End of Days by Sylvia Browne

Posted by admin_akashic on Aug 9th, 2022 in Stories

deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended … Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life again, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life again until the thousand years were ended … And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations … to gather them for battle … And they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city; but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

It’s not hard to read those verses and understand why the cultural significance of a thousand-year period exists to this day, whether or not those who believe in that significance and are concerned about it have any awareness of the Bible at all.

Apocalypticism is a theory of the end of days that involves God channeling His wrath toward the earth with a series of cataclysmic events, then judging each human according to their deeds on Earth and finally taking His rightful place again as the Creator and Supreme Ruler of heaven and Earth.

Probably the deepest roots of apocalypticism are found in the Old Testament book of Daniel, as illustrated in the following excerpts:

I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea. The first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand upon two feet like a man; and the mind of man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side; it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth,

and it was told, “Arise, devour much flesh.” After this I looked and lo, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back; and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet …

A king of bold countenance, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great, and he shall cause fearful destruction, and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people of the saints …

An anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its ends shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed … and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator…

And there shall be a time of trouble … and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

And then there’s messianism, which revolves around the premise that at the end, a messiah (from the Hebrew word meaning anointed), or savior, will appear on Earth to lead the faithful and devout people of God from the suffering and oppression they’ve endured into an eternity of divine, peaceful joy. While the most obvious examples of messianism are found in the Christian and Jewish faiths, we’ll discover that there are other great religions as well that continue to look for a messiah to arrive before the end-time and deliver them safely into God’s arms.