Throughout history, men have come up with beliefs about what will become of them when they die and what will happen in "the end." Most early civilizations, including the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Greeks, focused more on personal death and afterlife, rather than the end of the world as a whole. Judaism introduced the idea of the Apocalypse as we know it, and this belief continued in Islam and Christianity. We will focus on the Christian Apocalypse on this site.

What we call "apocalyptic literature" today began in Judaism at the beginning of the third century B.C. Scholars believe that the apocalyptic literature arose because Jews believed that certain promises found in the Old Testament had not yet been fulfilled. Therefore, in an attempt to "rescue" God from the scourge of doubt, the Old Testament prophecies were pressed from the present into the future. This "end time" mentality, which "unveils" the future, was called by its Greek name, apocalypsis, which literally means, "unveiling".

The Christian Apocalypse was not made up by a group of people, however. God wrote it in the Bible, through men. Although some groups of people disagree over the interpretation of what is written in the Bible, the Bible is still the authoritative Word of God.

Religion is the major, if not the only, factor in what people believe about how the end of the world as we know it will come about. Even scientists are driven by personal persuasion. For example: two scientists can look at the same statistical data about the population of the world and one can say that there is a major overpopulation problem and that the earth is running out of resources and that we should stifle the birth of humans. The other one might say that there is no overpopulation problem and that we should not abort human lives. As you may be able to see, the first scientist is pro-abortion and the second is pro-life.

Science has now brought many speculations and theories unto the scene. These theories reject God and the Bible, which is not to say that these theories can't happen, but rather to say that secular science rejects God as the authority of the universe. Scientists of the 20th Century have given people more to worry about than ever before: overpopulation, global warming, nuclear war, and even killer asteroids.

Secular science is also unreliable. Things change constantly in the world of science. Why? Because we still have a whole universe to explore and explain and we are nowhere near obtaining all the pieces to the puzzle. The more pieces we find, the more we realize we have yet to discover. However, if you believe that the universe was created by God, you can rest assured that the Creator is in control. Those who believe in God have believed the same way for thousands of years and hundreds of generations.

The belief in evolution rather than the biblical account of the Creation affects what a person believes about the end of the world. Most people who believe in evolution also believe that there is no life after death. However, people who believe that they were created by God believe that He will judge them one day and that their souls will live forever, either with Him or separated from Him.

Before you go any further, notice that this site is split up according to Christian (the Bible and the Biblical Apocalypse sections) and Atheist (the Scientific Theories section) views. Though the authors of this site agree with the Christian philosophy, we decided to also include the Atheist opinion for completeness. With enough information about both stances, we hope you are able to make an educated decision about your faith.