Wall Street, Armageddon, and the End of the World

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October 10, 11:17 AM

by Dr. Bob Beltz, Faith and Culture Examiner

 

Sukkahs built on rooftops in Jerusalem for Sukkoth

The world is going to end: but, probably not today -  maybe next Wednesday.  That is the day Jews around the world will celebrate Sukkoth, or Tabernacles, a festival with roots in the days when the nation of Israel wandered around in the wilderness after their exit from Egypt, and had to set up little “booths” or tents to live in.  Because of those roots, the holiday is sometimes called the Feast of Booths.  When I was much younger I thought my Jewish friends were saying the “Feast of Booze” - which always made me wish I was Jewish!

 Some prophecy-savvy folks think that some year the Second Coming of Jesus will occur during this Festival.  His crucifixion occurred at the time of the Feast of Passover; the Day of Pentecost took place at the time of the Feast of Pentecost; and the only one of the three major Jewish feasts left is Tabernacles, which is also a harvest festival of “Ingathering.”  I personally always jokingly tell my friends to be especially good each year at this time.   Whenever the Second Coming occurs, and I believe it will, I would like to be near Bill Maher, just so I can see the expression on his face.

Regardless of your beliefs about the return of Christ, almost everyone knows that some day the world is going to end.  The question is when.  This is not even a theological issue.  The sun is a star - a yellow dwarf to be more precise.  It provides the conditions that make life on the planet possible.  But, stars have a life expectancy.  In about five billion years, ours will become a white dwarf, and then possibly explode as a supernova, or run down further and be classified as a black dwarf.  Of course, no one on this planet will be classifying it, since long before it becomes a white dwarf, the conditions necessary to support life on Earth will have ceased to exist – thus meaning that we will cease to exist!   So even the most hard-core atheist should at least acknowledge that “the end is coming!”

Of course, long before that happens, the probabilities are pretty high that Earth will get creamed by another meteor of the size that many of the same scientists believe hit the earth about 65 million years ago, destroying all life on the planet.  (One theory of what happened to the dinosaurs.) This also appears not to be a matter of “if”, but “when.”  Astronomers have been keeping a close eye on an asteroid they have labeled 1950 DA.  They tell us there is a one in 300 chance the asteroid (a kilometer wide) will hit the earth on March 16, 2880. (Science magazine, April 5, 2002)  When asked what the consequences of such a strike might be, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory replied, “Nothing good can come from such an impact.”  No kidding!  Just ask a dinosaur!!

Three hundred years before Jesus, the Mayan astronomers predicted the world would end on December 21, 2012.  I’m not sure how they reached that calculation, but if we make it to 2012, you might want to be real good on December 21, too!  Then there are the bees.  In 1994, a pamphlet distributed in Brussels, Belgium by the National Union of French Apiculture (the science of beekeeping) quoted Albert Einstein as saying:

If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.  No more bees, no more pollination….no more men.

The quote was contained in an article concerning the mysterious decimation of bee populations in Europe.  A similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming alarming proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.  The implications for the end of the world as we know it are profound.

Although there is some question as to whether Einstein actually made this statement, or whether a theoretical physicist should be looked to as an authority on entomology, the largest magazine in Europe, Der Spiegel, in an article appearing on March 22, 2007, referred to the quote as “Einstein’s apocalyptic vision.”

Over the last few weeks and months, the world has felt a little “apocalyptic” to me.  The Wall Street meltdown (which I have commented on in previous articles) shows how shaky the world we live in can be.  One of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” in the New Testament book of Revelation seems to be a symbol of worldwide economic collapse.  The horse is black and its rider is holding a pair of scales.  A voice in heaven says, “ A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius,” (Rev. 6:5-6.)  In biblical times, a quart of wheat or three quarts of barley was the average food needed to sustain an average family for a day.  A denarius was an average day’s wage.  You get the picture.  The voice also says, “but do not damage the oil and the wine!”  The meaning of this phrase has been widely debated through the centuries, but at least one idea is that since oil and wine are luxuries and wheat and barley are necessities, the economic collapse will devastate the normal working family, but the uber-wealthy will still live in luxury.  I guess that is the biblical equivalent of a “golden parachute.”

I made reference last week to the film City of Ember coming out this weekend.  My wife and I had a chance to preview the film this week.  I really liked it and so did my wife.  In my previous article I spoke about it as a metaphor for living an illusion and the search for light in the darkness.  The story takes place 200 years after what reviewers are calling “an apocalyptic destruction of the earth.”  We aren’t really told what forced the people of Ember underground, but you are given a sense that something catastrophic has occurred.  City of Ember is a dystopian story.  It gives a dismal view of a future world that does not work.  As the host of the preview was making a brief introduction, I thought that if I were introducing the film I might, tongue-in-cheek, describe it as a story that takes place 200 years after a sub-prime mortgage crisis has forced people underground because they have all lost their houses.  I wouldn't have done it, of course, because in all likelihood someone in the audience either had, or was about to, lose theirs. 

We live in challenging times.  Are we in the end times?  Maybe.  If so, things will get much worse before they get better.  I watched this morning as Harry Smith stood on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and referred to the current crisis as one of “biblical proportions.”  He pleaded for someone who could step forward and fix the mess.  Since part of the biblical end-times narrative predicts that just such a person will surface – with disastrous results! – I found his comments both fascinating and disturbing. 

If I have totally depressed you, let me leave you with some good news.  Regardless of how dismal of a picture modern-day pundits and prophets might portray, the biblical picture ends on an amazingly positive note.  This world will one day come to an end.  But, there is a world that is coming that will never end.  Even science seems to support this view.  The sun will run down.  This earth will perish.  But across the universe infinite numbers of “big bangs” will occur creating new galaxies and new planetary systems.  Will they recreate the conditions that enabled life on Earth?  I would guess that when you are dealing with infinity, the probabilities get pretty high.  As you ponder those scientific theories, add to them the Old Testament statement of a true prophet - Isaiah: “And of the increase of his government (Kingdom) and peace, there will be no end!” (Is. 9:7) and the New Testament vision of the revelator John, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…(Rev. 21:1) and finally, the promise stated four times in the final chapter of Revelation by Jesus himself, “Behold, I am coming soon.”

Oh….and be sure to be real good next Wednesday!

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