What does the Bible say about the end of the world?

There is a very definite feeling amongst the people of God that the day of grace is about to close. In the words of the prophet we may say, "The day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out." For the Christian, we may add, in the words of the Apostle "The night is far spent, the day is at hand."

There is only One who can deal with all the evil, end the sorrows of the earth, hush creation's groan, maintain the glory of God, and bring in universal blessing for man. Whether realised or not, the great need of the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church, is the coming of Christ.

These are the stages on our way to glory. First the meeting with the Lord in the air; then to pass in to the joys of the Father's house; lastly to come forth with Christ to share His Kingdom and His throne.

We may add, in the great eternity beyond there lies the eternal state in the new heaven and the new earth where God will be all in all.

The rapture, according to the evidence adduced from the epistles and the Book of Revelation, is but the pathway to the display of the glory of Christ, and of His people associated with Him in the glories of that day... The going in is therefore in order to the coming out, and the purpose of God in respect of His beloved Son will not be accomplished until all things are put under His feet.

The cross was the end of the world, morally speaking; God had finished with man, and therefore He says, "Now is the judgment of this world," &c.; it was the end of the world in that moral sense, the tryings and testings whether righteousness could be got from man are over; the righteousness has come down to us in the gospel.

"The heavens and earth which are now, by the same word" (by which the old world perished, being overflowed with water) "are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up."

"Seeing then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?"

"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

There is very little told us in Scripture concerning the Eternal State, by which we mean the fixed condition of things when the present earth shall have been burned up with fervent heat, according to 2 Peter 3:10-13, and the new earth and heaven shall have taken their place.

This word signifies a thousand years, and usually refers to that period spoken of in Rev. 20. The first resurrection will have taken place before these years commence, the saints who have part in this resurrection will be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with Christ the thousand years. During that period Satan will be confined in the abyss, or bottomless pit.

The Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, and creation, now groaning and travailing in pain, will be delivered from the bondage of corruption... "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid..." There will be universal peace and blessing all over the earth: instead of the invention of weapons of slaughter, the swords will be beaten into ploughshares.

As well as being the fulfilment of all God's promises to Israel, the millennium will be a trial of man under entirely new circumstances. And no sooner will Satan, released from his prison, go forth to deceive the nations, than he will be readily listened to. They will be gathered to attack Jerusalem, but only to meet with their own destruction. Rev. 20:7-9.

A term not found in scripture, but often applied to the future, when the Lord Jesus will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, and be Himself subject unto Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. 1 Cor. 15:24-28: cf. Rev. 21:1-8.

"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." ... Already, even now, as being in Christ, the believer has passed into a new sphere, the sphere of new creation, where all things are of God, a sphere which was inaugurated and established, though ever in the mind of God according to His eternal counsels, by the resurrection of Christ. Now, in Revelation, we are permitted to behold the completion of this new creation. What had hitherto been the object of faith is now presented in actuality in the new heaven and new earth, wherein righteousness has obtained its peaceful abode.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" — full of profound, yea, infinite tenderness. It is God Himself, taking each one, as it were, into His everlasting arms, and in His great love wiping away every trace of the sorrows of our earthly pilgrimage. Then — "and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." ... Death, the last enemy, has thus been destroyed, and, together with death, all the woes, the sorrow, the crying and the pain will disappear, so that nevermore will a single cloud rest upon any heart of all the redeemed.

Nations only exist as the result of God's judgment upon men at Babel; so they disappear, and God will revert to His original thought and just dwell with men. He 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.