When is the world going to end?
According to God's Word, the Bible, Planet Earth will never "end" in thesense of being forever done away with. It will, however, be radicallyreshaped by God's creative fire into a planet, or world, much different thanit is presently.
Jesus' disciples asked him in the Olivet discourse to tell them when theend of the world would come. Actually, they asked: when will be the end ofthe age? The question involved the end of human history as it had been knownto that point. That age about which they questioned the Lord is still goingon in our time.
Jesus answered by giving a list of prophetic signs that will precede HisSecond Coming. Christ indicated that the world, as it was then known, andis now known, would end when He returned. Revelation tells us that Jesus'Millennial Kingdom will be the next "earth age."
It will last 1000 years, after which time the Great White Throne judgmentwill take place, where all lost people of all ages will be judged andsentenced to eternity apart from God. Hell is their final place ofresidence, from which there will be no escape.
Planet Earth will then be remade into something more glorious than can beimagined or described by the humanmind, this side of Heaven.Peter, the apostle, through Divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives usjust a glimpse of Earth's ultimate destiny:
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which theheavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt withfervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnedup. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner ofpersons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking forand hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being onfire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a newearth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."(2 Peter 3: 10-13)God's Word promises:
"One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earthabides forever." (Ecclesiastes 1:4)
