THE END OF THE WORLD AND WHY IT DOSN’T MATTER

THREE POSSIBILITIES ON THE APOCALYPSE

“No man knoweth the day nor the hour, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matthew 24:36)

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

INTRODUCTION

In every generation, the Church has heard voices proclaiming the end of the world. It is not surprising that such voices have multiplied in our own time, amid fragmentation of societies, a crisis of meaning, the rapid advance of technology, demographic decline, the wounds of pandemic, and the alienation produced by consumerism and digital isolation. These conditions feed the sense that we stand at the brink of something final, and they awaken in the human heart an old fear: the fear of death.

From the beginning of recorded history, religion has been humanity’s way of confronting death. Without faith, the awareness of mortality becomes unbearable, for if death is only extinction, life loses its meaning. Christianity, however, proclaims the most radical answer: death is not natural, not inevitable, not good, but the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). The Gospel is the revelation that God has destroyed death through the death and resurrection of His Son, and that every person is called to eternal life.

The Fathers insist that this is not merely wishful thinking, but the heart of the Christian proclamation. St. Irenaeus declared that the Incarnation and Resurrection secure the destiny of the whole human race, for “the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God” (Against Heresies IV.20.7). St. Athanasius taught that Christ became man “that we might become divine,” and in this divinization, death itself is overthrown.

Yet fear remains powerful, and in every age, it is fear that drives apocalyptic speculation. We long to know the manner of their death, or the means by which they might escape it. Young men especially, anxious for their future and their families, often gravitate toward teachers who promise answers to the terrors of history. In this way, movements of apocalyptic expectation arise whenever cultures shake and empires totter.

This too is nothing new. Christianity was born out of Jewish apocalypticism: the Book of Enoch, 4 Ezra, and the other apocalyptic writings testify to an age of prophetic anticipation. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God in a time when Israel longed for deliverance. The early Church lived in expectation of the Lord’s imminent return, and Fathers such as Sts. Irenaeus and Hippolytus speculated about the Antichrist and the end. In later centuries, particularly in times of upheaval, apocalyptic fervor flared again: during the collapse of Rome, in the Middle Ages, in the Reformation era, and even in the 20th century, when books predicting the end sold by the millions. Today, voices within fundamentalist Orthodox and other Christian circles repeat the same pattern, pointing to world events as signs of the end.

In what follows, we will consider three possible understandings of the apocalypse in the Christian tradition. First, the literal interpretation, which looks for the return of Christ and the final judgment of the world. Second, the metaphorical or psychological reading, in which the Apocalypse is the unveiling of each soul in death and judgment. Third, the cultural reading, in which the collapse of civilizations is mistaken for the end of all things. Each perspective has value, and if stripped of fear, hatred, and manipulation, each leads us back to the same truth: to repent, to share the Gospel, and to live in love within the Body of Christ. In approaching the end of the world in this manner, we see that it ultimately doesn’t matter: all that matters is a sincere practice of our Christian Faith, regardless of the end time scenario. Christ is Lord at the end as much as in the beginning, in death as much as in life. 

THREE POSSIBILITIES ON THE END OF THE WORLD: LITERAL, METAPHORICAL AND CULTURAL

LITERAL APOCALYPSE

The literal interpretation of the end of the world has always held sway among Christians who read Scripture as a roadmap for history. The Book of Revelation speaks of the Beast, the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, and the final judgment: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Revelation 21:1). Jesus Himself foretold signs in the heavens and distress among nations (Matthew 24:6–8; Luke 21:25–28).

St. Irenaeus of Lyons, in Against Heresies, argued strongly that the resurrection of the flesh and the return of Christ were not symbolic but literal, because God intends to redeem the whole creation, not merely the spirit. Likewise, Tertullian defended the bodily resurrection against the Gnostics who allegorized away the end. The Fathers understood that without a literal consummation, Christian hope could dissolve into vague metaphor.

Yet, the Church also guarded against idle speculation. Christ said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36). St. Augustine, who lived through the collapse of Rome, reminded the faithful in The City of God that while the Last Judgment is certain, its time is hidden so that every generation might live with urgency, but not presumption.

The literal apocalypse keeps alive the eschatological tension: Christians are called to “watch and pray” (Mark 13:33). The implication for our practice is vigilance, sobriety, and preparation through repentance, confession, and Eucharistic life. It is a warning against complacency and against entangling ourselves in the fleeting comforts of this age.

METAPHORICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL APOCALYPSE

The second approach sees the apocalypse as an unveiling (Greek apokalypsis) of what is hidden within the human heart, especially in the face of death. St. Maximos the Confessor taught that the Scriptures always operate on multiple levels: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical. Thus, Revelation can be read as a drama of the soul’s purification and glorification.

St. Paul writes, “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Every Christian undergoes a personal apocalypse in death: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). For each of us, the world ends when we die, and the light of Christ’s appearing will expose all that we are.

Philosophically, this corresponds to the existential realization that death is the horizon of life (Heidegger’s Being-towards-death), but unlike secular philosophy, Christianity transforms this terror into hope. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). In psychological terms, facing death without faith produces despair, neurosis, and even cultural nihilism. Faith, however, integrates mortality into a larger story of resurrection and eternal life, allowing human beings to live with courage, joy, and purpose.

Anthropologically, cultures that lack resurrection hope often descend into ancestor worship, fatalism, or violent sacrifice to appease the powers of death. Christianity is unique in its uncompromising rejection of death as natural, naming it the “last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26). The personal apocalypse, then, is the confrontation of the soul with its Creator, and the unveiling of whether we have lived in faith, love, and repentance, or in selfishness and denial.

CULTURAL APOCALYPSE

The third approach is historical and civilizational. Empires rise and fall. Babylon fell, Rome fell, Byzantium fell, and the modern West faces its own fragility. As the prophet Isaiah wrote: “The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away” (Isaiah 24:4). St. Augustine, writing after the sack of Rome, reminded Christians that no earthly kingdom is eternal; only the City of God abides forever.

Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West and Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History argue that civilizations are organic and cyclical. Today’s cultural collapse, marked by demographic decline, technological dislocation, and political fragmentation, fits into this pattern. When young men and women sense the instability of their birth culture, they mistake cultural collapse for cosmic collapse. What feels like “the end of the world” may, in fact, be only the end of our world.

Patristic voices confirm this: St. John Chrysostom warned his flock in Antioch not to despair when emperors persecuted them, for “the Church is not shaken, but stands firmer than the heavens.” For the Christian, the collapse of earthly structures is a reminder to cling not to nations, ideologies, or empires, but to the Kingdom which cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28).

Politically, apocalyptic rhetoric often emerges when states are weak or societies divided. Governments and religious leaders alike may exploit fear of the end for control. But rightly understood, the cultural apocalypse is a call for Christians to re-root themselves in eternal things, to preserve truth, beauty, and goodness in families, parishes, and monasteries: arks of salvation amidst the flood.

YOUNG MEN AND THE TEMPTATION OF APOCALYPTIC FUNDAMENTALISM

Among those most drawn to apocalyptic voices in our time are young men, adrift in a world that seems to have denied them a place. Many have grown up in fractured homes, without strong and present fathers to model manhood. Others are burdened by economic instability, entering adulthood only to discover that good jobs, affordable homes, and stable families are out of reach. The rise of feminism and the collapse of traditional courtship leave them feeling rejected by women and uncertain of their own role in society. In their isolation, many fall prey to addictions (pornography, video games, and destructive diets), that sap their strength, distort their desires, and deepen their despair.

In such conditions, apocalyptic fundamentalism exerts a powerful appeal. It offers a dark kind of hope: if the world is ending, then the injustices of life will be reversed in an instant. The enemies who mocked them, the women who rejected them, the elites who exploited them, will all be swept away in divine judgment. For the humiliated and overlooked, this becomes a form of revenge cloaked in religious zeal. “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10). The cry of the martyrs is twisted into the cry of the resentful.

But such apocalyptic fervor can also mask a deeper nihilism. To believe that the end is near can be a relief for the weary soul: no need to strive, no need to repent, no need to build or endure. They only to wait for the fire to fall. This temptation is ancient. St. Paul warned the Thessalonians against those who, convinced that the day of the Lord had already come, ceased to labor and lived in idleness (2 Thessalonians 3:11–12). He insisted instead that Christians must work quietly, eat their own bread, and live faithfully until the Lord comes.

The danger, then, is that apocalyptic fundamentalism becomes a cop-out: a way to avoid responsibility for one’s own sins, a way to channel anger into religious rhetoric, a way to despise the world rather than to love it. Christ did not call His disciples to curse the world, but to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14). Saint John Chrysostom admonished young men in his homilies not to use religion as a cloak for vice or resentment, but to let the Gospel transform their passions into virtues.

For young men in particular, the true apocalypse must be the unveiling of their own hearts before God. The discipline of fasting teaches mastery over desire; the labor of prayer teaches perseverance; the practice of almsgiving teaches love instead of resentment. The only way through despair is not to call for the world’s destruction, but to be remade in Christ, who said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

The Church must therefore speak to these young men with compassion, neither dismissing their pain nor indulging their bitterness. Their longing for justice, love, and purpose is real, but its answer is not in fantasies of fire and ruin. It is in the Cross and Resurrection, where injustice is overcome by mercy, rejection is healed by divine adoption, and despair is conquered by the hope of eternal life.

A BROADER PERSPECTIVE

Each of these three perspectives, the literal, the metaphorical, and the cultural, offers insight for Christian life. Taken together, they remind us that:

• The literal apocalypse urges us to vigilance and repentance.

• The metaphorical apocalypse calls us to confront death with faith in the resurrection.

• The cultural apocalypse challenges us to build enduring communities of holiness and love even as empires crumble.

St. Peter exhorts us: “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11). Whether the world ends tomorrow, or our own life ends tonight, or merely our culture collapses in a generation, the call remains the same: repent, believe, love God and neighbor, and “lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:12).

Thus, apocalyptic expectation, stripped of fear and fanaticism, becomes a gift: it teaches us not to cling to what perishes, but to seek the Kingdom that endures forever.

PRACTICAL ASCETICAL PREPARATION FOR ANY APOCALYPSE

The Fathers of the Church consistently warn that speculation about dates and signs is fruitless; the true preparation for the end, whether literal, personal, or cultural, is a life of repentance and holiness. St. Anthony the Great said, “Each day, regard yourself as beginning anew, and never let the sun set on your anger.” For him, the real apocalypse was the daily struggle against the passions and the constant remembrance of death in order to live rightly.

The main practices commended by Scripture and the Fathers are:

1. Fasting: Our Lord said, “When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance” (Matthew 6:16). Fasting disciplines the body, humbles pride, and trains us to live without clinging to perishable things. In times of cultural collapse, fasting reminds us that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

2. Confession and Repentance: The desert fathers taught that the one who accuses himself need fear nothing at the judgment. St. John the Theologian writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9). True preparation for the end is continual self-examination and reconciliation with God and neighbor.

3. Psalmody and Prayer: “Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments” (Psalm 119:164). Prayer is the heartbeat of Christian vigilance. St. Ephrem the Syrian’s Lenten prayer: “Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own transgressions, and not to judge my brother.” This is itself an antidote to apocalyptic fear, grounding us in humility and love.

4. Almsgiving and Charity: St. John Chrysostom declared, “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.” Generosity breaks the spell of fear and self-preservation that apocalyptic rhetoric often breeds. “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord” (Proverbs 19:17).

5. Eucharistic Life: Above all, Christians are to prepare for the end by partaking of the banquet of the Kingdom here and now. St. Ignatius of Antioch called the Eucharist “the medicine of immortality.” To receive Christ’s Body and Blood is to already participate in the life of the age to come, rendering all fears of death powerless.

Thus, the Church does not teach us to hoard, to speculate, or to despair, but to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age (Titus 2:12). We do not need to be afraid, try to avoid the Antichrist, or go to war in anticipation of Armageddon. We do not need to support the State of Israel in order to try to create the preconditions of Christ’s literal return, and in so doing, make Christianity and accomplice to anti-Christian Zionism. Whether the apocalypse comes in cosmic fire, in the closing of our eyes in death, or in the ruin of nations, the Christian is already prepared if he has died daily to sin, lived in Christ, and loved his neighbor. We live and die for the Lord, and thus we are unmoved, un-manipulated, and unwavering in our obedience to our God and King. 

“Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Luke 12:43).

COLLECT OF PREPARATION FOR THE END

Almighty and Everlasting God, who hast appointed unto all men once to die, and after this the judgment: Grant us grace so to watch and pray, to fast and repent, to give alms and to walk in love, that whether our end come in the fall of kingdoms, in the hour of our death, or in the great and terrible Day of the Lord, we may be found in thy Son, clothed in His righteousness, fed with His Body and Blood, and filled with His Spirit; that so, when He shall appear in glory, we may rejoice with exceeding joy, and enter into thine everlasting kingdom; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.