What does the Bible say about the end of the world?
The Bible does speak of an end, but the passages that get quoted for it are not all describing the same event: some point to the close of the present age, others to the burning up of the material heavens and earth. Sorting out which is which — Matthew 13:39 and 24:3, 2 Peter 3, Revelation 20:11 and 21:1, 1 Corinthians 15:24 — is where the commentators put most of their effort.
A translation problem at the start
Several older English Bibles render the disciples' question in Matthew 24:3 and the harvest of Matthew 13:39 as "the end of the world." Commentators press hard that this is the wrong word, and that the context itself shows it:
William KellyI repeat also that the end of the age is not the end of the world. The phrase "end of the world" in Matthew 13:39 is a clear mistranslation... Far from being the end of the world, the very context proves the opposite. The Lord sends His angels and clears out of the field, or world, what offends Him. The evil is judged, the scandals removed... In short, the harvest that closes this age, far from being the end of the "world", will be the beginning of the world going on in blessedness under the displayed kingdom of the Son of Man.
Peter's three worlds
The passage that does describe the physical end is 2 Peter 3. One writer traces its argument as a sequence of three worlds, which also settles that verse 13 is not about the thousand-year reign:
Hamilton SmithFirstly, in verse 6, looking back to the days before the flood, he speaks of "the world that then was," and reminds us that, "being overflowed with water," it perished. Secondly, in verse 7, he speaks of "the heavens and the earth, which are now." Of this present earth he says it is "reserved to fire against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men"... Thirdly, he reminds us, in verse 13, that "we" — believers — on the assurance of God's promise, "look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness."
(These writers quote an older translation of 2 Peter 3:10, "the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up"; the ESV reads "the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.")
When it happens, and what is lost
Commentators tie Peter's fire to the moment in Revelation 20:11 when earth and heaven flee from the face of the One on the throne. What strikes them is not the physics but the inventory of what disappears:
T. B. BainesThe end of the world has now come. Before the face of Him who sits on the great white throne, the earth and the heaven fled away. Nature is dissolved, the present order of creation disappears, to make way for that new creation which God will bring in on the ruins of the old... All that man has been living for, the world and his own works in it, his riches, his greatness, the mighty monuments of his skill, the cities he has built, the empires he has founded, all on which his pride and his affections were fixed, vanish like a dream on waking — "there was found no place for them."
Commentators differ on the mechanism. One suggests the fire that falls in Revelation 20:9 may be the same act of God that produces what Peter predicts; another notes only that Revelation says the first heaven and earth "passed away," and that we must go to 2 Peter 3 for the detail that fire is the agent used.
Why nothing has happened yet
Peter says mockers will appear, arguing from the sheer sameness of things. One writer looks past the argument to what drives it:
W. T. P. WolstonIt is always when people want to follow their own desires that they begin to scoff. It may not be outward and gross desires, but man wants to be independent, to gratify himself, and so he thinks he must get rid of God, get rid of His authority; and he would be glad to get rid of God out of the scene altogether if he could.
Peter's own answer to the delay is put to work directly on the question of why judgment has not fallen:
J. N. DarbyIf it be asked why God waits so long before executing judgment, the answer is found in 2 Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." To Him a thousand years are as one day.
What replaces it
The last word is not destruction. In the eternal state, righteousness is said to dwell rather than reign, and one writer makes the difference the whole point:
F. B. HoleHe will dwell as their God in holy freedom because righteousness will then be dwelling, as 2 Peter 3:13 tells us, and not merely reigning, as it will in the millennial age. As long as there is anything to challenge its supremacy it must reign: when the last challenge is met, it will dwell in undisturbed repose.
The demand it makes today
Peter draws a moral conclusion from all this, and one writer treats it as a challenge rather than information:
F. A. HughesIn the enjoyment of this happy reality and in the anticipation of an eternity of unmixed blessing, may we accept the challenge of Peter's word — "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved (present things), what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God."
Summary
- Age, not world. Matthew 13:39 and 24:3 speak of the end of the age; that harvest clears the earth of evil and opens the kingdom, so it is a beginning for the world, not its funeral.
- Fire, not water. 2 Peter 3 sets three worlds side by side: one that perished by flood, this one held in store for fire, and the new heavens and new earth promised after it.
- Throne, not accident. The dissolving happens before the face of the One on the great white throne, and every human achievement — cities, empires, monuments — finds no place left for it.
- Patience, not slowness. The delay that scoffers use as evidence is God's unwillingness that any should perish; the mockery itself was foretold as a mark of the last days.
- Dwelling, not reigning. Righteousness will one day no longer need to rule over challengers but will simply live there undisturbed — and that prospect is Peter's argument for holiness now.