Astronomers argue whether the universe will keep expanding and cooling or whether it will one day contract and explode. T.S. Eliot thought the world would end “not with a bang but a whimper” (The Hollow Men). Christians who look to Revelation (a.k.a., the book of the Apocalypse) for answers to these questions miss the point of this New Testament book.
It is not attempting to teach us science; it is trying to inspire us with faith in God’s justice and hope in his mercy.
Apocalyptic literature has been a favorite genre of oppressed peoples who feel powerless in the face of unjust structures and authority. God’s justice will be victorious. But as the Gospel of Matthew says, “As for the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36). If the Son does not know it, who are we to try to predict it?
In the Christian community these days, there are at least two views of the end times, one optimistic and one pessimistic. The optimistic view believes that we are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to build the kingdom of God here on earth through our love and work for justice. We make the world a better place in preparation for the coming of Christ. The pessimistic view holds that humans are so sinful that no matter what we do, we will screw things up so badly that Christ will have to come again to save us.
Which position I favor varies from day to day depending on my own psyche and what I read in the morning newspaper. Yet it probably does not matter which position we take because we are still called by Christ to love our neighbor as ourselves whether or not the world ends in a bang or a whimper. “Happy that servant whom his master discovers at work on his return” (Matthew 24:46).
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