Expert: Tom Schott - 6/22/2005

Question
Hi i was wondering if the statement on the last paragraph is true i think they are refering to revelation events?

Such findings are not surprising in an age of revolutionary advances in technology, researchers say.
"Any time of radical and rapid change is a great candidate for apocalyptic expectations," says Richard Landes, director of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University. "The idea that modernity is a runaway juggernaut that's leading us ultimately to destruction and only God can save us from it is obviously a tremendous stimulant to the apocalyptic imagination, 2000 or not, and will continue to stimulate the apocalyptic imagination after the passage of 2000."
Few soothsayers, however, are reserving an exact date for the end. Some Christian ministers are making vague predictions of a cataclysm somewhere around the year 2000. Many leave their calendars blank, warning followers to be prepared "at any time."
"Most organized religious groups -- denominations, churches and so on -- are going to stay away from formal apocalyptic expectations," Landes says.

"But all Christians, all Jews and all Muslims have built into their religion the belief that at some point all these things are going to happen."

Answer
Good question. The short answer is: no, that is not correct. As a general rule, you can discount just about any universal statement such as "All" or "None." The world doesn't work that way. In this statement there are four universals: all Christians, all Muslims, all Jews, all these things. And not one of the statements is true. Christians believe that this world will end when Christ returns. Period. We don't when and we don't know how. The Book of Revelation should be understood metaphorically, because that's the way it was written. The right wing of any of these faiths are literalists about their respective holy books. These are the people who believe Scriptures literally.