END OF THE WORLD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4046, 11 May 1938, Page 4

END OF THE WORLD

WILL IT OCCUR IN 1940 ? VIOLENT TERMINATION PREDICTED. Earthquakes, eruptions, floods, and hurricanes will mark the end of the world, as well as wars, famine and dis- 1 ease, (says the World News). Among all nations there are many thousands who believe that the end will occur in 1940. In all parts of the world thousands of people are firm in the belief that the end of the world is approaching. The event that has been the hope and fear of the human race for centuries has always been the subject of prophecy. There have been periods in history when, in the belief that the world would end on certain dates crowds have gathered to wait or migrated to meet it. In some cases, fields have been left unsown because of the expectation, with resultant famine and misery. Within our own time, tens of thousands of people, stirred by the preaching of a prophet, camped on a moun-tain-side in Wales waiting for a cataclysm that did not come. Now being dismantled at Balmoral, in Sydney, is the Amphitheatre built by the Theosophists for the revelation of the Messiah, Whose coming was to be the beginning of the end. But if there is to be an end of the world at all on the lines accepted by those who say that the prophets have foretold it, there is much more reason for supposing that 1940 is the due date. In 1940, according to Jewish chronology, the sixth millenium ends, and there comes the commencement of the seventh or sabbatial period, universally referred to as The Millenium. The key to the problem sets themselves by interpreters of the Books of the Prophets is supplied in Psalms XC,. verse 4, in which occurs- the phrase “A thousand years in the sight of God is but as a day.” According to the Law of Correspondence (upon which men like Swedenborg have Written lucidly; the theory is as definite as that of Einstein’s), all things material have these correspondences on a larger scale, and also in spiritual matters. The years of human history (according to Jewish chronology), therefore, compare by thousands with the seven allegorical days of Creation, at the end of which came the Sabbath, the day of rest. So, after six milleniums of strife and labour is to come the Sabbath Millen’um, the Messianic Age. Actually something akin to a Messianic age has been visioned by ail human races. Confucius saw it in the future a period when the world, by orderly conduct, would have reached perfection. Various sects in India are lookng forward to it. Christians have taken the events prognosticated in Rev. xxi., 1 to 6, as a matter of future course. The definite belief in a disruptive change in the world accompanied by destructive storms, earthquakes and cataclysms of all sorts that will destroy the wickI—the 1 —the unworthy—has been known ‘liasm. ’v Christian leaders as Ter'be belief full endorsesecond cenbe a

mature children in the hope that all who might be born would be born to enjoy the blessings of the Messianic age. An essential prelude to the end of the world has been an Armageddon, s colossal conflict involving all nations Such a conflict was indicated on all the books of the prophets and followed by John in Revelations. Every big war therefore, stirred the interpreters of prophecy, but they mistook their Armageddons. However, right through the many hysterical outbursts, there have always been those who have held that the year 6001 of the Jewish calendar is the year that is really significant. So 1940 of the Christian calendar has its importance. Those who follow such beliefs have a lot of matter for their argument. The Great War fought partly on the traditional ground, and with the future of the Holy Land as one of its issues, may have ben the real Armageddon of prophecy; however, it may have been only one of those conflicts mentioned by the prophets as a prelude to the real Armageddon, a much more terrible affair, for which the nations of the world may now be frenziedly arming. As the restoration of Jerusalem is part of the grogramme the astonishing changes that have taken place in the Holy Land are, to the believers significant. They are, in actual fact, in the nature of a miracle, The Zionist Association was formed nearly 50 years ago, but up to 25 years ago, nobody regarded the idea that Palestine would ever be handed back to the Jews as anything but a dream. Then came the Great War. Both sides promised the Jews Palestine in the hope of securing their support. And now Britain having honoured the undertaking to some extent, Palestine, in spite of Arab opposition, is actually well on its way to becoming Jewish. With Armageddon and this restoration in their favour, the believers can find many other pointers —the decline of population growth to a stationary level being one. Room is being left in the world for the people who will never die. The abolition of death is one of the ideas held by some about the Messianic age. One theory is that out of chaotic conflict the Messianic age will evolve itself by normal methods; but this idea is rejected by many fervent believers who say that the world will be rocked by cataclysmic disturbances which will change it completely, producing veritably “a new heaven and a new

earth.” “Mountains will fall down into the sea; the earth shall open and multitudes shall be engulfed therein.” Earth upheavels will be followed by disease and famine and millions will perish in floods. But out of the turmoil will come a “new world” —a fine world for the survivors. People will have a lot to endure before they will be able to regard themselves as survivors, however. And the date for all this to really commence is 1940.