Finis Orbis (Eschatology Part 2)

REM once sang, "It's the End of the World as we know it, and I feel fine." The idea of an end of the world is not a new one, but it is one that can almost only be traced to Judaic origins.
Most ancient cultures viewed history as cyclical. If there were bad times, good times were always certain to follow. If one city was destroyed, another was rebuilt. With death comes life. All the cosmos followed a cycle that mimicked the seasons of the year. With every spring, there would inevitably be a summer and an autumn.
The evidence for this is seen in how some civilizations have no concept of the end all. The Greeks might talk of battles and deaths, but they never tend to move toward anything final.
Related to this is the notion of reincarnation. If we are in a cycle of reincarnation, then there is really no final destruction that the world is headed toward. As I mentioned yesterday, the Buddhists and the Hindus believe in a system of reincarnation. Similarly, Socrates, in the Phaedo gives us an account of the afterlife wherein souls are recyled, and Vergil, in the Aeneid presents an afterlife where souls eventually lose their memory until they are ready to be reborn into humans.
In fact, the only Pagan belief system that comes to mind when talking about some sort of end of history is the religion of the Vikings, wherein the earth is consumed in fire and flood in the final battle between the gods called Ragnarok.
But Monotheists have always had an idea of history being linear. Things start off positively, like the perfect Garden of Eden. Following this, there is inevitable wickedness. Mankind continues in his path of sinfulness, only getting worse and worse until the final pivotal moment of history wherein God justifies the oppressed, punishes the sinner and restores perfection and justice to the earth.
There are numerous texts that illustrate this idea. In the Old Testament we have books such as Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah. In the New Testament we have passages in the synoptic Gospels, as well as in Galatians and the Revelation. These passages (with the exception of Galatians and the Gospels) are part of a literary genre called "apocalyptic." They follow a set pattern, but inherent in them are symbols, a final judgment and knowledge previously unknown to the world. There are other instances of apocalyptic texts such as the Gospel of Abraham and other texts from Qumran.
Now, to get towards the point. Many men for centuries have taken the symbols of these books, especially numbers and places, and formulated theories about when the world would end. It is obvious that the early Christians expected Jesus to return before most of them died. Numerous groups have arisen throughout history, foretelling the end of the world at a specific date. Among these are the present day Seveth-Day Adventists.
Every one of these groups claims to have seen the "signs of the times." Miller was certain the world would end on May 6, 1840. Some saw the Great Depression as a sign of the last days. During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation seemed to come straight from scripture.
More recently, there was talk that January 1, 2000 would be the second coming, and now it is some time in May of 2012.
It is obvious that time and again we have been wrong about when the world would end. Why should we panic? Why should we stocking up our bomb shelters? I suggest that we live our lives as if each day is our last, but not as if the world will end. Why should we cease living the call to be in the world simply because we have used some strange math to calculate the end times? As Jesus himself says in Mark 13:30 "Of that day and time, no man knoweth."