Myth: The End of the WorldAlmost every week, one or more of the paper tabloids in the grocery store display a headline about the "end of the world". So many preachers and Christian writers speak gloom and doom - an "end of the world" mentality. Either through nonfiction or fiction they speak of an atomic bomb, and huge meteorites destroying large cities in the US. When they run out of truth to preach or write about, they turn to fiction. God will not destroy the planet earth. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof (Ps. 24:1). Nor will God allow it to be destroyed by the atomic bomb. God is not going to destroy the mountains, valleys, and rivers with a great earthquake. God is now creating a new humanity and new spiritual realms within mankind. Let us look at the scriptures including the Greek and the Hebrew and see what they really mean.Hebrews 12:26, "Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." In order for us to go on to perfection, our individual earth and heaven have to be shaken. Our earth is our humanity. Our heavens are our religious ideas, philosophies, activities and comprehensions which must be shaken. These must pass away for a new order of heaven and earth to come forth. Our heaven is our mind; our earth is our body. This is the new heaven and the new earth, not the planet earth or the geographical heavens. Matthew 24:6, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." The end is not yet. The end of what? The kingdoms of this age, not the planet earth. It's only the beginning. The earthquakes and famines - speaking largely spiritual. When God begins to shake our earth, that is, our individual earthly nature, this is the greatest earthquake. The greatest famine has been a famine of God's Word (Amos 8:11). The kingdoms here refer to the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, the nation of God and the nation of evil. Yes, there are natural earthquakes and natural famines, but the large part of the scriptures refer to spiritual earthquakes and famines. We must read the Word of God for signs, rather than look to world events and listening to the 6 O'clock news. God spoke through Isaiah. "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." (Isa. 45:12). Isa 45:18, "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else". If God created the earth, why would He want to destroy it? Again, how does this line up with the nature of God? The planet earth doesn't belong to the devil and never did. You say, what do you do with the verse that speaks of the devil as the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:3-4). Here the word "world" is aion, prop. an age. In the ninth chapter of Luke, we read the account of where Jesus and His disciples entered a village of the Samaritans. but they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this, they wanted to call fire down from heaven to consume them as Elijah had done. Luke 9:55-56, "But he (Jesus) turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them...." So the plan and purpose of God is not to destroy people or the planet earth but to save men's lives. Matthew 24.3, "And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" The word "world" here in the Greek means "age". So many in Christendom want everything of this present world to come to an end so they can sit around on a cloud, with no responsibility, and play a harp and eat angel food cake all day long. Ps. 37:23, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way." God has the power and right to rule the earth as He sees fit- for His plan and purpose. He raised up Cyrus and He raised up Pharaoh (Isa. 44:24; Exo. 7:3, 13). And we know that Nebuchadnezzar ruled by God's divine order (Dan. 4:28-37). We have different "worlds" or orderly arrangements of things. We have the worlds of industry, business, agriculture, retail trade, wholesale trade, sports, entertainment, education, government at various levels, even the world of crime, the world of drugs, and others, each with subworlds within them. Again each world has its own terminology, its own unique methods of operation, its rules or laws, and its unique sphere of influence. As for sub-worlds, we have for example, the world of science, within that world is the world of physical sciences, within that world, the world of computers, within that world, the world of personal computers (PC), and within that world the world of PC software, and Internet. Again, each world or sub-world has its own terminology and methods of operation. As the Kingdom of God grows, the kingdoms of this world become or are absorbed into the Kingdom of God (Rev. 11:15). As a personal example, I do not have the interest in sports or entertainment I once had. Why? Because the things of the Kingdom of God hold more interest and influence in my life. The Lord had us sell our TV. We haven't had a TV in our home for about fifteen years. That's not a part of the world of my wife and I. Return to: |