Apocalypse How?

2 Peter 3:11

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be?

Dreaming of Doomsday

Imagine, if you will, the apocalypse. Are there zombies on your lawn, as you reach for your trusty shotgun? Or, maybe a mushroom cloud looms on your horizon, as you head inside for the nuclear winter. Perhaps, a comet is hurtling from outer space and colliding with the ocean, making dozens of tidal waves, kicking up enough dust into the atmosphere to make an ice age.

Overpopulation. Anarchy. Food shortage.

Such events seem surreal, and unlikely–though some of them are more plausible than others. In any case, the end of the world as we know it is not so far-fetched that an industry can’t capitalize on it. Indeed, there are supplies, and even houses, devoted to such contingencies. There’s even a show devoted to the “doomsday preppers” as they’re known.

But, why would someone do such a thing—pour their energy and resources into a “just-in-case” investment for a situation that may never come?

Douglass Rushkoff, author of Present Shock, argues that the apocalypse is a pressure release of a sort: all the little things that consume our days—from social media, to stocks, to work emails—they’ll disappear in the apocalypse.

Christian Preppers

But surely Christians are above such thoughts, knowing our eternal destiny. We would not prepare for a this-worldly apocalypse, as confident as we are that nothing in this world can save us from our personal—or collective—end.

We might scoff at some of the fears of our culture, citing our certainty that God is in control. Indeed, some Christians have gone on the record dismissing such fears as the catastrophic potential of global climate change or nuclear warfare, to the bafflement and seeming consternation of others.

Meanwhile, Christian apocalyptic beliefs seem outlandish to culture (or at least atheist Sam Harris):

“It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver-lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ. It should be blindingly obvious that beliefs of this sort will do little to help us create a durable future for ourselves – socially, economically, environmentally, or geopolitically.”

For Mr. Harris and others, the Christian view of the return of Christ is of no earthly good and may even cause harm. Indeed, if we gleefully welcome the apocalypse of nuclear fire, as he suggests, I am tempted to agree with him.

But, 2 Peter 3 seems to leave us little wiggle room: we must believe in an impending end of the world. However, I would humbly suggest it does not require us to embrace death and destruction as a means to a glorious end.

Let’s have a look:

 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” (v. 10).

And, “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’” (3-4)

And finally, the kicker: “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be?” (11)