Are we using the term 'apocalypse' in wrong way? [closed]

Solution 1:

The Greek word ἀποκάλυψις, which we transliterate apocalypse, originally meant 'revelation'. That's the sense which the book title gets its name from: The Apocalypse of John = The message revealed to John.

The word apocalyptic is also used to refer to a genre of Hebrew texts which use a lot of surreal symbolism and often talk about the end of time. In the Old Testament much of Daniel and Zechariah are written in the apocalyptic genre, and the book of Revelation is clearly strongly influenced by both of those books as it borrows a lot of imagery from them.

And because of the extreme prophecies of the book of Revelation, apocalypse has come to mean a cataclysmic disaster.

I think these are the three meanings of apocalypse in English, though the first one is really limited to theologians; only the second and third are common. It doesn't have the meaning of a victory of good over evil: Wikipedia is describing the content of the book of Revelation, not defining the word apocalypse.

Solution 2:

According to the Judeo-Christian Bible, the “Day of the Lord,” which includes all the events of the end times, involves both the triumph of good over evil (or God over Satan) and the destruction of the heavens and the earth. This destruction does not signal the end of human existence as we know it but the beginning of a new kind of human existence, the kind which God intended from the very beginning, prior to both the entrance of evil into the universe and humankind’s fall from grace.

The apostle Peter puts it this way:

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10 ASV).

In other words, the first creation, both heavens and earth, will pass away, and a new creation will take their place. Some biblical scholars prefer to use the term restoration and not replacement of old with new, but I would be the last person to quibble over how we should label the process. Call it a re-creation, a restoration, a replacement of the old with the new, a new beginning, a rebirth, or perhaps some other term or phrase.

The point is, what was once spoiled by the entrance of evil into the universe will give way to new heavens and a new earth. As Peter put it,

"Nevertheless we, according to his [i.e., God's] promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13 WBT).

The evils which we now take for granted as being part and parcel of life as we know it, including disease, natural disasters, death, world wars, ethnic "cleansing," violence and lawlessness, racial and ethnic hatred, sexual perversion, and so on, will become things of the past, never to be repeated. According to the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, righteousness will be the new order of things, the new norm, if you will. As the prophet put it,

"They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

As the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9 NAS).

The knowledge of which Isaiah speaks is not mere "head knowledge" of God, but a knowledge characterized by intimacy and a complete and perfect meeting and agreement of minds. Whereas here on earth now, even the best of saints struggle--and sometimes lose--in their battles against sin and evil, in God's eternal kingdom those struggles and battles will never again be fought.

What is true on an individual level will also be true on a corporate, global level. Nation will not rise up against nation. People groups will not antagonize, discriminate against, or eliminate other people groups. War will give way to cooperation, peace, and love. Again, as the prophet Isaiah predicted:

"And he [i.e., the LORD/Yahweh] will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. " (Isaiah 2:4 ASV).

Isaiah goes on to say,

"And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den" (11:6-8 ASV).

In conclusion, the complete triumph of good over evil requires radical change, and as difficult as it may be to accept, the Judeo-Christian Bible predicts that change will involve cataclysmic events the likes of which the earth has neither experienced before nor ever will again. Those events are to be expected, as evil will "not go gently into that good night."

Rather, Armageddon will mark the last attempt of evil to overcome good. At Armageddon's end, however, evil will take one last gasp, followed by its death rattle. God and good will then have triumphed over evil. Time will then be swallowed up by eternity. In the words of the "Hallelujah Chorus" of Handel's Messiah, which were taken from the Book of Revelation:

"The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever" (11:5b).