a large part of its population will soon perish. World history and everyday news reporting confirm a lot of what the Bible says. Nuclear weapons in capricious hands like Russia’s Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong and Islamist forces in Pakistan and possibly Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, perhaps terrorists who finally manage to get their hands on the big bomb. Pandemics that no vaccine can stop. Perhaps the environmental threat, economic collapse, society-threatening crime can be added to humanity’s death list and even sudden mega-volcanoes, asteroids or comets are potential planet killers. We find traces in the Bible that can match what is described. Don’t forget the rapidly approaching control society with surveillance and preparations for the Antichrist’s introduction of the “mark”, this which the Bible says is required to be able to sell and buy, to function in society in general.

And how should Christians relate to this end of the earth, long for it or be horrified? Welcome or try to prevent? It is true that we should care for the planet given to us to manage, but the Bible still explicitly tells about war, seas that turn to blood and burnt nature, poisoned rivers. And it also says how Jesus restores everything, the earth becomes clean and whole again. So why this environmental struggle, whose radical measures threaten the economy back to the Stone Age? Why fight against this development at all? The Bible talks about to speed up the second coming of Jesus (2 Pet.3:12-13) and in Matt.24:14 it says “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”. Obviously it is about giving out the Gospel as long as “the day endureth”, that is, only then it is possible to do missionary work because when the night has arrived we are well into the Antichrist’s short period of “Tribulation”.

We can fight against the anti-christian development to get more time of grace so that more people can be saved, true. But this does not mean trying to save the planet and the environment. If we look at the early Christians in the Bible and later in revival history, their wholehearted focus was the salvation of souls, not the good of nature or even society because when people were saved, blessings came upon this other thing anyway. They were also not concerned with own houses, vacation homes, successful professions and prosperity or secure comfort. On the contrary, they gave such things away, so why not us, if it is God’s will, and then prioritize the spread of the gospel instead?

Many Christians need to choose now when the end of the world is actually approaching. To choose between our will or God’s, choose between this world and earth or the coming Kingdom of Peace and a new earth and existence, choose between the salvation of souls or the planet, choose between sacrifice or temporary comfort. What do you choose?

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells”(2 Peter 3:11-13).

Peter Kujala, Ostersund, Sweden.