Eschatology & Apocalypse

- Millions of Christain belive that the tribulation is a period before the Millennium when God's judgement is carried out on th world and humanity endures great suffering. 

- There are many millions who believe the doctrine of the tribulation is a literal and truthful description of what will happen sometime in the future. 

-During the Tribulation the antichrist will torture humanity, and god will go tto war against the antichrist.The Tribulation ends after seven years when God defeats the antichrist.

Most premillennialists belive that the church and religious believers will escape the tribulation altogether, through the doctrine of the Rapture. 

- The rapture is the event in which Christ carries the faithful believers off to heaven before the Tribulation and will be kept there until the battle of Armagddon is won. 

- The Phrase 'Beam me up,Jesus' is oftn used to desvribe what happens during the Rapture. 

- The doctrine says that Christ will come to earth and take all the true believers to heaven before the second coming. 

- The Rapture is described in 1 Thessalonians 4, which says that blievers will be "raptured" or "caught up" in the clouds to meet Christ in the air. This acts as proof of religious people being carried first by saying " the dead in the Christ shall rise first."

This again shows how it's those thatfollow God that will be rewarded by escaping the time of Great tribulation. 

Many Evanglical Christains such as brethren, folllow John Nelson darby in believing that the Rapture will happen before the great tribulation, sparing christains from a terrible experience. 

other christains belive that the rapture will occur during the Great Tribulation, or after it . 

- The Antichrist is the enemy of god who appears during the final years of the world's existence and takes over the world. He is a very powerful and evil ruler who pretends to be God and appears to perform miracles. 

Some belifs about the Antichrist are that:

-he or she is already living in this world and we will soon discover who he?she is. 

-the antichrist is an institution than an individual. 

some belive that the antichrist will take over the erath at a time in the future and will bring great destruction until eventually overthrown by Christ. 

the Christain doctrine of the antichrist is a development of a similar jwish belief, which makes it all the more regrettable that the antichrist doctrine has been used as a weapon of anti-semitism. 

Biblical refences for the antichrist; " and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come".( 1John 2:18)

- It is the belief that entry into the kingdom of god is not a future event, instead it transcends time. According to Jesus in the Gospel of John, "who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life"(John 5:24). 

- the implication here is that it has already happened- anyone who belives in Christ will not die, instead they are laredy in the Kingdom Of God.

It is an idea which is firaly common throughout the New testament. " because the kingdom of God is within you". Many biblocal scholars have suggested that it is a metaphor for the quality o life that a person leads. if we live the right life then we are living as god intends us to live- living under god's rules as subjects in his kingdom. 

Furthermore, they belive that our soul does not die with us but automatically lives on in Christ. our soul is there with Christ from the moment we start to believe. Death cannot separate us as we well simply lose the cloak of our physical body. Judgement is not a future event- it is immediate from the moment we hear Christ's word as it is the choice that we make whether to accept it, repent and belive  or reject it and continue as before. 

Jurgen Moltmann suggests that it is meant to be understood to be as bit of both- in many ways, the vision that Jesus preached regarding "thr kingdom of God" has been sarted, but not completed. 

According to Moltmann, eschatology is both 'now' and 'not yet'. what is started in the now will be fully accomplished with the return of christ, in the future, It is present in its spritual and mystery form, but awaits the return of Christ for its full manifestation. 

Jurgen Moltmann suggests that it is meant to be understood to be as bit of both- in many ways, the vision that Jesus preached regarding "thr kingdom of God" has been sarted, but not completed. 

According to Moltmann, eschatology is both 'now' and 'not yet'. what is started in the now will be fully accomplished with the return of christ, in the future, It is present in its spritual and mystery form, but awaits the return of Christ for its full manifestation. 

-The big crunch is one possible scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the metric expansion of space eventually reverses and the universe re-collapses, ultimately ending as a balck hole causing a reformation of the universe starting with another big bang. 

-It tells us that the universe's expansion, which is due to the Big bang, will not continue forever. Instead, ata certain point in time, it will stop expanding and collapse into itself, pulling everything with it until it eventually turns into the biggest blavk hole ever. 

-It could kill upto 90,000 people almost instantly if it does errupt. on top of this, the ash released would make it harder for people to breath, also it would smother vegetation and pollute the watr supply, leading to a food crisis for the rest of the world. 

After a super eruption, it can take up to 10 years for vegetation to start up again,dpending on the rainfallas this is the only way of clearing up the ash. 

when the vast heat generated by a volcanic eruption goes off, if it's in the wrong spot, the salt deposits are baked and released into the atmospheres as ozone-destryoing chemicals. 

The lack of protective atmospheric ozone was what caused many species to die from harmful radiation in past extinction events. 

the increasing concrn for the state of the planet and global warming has reaisd awareness about the destiny of mankind- the suggestion is clear that life as we know it is soon going to change as a result of our actions. 

sea level could rise between 7 and 23 inches by century's end.Rises of just 4 inches could mean the Maldives are lsot altogether and may flood many south seas islands and swamp large parts of southeast asia. 

Strong hurricanes, droughts , heat waves, wildfires and othet natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world. The growth of deserts may also cause shortages in many places.