Eschatology

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Not to be confused with Scatology.

It has been suggested that End time be merged into this
article or section. (Discuss)

Part of
a series on

Eschatology

Christian
eschatology

Bibical texts

Book of
Revelation
Book of
Daniel
Olivet
discourse
Sheep and
Goats
Major figures
Jesus
Two Witnesses
Four
Horsemen
Antichrist
Different
views
Preterism
Idealism
Historicism
Futurism
Millennial
Differences
Premillennialism
Amillennialism
Postmillennialism
Other
Events
Chronology of
Revelation
Rapture
Seven
Seals
Jesus' Second
Coming

Last
Judgment

Islamic
eschatology

Good

Imam
Mahdī
Jesus the Messiah (Second
Coming)
Evil
False
Messiah
Beast of the
Last Days
Dhul
Suwayqatayn
Gog and Magog
Sufyani

Culmination

Resurrection & Judgement

Jewish
eschatology

The
Messiah
Book of
Daniel

Hindu
eschatology

Hindu
eschatology

Kalki
Kali
Yuga

Shiva

Zoroastrian
eschatology

Frashokereti
(eschatology)
Saoshyant

Inter-religious

End times
Apocalypticism
2012
phenomenon
Millenarianism
Last Judgment
Resurrection
of the Dead
Gog and Magog
Messianic
Age

v · d · e

Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Albrecht
Dürer.

Eschatology ( pronunciation
(help·info); from the Greek ἔσχατος/ἐσχάτη/ἔσχατον,
eschatos/eschatē/eschaton meaning "last" and -logy meaning "the study of",
first used in English around 1550[1])
is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology
concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the
ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly
referred to as the end of the world or the
World
to Come. The Oxford English
Dictionary defines it as "concerned with ‘the four last things: death,
judgement, heaven, and hell’".[2]

While in mysticism the phrase refers
metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine, in
many traditional religions it is taught as an
actual future event prophesied in sacred texts or folklore. More
broadly, eschatology may encompass related concepts such as the Messiah or Messianic Age, the end time, and
the end of days.

History is often seen as being divided into "ages" (Gk. aeons), an age being a
period of time when certain realities are present. An age may come to an end and
be replaced by a new age where different realities are present. This transition
from one age to another is often the subject of eschatological discussion. So,
instead of "the end of the world" we may speak of "the end of the age" and be
referring to the end of "life as we know it" and the beginning of a new reality.
Indeed, most apocalyptic literature
(and movies) do not deal with the "end of time" but rather with the end of a
certain period of time, the end of life as it is now, and the beginning of a new
period of time. It is usually a crisis that brings an end to current reality and
ushers in a new way of living / thinking / being. This crisis may take the form
of the intervention of a deity in history, a war, a change in the environment or
the reaching of a new level of consciousness. If a better world results, we say
it is "utopian". If a worse, it is "dystopian." Eschatologies vary as to their
degree of optimism or pessimism about the future (indeed, the same future may be
utopian for some and dystopic for others - "heaven and hell" for example).

Most modern eschatology and apocalypticism, both religious and secular,
involves the violent disruption or destruction of the world, whereas Christian
and Jewish eschatologies view the end times as the consummation or perfection of
God's creation of the world. For example, according to ancient Hebrew belief,
life takes a linear (and not cyclical) path; the world began with God and is
constantly headed toward God’s final goal for creation.

Contents

1 In philosophy

2 Empirical and Rationalist
based

3 Eschatology in
religions

3.1 Bahá'í
eschatology

3.2 Brahma Kumari
eschatology

3.3 Buddhist
eschatology

3.4 Christian
eschatology

3.5 Hindu
eschatology

3.6 Islamic
eschatology

3.7 Jewish
eschatology

3.8 Zoroastrian
eschatology

4 See also

5 References

6 Further reading

7 External links

[edit]
In philosophy

Eschatology has also been a belief shared, sometimes theorized on, by philosophers. Saint Augustine
stressed the allegorical method of interpretation. He was greatly influenced by
Origen.[3]
He was followed by Ibn al-Nafis[4]
and Hegel with their philosophy of
history, and, some (such as the author Albert Camus in 'The
Rebel') have argued, Karl Marx.

[edit]
Empirical and
Rationalist based

More recently, many involved in futures studies and transhumanism have noted
the accelerating rate of scientific progress and anticipate a technological
singularity in the 21st century that would profoundly and unpredictably
change the course of human history, and resulting in Homo sapiens no
longer being the dominant life form on earth, if the species survives at all.
The time estimate for the occurrence of the technological singularity has been
approximated to be about the year 2030.[5]
The statistical methodology for inferring a single or multiple near-simultaneous
technological singularities has been criticised for being quasi-empirical at
best, using questionable statistical methodology.[citation
needed] Part of the argument can be categorized as rationalist, not merely
empirical, as the conclusions are nearly tautological, similar to early
rationalist arguments for evolution by natural selection.[citation
needed]

[edit]
Eschatology in
religions

[edit]
Bahá'í
eschatology

Main article: Bahá'í
teachings

In Bahá'í belief,
creation does not have a beginning nor end. Instead the eschatology of other
religions is viewed as symbolic. In Bahá'í belief, human time is marked by a
series of progressive
revelations in which successive messengers or
prophets come from God.[6]
The coming of each of these messengers is seen as the day of judgement to the
adherents of the previous religion, who may choose to accept the new messenger
and enter the 'heaven' of belief, or denounce the new messenger and enter the
'hell' of denial. In this view the terms heaven and hell are seen as symbolic
terms for the person's spiritual progress and their nearness to or distance from
God.[6]
In Bahá'í belief, the coming of Bahá'u'lláh,
the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, signals the fulfilment of previous
eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity and other
major religions.[7]

[edit]
Brahma Kumari
eschatology

Main article: Brahma Kumaris
Beliefs

This section does not cite any
references or
sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable
sources. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed.
(April 2010)

The Brahma Kumaris believe
that the old world will come to an end, at the end of the cycle, through
extensive destructive events which will wipe out the whole population of the old
world. The end of the cycle is referred to as "the end". At the end of the old
cycle, a new cycle begins. When the new cycle begins, divine human beings will
take birth on earth and the population at the beginning of the new cycle would
be very small. The new cycle begins with the Golden Age and vices will not exist
in the new world. At the end of the old world, the vices would have increased to
such an intolerable state, at the end of Kaliyug or the Iron Age, and the old
world has to be wiped out because Man would not be able to endure the weak state
and the unhappiness that comes with it. The time for their existence has to end
so that a new kind of population can come and live on earth.

[edit]
Buddhist eschatology

Main article: Buddhist
eschatology

Some forms of Buddhism hold belief in cycles in which life span of human
beings changes according to human nature. In Cakkavati sutta the Buddha
explained the relationship between life span of human being and behaviour. As
per this sutta, In the past unskillful behavior was unknown among the human
race. As a result, people lived for an immensely long time — 80,000 years —
endowed with great beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength. Over the course of
time, though, they began behaving in various unskillful ways. This caused the
human life span gradually to shorten, to the point where it now stands at 100
years, with human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength decreasing
proportionately. In the future, as morality continues to degenerate, human life
will continue to shorten to the point were the normal life span is 10 years,
with people reaching sexual maturity at five.

Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a "sword-interval,"
in which swords appear in the hands of all human beings, and they hunt one
another like game. A few people, however, will take shelter in the wilderness to
escape the carnage, and when the slaughter is over, they will come out of hiding
and resolve to take up a life of skillful and virtuous action again. With the
recovery of virtue, the human life span will gradually increase again until it
reaches 80,000 years, with people attaining sexual maturity at 500.

According to Tibetan Buddhist literature, the age of first Buddha was
1,000,000 years and height was 100 cubits while 28th Buddha, Siddhartha Gautam
(563BC–483BC) lived 80 years and his height was 20 cubits.

[edit]
Christian
eschatology

Christian
Eschatology

Eschatology
views

Viewpoints

•
Preterism

•
Idealism

•
Historicism

•
Futurism

The
Millennium

•
Amillennialism

•
Postmillennialism

•
Premillenialism

• Prewrath
Rapture

•
Posttribulation
Rapture

Biblical
Texts

• The Olivet
Discourse

• The
Sheep and the Goats

• The Book of
Revelation

• The Book
of Daniel

Seventy
Weeks

•
Apocrypha

Enoch

2
Esdras

Key
Terms

•
Abomination of Desolation

•
Armageddon

•
Four Horsemen

• New
Jerusalem

• Rapture

• Second
Coming

• Seven
Seals

•
Tribulation

• Two
Witnesses

•
Antichrist

•
in Historicism

• Son of
Perdition

• The
Beast

• in
Preterism

Israel
& the Church

• Covenant
Theology

•
Dispensationalism

•
Supersessionism

• New
Covenant Theology

• Olive Tree
Theology

• Dual
Covenant Theology

Christianity
portal

v · d · e

Main article: Christian
eschatology

See also: Christian
eschatological views

Christian eschatology is concerned with death, an intermediate state,
Heaven, hell, the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the
dead, a rapture, a great tribulation, the Millennium,
end of the
world, the last judgment, a new
heaven and a new earth (the World to
Come), and the ultimate consummation of all of God's purposes.
Eschatological passages are found in many places, esp. Isaiah,
Daniel, Matthew 24, and the Book of
Revelation, but Revelation often occupies a central place in
Christian eschatology.

The second coming of Christ is the central event in Christian eschatology.
Most Christians believe that death and suffering will continue to exist until
Christ's return. There are, however, various views concerning the order and
significance of other eschatological events.

The book of Revelation is at the core of Christian eschatology. The
study of Revelation is usually divided into four approaches. In the Futurist
approach, Revelation is chiefly seen as referring to events which as yet
have not come to pass, but which will come to pass at the end of the age, and
the end of the world. This is the approach which most applies to eschatological
studies. In the Preterist approach,
Revelation chiefly refers to the events of the first century, such as the
struggle of Christianity to survive the persecutions of the Roman Empire, the
fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and the desecration of the temple in the same year.
In the Historicist
approach, Revelation provides us with a broad view of history, and
passages in Revelation are identified with major historical people and
events. In the Idealist
(or Spiritualist or Symbolic) approach, the events of Revelation are
neither past nor future, but are purely symbolic, dealing with the ongoing
struggle and ultimate triumph of good over evil.

[edit]
Hindu eschatology

Main article: Hindu
eschatology

Contemporary Hindu eschatology is linked in the Vaishnavite tradition to the
figure of Kalki, or
the tenth and last avatar of Vishnu before the
age draws to a close, and Shiva simultaneously dissolves and
regenerates the universe.

Most Hindus believe that we are living in the Kali Yuga, the last of four
periods (Yuga) that make up the current age. Each period has seen a
successive degeneration in the moral order and character of human beings, to the
point that in the Kali Yuga quarrel and hypocrisy are prevalent. Often, the
invocation of Kali Yuga denotes a certain helplessness in the face of the
horrors and suffering of the human condition and a nostalgia for a golden past
or a future salvation.

However, Hindu conceptions of time, like those found in other non-Western
traditions, are cyclical in that one age may end but another will always begin.
As such, the cycle of birth, growth, decay, death, and renewal at the individual
level finds its echo in the cosmic order of all things, yet affected by the
vagaries of the comings and goings of divine interventions in the Vaishnavite
belief.

Most Hindus believe that Shiva will destroy the world at the end of the kalpa.
Some Shaivites hold the view that he is incessantly destroying and creating the
world.

[edit]
Islamic eschatology

Main article: Islamic
eschatology

Islamic eschatology
is documented in the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad,
regarding the Signs of the Day of
Judgment. The Prophet's sayings on the subject have been traditionally
divided into Major and Minor Signs. He spoke about several Minor Signs of the
approach of the Day of Judgment, including:

Abu Hurairah reported
that Muhammad said: "If you
survive for a time you would certainly see people who would have whips in
their hands like the tail of an ox. They would get up in the morning under the
wrath of God and they would go into the evening with the anger of God."[8][9]

Abu Hurairah narrated
that Muhammad said, "When honesty is lost, then wait for the Day of Judgment."
It was asked, "How will honesty be lost, O Apostle of God?" He said, "When
authority is given to those who do not deserve it, then wait for the Day of
Judgment."[10]

'Umar ibn
al-Khattāb, in a long narration, relating to the questions of the angel Gabriel,
reported: "Inform me when the Day of Judgment will be." He [the Prophet
Muhammad] remarked: "The one who is being asked knows no more than the
inquirer." He [the inquirer] said: "Tell me about its indications." He [the
Prophet Muhammad] said: "That the slave-girl gives birth to her mistress and
master, and that you would find barefooted, destitute shepherds of goats vying
with one another in the construction of magnificent buildings."[8][10]

"Before the Day of Judgment there will be great liars, so beware of
them."[10]

"When the most wicked member of a tribe becomes its ruler, and the most
worthless member of a community becomes its leader, and a man is respected
through fear of the evil he may do, and leadership is given to people who are
unworthy of it, expect the Day of Judgment."[10]

Regarding the Major Signs, a Companion of the Prophet
narrated: "Once we were sitting together and talking amongst ourselves when the
Prophet appeared. He asked us what it was we were discussing. We said it was the
Day of Judgment. He said: 'It will not be called until ten signs have appeared:
Smoke, Dajjal [the Antichrist], the creature
(that will wound the people), the rising of the sun in the West, the Second Coming of Jesus, the emergence of
Gog and Magog,
and three sinkings (or cavings in of the earth): one in the East, another in the
West and a third in the Arabian
Peninsula.'"

[edit]
Jewish eschatology

Main article: Jewish
eschatology

Judaism
addresses the end times in the Book
of Daniel and numerous other prophetic passages in the Hebrew scriptures,
and also in the Talmud, particularly Tractate Avodah
Zarah.

[edit]
Zoroastrian
eschatology

Main article: Zoroastrian
eschatology

[edit]
See also

Philosophy
portal

Abomination
of Desolation

Ancient
Aztec eschatology

Antichrist

Apocalypse

Armageddon

End
time

Eschatology
(religious movement)

Eschaton
(disambiguation)

Götterdämmerung

Immanentize
the eschaton

Judgment day

Millennialism

Millenarianism

Messianism

Ragnarök

Realized
eschatology

Risks
to civilization, humans and planet Earth

Second Coming

Timewave zero

Whore of
Babylon

[edit]
References

^ Dictionary - Definition of Eschatology Webster's Online
Dictionary

^ Oxford English Dictionary

^ J. Dwight Pentecost. Things to Come. Zondervan
Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506. ISBN -10:
0310308909 and ISBN 9780310308904.

^
Dr. Abu Shadi Al-Roubi, Ibnul-Nafees As a Philosopher, Encyclopedia of Islamic
World.

^ "The Law of Accelerating Returns"

^ a
b
Smith, Peter (2000). "Eschatology". A concise
encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
pp. 133–134. ISBN
1-85168-184-1.

^ Buck, Christopher (2004). "The eschatology of
Globalization: The multiple-messiahship of Bahā'u'llāh revisited". In Sharon,
Moshe. Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Bābī-Bahā'ī
Faiths. Boston: Brill. pp. 143–178. ISBN 90-04-13904-4.

^ a
b
Muslim

^ Sunan
Imam Ahmed

^ a
b
c
d
Bukhari

[edit]
Further reading

This section may require cleanup to meet
Wikipedia's quality
standards. Please improve this section if you can. The talk page may
contain suggestions. (June 2008)

A Cup of Trembling (1995) by Dave
Hunt; Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon 97402; ISBN
1-56507-334-7.

Christ Will Come Again: Hope for the Second Coming of Jesus by
Stephen Travis. 2004 Toronto: Clements Publishing. ISBN
1-894667-33-6

In God's Time: The Bible and the Future by Craig C. Hill. 2002
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. ISBN
0-802860-90-7

Shock Wave 2000! subtitled The Harold Camping 1994
Debacle; (1994) by Robert Sungenis, Scott Temple, and David Allen Lewis;
New Leaf Press, Inc., P.O. Box 311, Green Forest AR 72638; ISBN
0-89221-269-1; Library of Congress: 94-67493.

Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life by Joseph Ratzinger.
1988 Washington D.C.: Catholic
University of America Press ISBN
978-0-8132-1516-7

[edit]
External links

Look up eschatology
in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

Karl
Marx: Communist as Religious EschatologistPDF (3.68 MB)

Christian Cyclopedia article on Last Things

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