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"Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven"
ENDTIME PROPHECY

 

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy [the law], but to fulfill [prophecy]. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all [prophecy] be fulfilled."
— Christ Jesus

 

 

 


The disciples of Jesus believed that after his departure, he would come again in their lifetime, and soon after his return the world would end.

According to the Bible
The disciples of Jesus believed that after his departure, he would come again in their lifetime, and soon after his return the world would end. For that reason, the Gospels were not written until late in the life of their authors, as they had felt there was no need for a record to survive them.

The content and style of the four Gospels was intended to provide a practical guide that would give the student a way of escape from the material world. In the book of II Peter, we are asked:

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation [manner of living] and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (3:11-12)

Miscellaneous Statements
Below are a collection of miscellaneous statements concerning prophecy and the end of the world.

"The Second Coming of Christ," by Frank H. Sprague
Christian Science Sentinel, June 23, 1917

"We may well imagine his hearers' astonishment when he whom they had learned to know as 'The Prince of Peace' associated the coming of the Christ with scenes of turbulence and disaster of the most terrible description. What logical connection could there be between occurrences so diametrically opposite in their nature?

"...In this drama of unreality the material belief of tranquillity passes for true peace, which is spiritual, until corporeal sense, urged to the limit of self-deception by the judgment of Truth, experiences a reaction in the aggravation of peace disturbing beliefs.

"Metaphysically understood, 'the end of the world,' or 'the consummation of the age' (Revised Version, marginal rendering), signifies the passing of this suppositional, false concept of existence and all that it implies in the way of a material environment. ...

"Because he is so drugged with the beliefs of ignorance and apathy mortal man does not realize the necessity of escaping from the mesmerism of the senses until the situation becomes intolerable. It sometimes requires a terrific shock to rouse the dreamer to the point where he cries out in sheer desperation, 'What must I do to be saved?' In many instances a tragedy of the senses is the means of stripping off the mask of material illusions most unexpectedly and bringing mortals face to face with the spiritual facts of being. ...

"Never has mortal mind experienced such a general and thorough shaking up as is taking place today, and never before have channels for the word of Truth opened up with such amazing rapidity and in such unforeseen directions. The traditional order is suffering radical changes, and material calculations are being upset at every turn. The very belief of material law and order which has served to give a degree of stability to human concepts and institutions is beginning to disclose its inherent lawlessness and disorderliness in sinister ways. The suppositional forces of mortal mind are passing beyond the bounds of self-control and restraint and spending their counterfeit potentialities in self-annihilation. The inwardness of the fleshly mind is coming out in diabolical exhibitions of hate, cruelty, treachery, sensuality, as Truth brings latent forms of evil to the surface and compels error to show its hand. 'Wars and rumors of wars' bear witness to the chaos of sensuous beliefs as the spiritual issue is forced upon mankind.

"Mrs. Eddy says: 'The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.' (Science and Health, p. 96) In this crisis the student whose thought has been instructed in the letter of Christian Science and who has grasped something of its spirit, is prepared, like the five wise virgins in the parable, for the coming of the bridegroom; while the individual who is engrossed in the pursuit of sense-illusions is all at sea and at the mercy of crumbling beliefs. As in 'the days of Noe,' the reaction comes as a thunderbolt to the unprepared world of the senses, intoxicated with the lusts of the flesh, 'eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.'"

"Christian Science," by Alfred Farlow, CSD
The Christian Science Journal, February, 1904

"[Christian] Scientists believe that in our present unspiritual condition our concept of things is erroneous; but that our perception will improve as we advance spiritually, until we shall finally awake in the likeness of God. Then shall we see as He sees heaven and earth in all their beauty, perfection, and spirituality, and the false human view will have passed away forever. Scientists believe that the end of the world is not the end of God's creation, but the end of erroneous concept and abuse thereof, as indicated in John's statement, 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.' When the erroneous view (the first heaven and earth) shall have passed away, the true heaven and earth will be seen. When we see these as they are, the false perception will have passed away.

"Christian Science teaches that by pure and holy living we are to hasten the end of the world, not the end of God's creation, but the end of error, darkness, evil. All that is opposed to God, all that obscures the true concept of His creation, will be consumed by the 'fervent heat' of divine Truth."

"The End of Material Things," by Willis F. Gross, CSB
The Christian Science Journal, February, 1891

"Mortal man, in attempting to preserve the seeming good in materiality, retained also the evil; and 'error of every form emerged from the ark.' [No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy (1891)] The error was soon manifest, and still continues its seeming existence. The flood did not prove to be the remedy, hence the world now looks forward to the final destruction of all material things by fire."

"Winter: A Type of Life," by Zoe Seymour Loveland
The Christian Science Journal, July, 1889

"Prophecy points to heat as the agent of earth's final destruction. 'The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.' Science and Health gives the key to this in the declaration of the hypnotic conflagration in which mortal mind and all its projections will be finally destroyed."

"The Second Coming of Christ," by Ezra W. Reed
The Christian Science Journal, October, 1897

"'Peter, in his second epistle, divides human history into certain periods, which he designates 'The world that was;' 'The heavens and the earth which are now;' and the 'New heavens and new earth.' Here are three distinct divisions: That which was, was destroyed by water; that which is now, is to be destroyed by fire; that which is to come, is that wherein dwelleth righteousness. The discussion as to whether or not the water and fire are to be understood literally, can properly be omitted from this article. Jesus gives us to understand that there is a similarity between the two (Matthew, 24: 36-40): 'As in the days that were before the flood...they knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.' As has been already stated, Jesus coupled the coming with the end of the world. We are thus confronted with the fact that there is to be something sudden and unexpected."

"The Ark," by Annie M. Knott, CSD
Christian Science Sentinel, September 1, 1917

"After the deluge Noah was assured by ever present wisdom that a flood of waters would never again cover the earth; but as the history of the human race unfolds we find distinct reference to another sort of deluge, that of fire, which has undoubtedly come upon mankind at this very hour [i.e., World War I]. Some of the Scripture writers saw this as meaning the entire destruction of everything on the human plane; but Isaiah, whose clear spiritual vision never lost sight of the divine idea, wrote: 'When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.'"

"Editor's Table," by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, CSD
The Christian Science Journal, March, 1896

"To the sincere Christian Scientist the Kingdom of God is come, not shall come, — all that remains being its recognition by the people and their acceptance of it. God's Kingdom — the realm of infinite Truth — was never absent in fact; it has been absent only in the sense that mankind have not known and accepted its presence.

"...It needs but a casual glance at the condition of the world to-day to see the fulfilment of Jesus' prophecy as found in Matthew 24:

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . For nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

"But over against such seemingly gloomy forebodings are these glad assurances: —

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

"Let us then hail the upheavals both in the external world and in our own consciousness as happy omens, for they betoken the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. Surely the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory, all appearances to the contrary nevertheless, is cause for gratulation and rejoicing to all who have their armour on and their lamps trimmed and burning. The only cause for apprehension is the failure to be prepared for the coming."

"Editor's Table," by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, CSD
The Christian Science Journal, September, 1894

"...As additional evidence of the misuse of the word world, and of the error of interpretation to which its misuse has led, we call attention to Eph. 3:21. The Old Version thus gives it: 'Unto him be the glory in the church by Christ throughout all ages, world without end.' The Revised Version thus: 'Unto him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever.'

"Thus it will be seen that the meaning of the passage as rendered in the Old has been completely reversed in the New. Instead of having an endless world, we have a forever and ever. The authority therefore for an eternity of human error or false conceptions, otherwise sin, no longer exists so far as this rendition is concerned..."

"Editor's Table," by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, CSD
The Christian Science Journal, December, 1898

"The Divine purpose moves certainly forward, even though it seems at times to be in ways the opposite of those generally expected. It is manifest to the discerner of the signs of the times that the horizon is brightening. The day of humanity's redemption draws nigh. What if the clouds seem dark? What if there are wars and rumors of wars? These were prophesied by the Nazarene prophet as preceding "the end," — the dawn of the brighter day, the new era, which is surely coming, else the Bible promises are vain and Jesus' words idle."

"Impressions of Our Leader," by Bliss Knapp, CSB
We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, First Series

"Today people are greatly troubled over world conditions. We are taught in Christian Science that such conflicting forces indicate the breaking up of mortal mind's long-cherished beliefs, and we can rejoice at the overturning of error."

"Identity," by Zoe Seymour Loveland
The Christian Science Journal, May, 1888

"It is mortal mind which fears annihilation, because of the dissolution of matter. Truth, Spirit, does not require the garb of error, matter, in order to express individual forms, and give identity to each individual.

"We are nearing the fourth watch of the night. Already Truth, Spirit, stands on the shore, coming to greet, and guide into a safe haven, the children of the Father..."

More About this Topic
The following links explain in further detail different aspects of prophecy and the endtime.

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Prophecies
Study the prophecies of the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy concerning the end of the world.

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Millenarianism
This article explains how Christian Science differs from millenarianism.



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