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Jonathan Kirsch

A HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD

How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization

For Ann, Jennifer, Adam, and Remy (Holzer) Kirsch,

Paul and Caroline Kirsch,

Marya (Kirsch) and Ron Shiflett,

and

Lillian Heller Conrad

“…inscribe us in the Book of Life…”

Itself a cabalistic book, the night was crowded with sacred names and symbols—mystery upon mystery. The stars looked like letters of the alphabet, vowel points, notes of music. The world was a parchment scrawled with words and song. He was surrounded by powers, some good, some evil, some cruel, some merciful, but each with its own nature and its own task to perform.

ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, The Slave

1. Something Rich and Strange

Revelation has as many mysteries as it does words.

JEROME

I know the ending,” goes the slogan on a license-plate frame that can be spotted here and there on the streets and highways of America. “God wins. ”

It’s a credo that pious Jews, Christians, and Muslims hold in common, although they might quibble on exactly what is meant by the word “God. ” But the plainspoken slogan conceals a profound and enduring mystery: human beings of all faiths, in all times and all places, have wondered when and how the world will come to an end. Nowadays, of course, the very same questions are being asked (and answered) by scientists rather than theologians.

For the Christian true believer, however, “the ending” refers to a scenario that is described in horrific and heart-shaking detail in the single scariest book in all of scripture, the book of Revelation.

The beginning of the end, according to Revelation, will be augured by mysterious signs and wonders—a black sun and a blood-red moon, the stars falling to earth, persecutors and false prophets, plague and pestilence and famine. Then the satanic arch-villain who has come to be called the Antichrist will rise to absolute power on earth. After seven years of oppression and persecution under the Antichrist, Jesus Christ will descend from heaven in the guise of a warrior-king, lead a celestial army of resurrected saints and martyrs to victory over the demonic hordes at the Battle of Armageddon, drape Satan in chains and confine him in a bottomless pit, and reign over an earthly kingdom for one thousand years.

At the end of the millennium, Satan will break out of his bonds, and Jesus Christ will be compelled to fight a second and final battle. At last, the dead will be resurrected, the living and dead alike will be judged, and the earth as we know it will be destroyed once and for all. The end of the world, according to Revelation, will be followed by the creation of “a new heaven and a new earth,” a celestial paradise where the Christian saints and martyrs will spend eternity in perfect bliss. Everyone else will sizzle forever along with Satan in a lake of fire and brimstone.