Since the beginning of civilization, human beings have noted that everything in this world is not permanent, it is not eternal, it has an end: plants, living beings and all man-made constructions.

In their mythological wisdom the Greeks created the god Khronos (Time), which devours everything, and the aphorism that “nothing resists the action of Time” is popular and true.

Millennial observations also prove that geological phenomena - earthquakes, tidal waves, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornadoes, glaciation - promote drastic transformations or extinction of regions, sometimes with the appearing or disappearing of lakes, rivers, forests, mountains, deserts and even seas.

With these observations, consolidated over the centuries, man imagined - and mystics of all times have been proclaiming - that the planet will also disappear one day.

When this would happen, or will happen, it entered the role of interpretation of serious prophecies and admonitions, in addition to opportunistic predictions. Astronomy itself, based on scientific data, states that in fact, one day the Earth will die...

I will list some of these prophecies and predictions, naturally recording just a few data:

Prophecies

In the Old Testament there are several prophecies reporting great difficulties for Humanity, hence the millennial fear of the end of the world.

Here are some of these prophecies found in the Books of the Prophets below:

- Daniel (7 - 2 to 8, 17 to 27): Dreams of gigantic animals (lions with eagles' wings, some with four heads, others with iron teeth and with ten horns on their heads, trampling and devouring the whole Earth).

- Ezekiel (1 - 5 to 13): Heavens open, appearing creatures, each one with four faces (man, lion, bull and eagle) and four wings, with human hands under the wings; they were like living beings, with the appearance of burning coals, with the appearance of torches, living fire, coming and going like lightning; (5 - 5 and 12): In rebellious Jerusalem, pestilence and famine will consume a third of the inhabitants and the other third will fall by the sword;

- Zechariah (13 - 8 and 9): In all the Earth two parts will be cut off and expire. The third part will be taken by Jehovah, calling upon him the name “Jehovah is my God” and Jehovah will answer them: “It is my people.”

Apocalypse of John

In a passage of Revelation (18-7) John records that there will be “a decimation of a third of everything that was on the Earth: trees, green grass, creation, ships, rivers, springs and men”.

It is said elsewhere (8-1 to 16) that men without the seal of God on their foreheads will be cruelly tormented, desiring to die, but unable to do so.

In another passage (8–18) there is also a text referring to the extinction of another third of the impenitent...

John, the Exile from Patmos, following the Hebrew model of the prophets, sees the new Jerusalem (21–1): “A new Heaven and a new Earth”, meaning the purification of the Earth's atmosphere, where mountains and seas and all lands change places; this new Earth (22-5), in which only the “chosen ones” will inhabit, would constitute the “Spiritual Kingdom”, which “needs neither the sun nor the moon to give it light, because the glory of God illuminates it and the Lamb is your lamp”. (emphasis mine)

Note: Happy this humanity, in which the clarity of the world in which the good live is the light that comes from their soul. However, as a Christian, I find it difficult to match the destructive percentages of the Prophets, as well as the Apocalypse (2/3, or 66.6%). How can we forget the return of the Good Shepherd, the same one who, in the New Testament (Matthew, 18 - 12), left 99 sheep in safety and went to save the only stray (1%), ensuring that of the whole flock (100%) none would get lost?...

Opportunistic predictions

Mystics, religious, fanatics, pseudo-sages and opportunists have always made and make predictions of the end of the world, some under the influence of the Apocalypse of John or on their own. They are not based on the Apocalypse for its message, which is even frightening, lacking in delicacy and kindness, but rather they are based on the (Hebrew) model followed by John, from the Books of the prophets mentioned above.

They preach the end of the world with great and frightening fanfare.

They have no basis, but they claim to be “enlightened”, even setting a date for the world to end. Unfortunately, there are those who give them credit...

Elusive and innocuous, there are so many such predictions, or forecasts, that they don't even deserve to be mentioned here, let alone detailed.

Warnings from Jesus

Prior to the Apocalypse of John, the Evangelists Mark (13:28-37), Luke (21:29-36) and Matthew (24:6-41) tell with reference to a second advent of the Christ, that Jesus referred to the great tribulations that would precede the “coming of the Son of man”:

– persecutions because of Him;

– epidemics and famines;

– amazing things – great signs in heaven;

– earthquakes in various places;

– perplexity and dread at the roar of the sea and the waves;

– wars and rumors of wars;

— nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

Jesus warned: “This is not yet the end, for after these tribulations the sun will be darkened, the moon will no longer give its light, stars will fall from the firmament and the powers of the heavens will be shaken – only then – will the Son of man be seen, coming on the clouds with great power and glory.”

NOTE: Allan Kardec, in The Genesis, chapter XVIII, no. 10, and in a footnote, after clarifying that natural phenomena, such as meteor showers, may seem strange, he mentions the terrible epidemic that from 1866 to 1868 decimated the population of Mauritius. The epidemic was preceded by a rain so extraordinary and so abundant with shooting stars, in November 1866, that its inhabitants were terrified. From this phenomenon, the disease, until then benign, became a devastating scourge. “No doubt there was a sign in heaven, and perhaps in this sense the stars falling from the sky, of which the Gospel speaks, can be understood as one of the signs of the times”.

It is interesting to note that such warnings by Jesus predated the Apocalypse of John.

Next, Christ recommends us to “pray and watch”, for no one knows, neither on Earth nor the Angels of Heaven, which day it will be, and it is prudent that we are prepared for that reception. On that day, “his Angels, with a great blare (hard sound) of a trumpet, shall gather the chosen ones, from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other”; "then two will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left: two will be working at a mill, one will be taken and the other left."

NOTE: The statistics embedded in these words show that half of Humanity will inhabit this "New Jerusalem" - abode of the righteous of the Earth transformed into a world of regeneration. As for the other half, according to the predictions of the Spirit Saint Louis (question no. 1.018 of “The Book of Spirits”), perhaps it is made up of hardened and unrepentant spirits: despots, murderers, thieves, sensualists and hypocrites, who will inhabit lower worlds; about the emigration of hardened spirits to more backward worlds, it is found in “THE GENESIS”, by Allan Kardec, chapter XVII, no. 63 and chapter XVIII, no. 27. (That was almost a century and a half ago...).

Science

Science separates “the end of the world” into two aspects: the first would be the end of humanity and the second, the disintegration of the planet Earth.

In either case, it would be the end of the world. Of this world...

In the first case, life may eventually disappear, in a short time, either because of world nuclear war, global warming (a fatal greenhouse effect), or other serious human irresponsibility, in addition to a natural cause, for example: unavoidable collision with a large-sized asteroid.

(This article will be completed in the next issue.)