The End

The phrase, "the end," often carries with it a sense of loss or fear, particularly when it refers to the end of life. We know that no one gets out of this life alive, but the notion of death is still a major fear. Eschatology is the word Christians use to talk about the study of the "end times." Others refer to "the Apocalypse" and refer to anything of great disaaster as "apocalyptic." You'd think that Christians would embrace the concepts of death and the end times, but even Christians fear those ideas. Why is that?

Biblically "the end" has two possible outcomes. One is eternal life with God and the other is eternal death without God. Sometimes we minimize those into "heaven" and "hell" and that's not necessarily incorrect; it's just not the whole picture. "Heaven" is a shiny place with clouds and harps and streets of gold and, frankly, a lot of us think that would be boring before long. "Hell" is a place of fire and a lot of them think that's just plain silly. But an eternity in the presence of God can never be boring and "a place of fire" cannot begin to express the torment of an eternity without God.

Do you know where the term "apocalypse" comes from? It is the Greek word ἀποκάλυψις -- apokalupsis -- that is the word that gives us the title of the last book of the Bible -- Revelation. Our culture sees "apocalypse" as disaster; John saw it as "The revelation of Jesus Christ" (Rev 1:1). And if Jesus was right -- the world hates Him (John 15:24) -- I can see how the world would combine the revelation of Christ with disaster. But, of course, while Jesus was not wrong, people don't equate the two together because of Jesus. They do it because the Revelation speaks of the end. And that's bad ... to them. So that's the question, isn't it? Do you love this world so much that an eternity with God is bad? Or terrifying? That's a problem. Do you find Paul a bit insane when he says "to die is gain" (Php 1:21)? That's a problem. Consider it from this perspective. If you were told that heaven would be a place of joy and no more tears or sickness and all that, but Jesus would not be there, would you want to go? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Your gut response to "the end" might be a good test of where your treasure is.