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The Ancient Roots of Doomsday Prophecies

How it Ends: The Ancient Roots of Doomsday Prophecies and End of the World Beliefs

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Hollywood’s obsession with the End of Times is not over yet – Armageddon, Deep Impact, Doomsday, Legion, Thor: Ragnarok and 28 Days Later, are just a few of the blockbusters, out of hundreds, that deal with mankind’s demise. And now, yet another apocalyptic film is set to be released. ‘How it Ends’ imagines how a sudden societal collapse could occur in the modern U.S. as a result of a geological apocalypse. But man’s obsession with the end of the world is not a new one. 

Doomsday prophecies are as old as recorded time.  For as long as humans have existed, there has been a fear of an apocalypse or ‘end of times’, when the gods wish vengeance upon their people, when humans pay for the sins of their fathers and forefathers, and when the demons of the world rise up and devour all that is good.  Prophecies of the end of times stem from the mythologies of civilizations past: the Norse story of Ragnarök, the tale of Noah and the Flood, and the Biblical apocalypse.  Though these civilizations are all thousands of years in the past, the same fear that drove them to make these myths—the fear of the unknown—continues to haunt the human race today.

Supposedly, the earliest prediction of the end of the world came from the Assyrians, a powerful Mesopotamian culture that lasted for roughly two thousand years.  A tablet was found dating back to sometime between 2800 and 2500 BCE that bears the first known prophecy of the end of days.  According to the translation, it claims that the earth was in its final days in those years, and that the world was slowly deteriorating into a corrupt society that would only end with its destruction.  Though it is not known who wrote this inscription, and where specifically the tablet came from, it is a fervent example of how far back in human history apocalyptic prophecies world began.

An Assyrian Tablet from 2800 BC bears the first known prophecy of the end of the world.

An Assyrian Tablet from 2800 BC bears the first known prophecy of the end of the world. Photo: Assyrian Tablet from Nineveh, northern Iraq. Credit: The British Museum

In Norse mythology, Ragnarok is a series of apocalyptic events that will define the end of the world, where giants of frost and fire will together fight the gods in a final battle that will ultimately destroy the planet, submerging it under water. According to the legend, the world will resurface, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors.

The downfall of the AEsir

'The downfall of the AEsir'. The heavens split and the 'Sons of Múspell' ride forth upon the AEsir at Ragnarö. The Norse apocalyptic battle, Ragnarok. (Wikimedia Commons)

Numerous other prophecies have appeared throughout history pertaining explicitly to the mortal fear of the ‘Second Coming of Christ’ —the belief that a day will come when humankind would be judged for all of their sins, and Christ would battle the Anti-Christ, Satan, and a False Prophet in the biblical Armageddon. The Four Horsemen, traditionally named War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death, will ride during the Apocalypse. Most, if not all, prophets claimed that preceding the enormous battle would be the Rapture, where the purest of humankind would be removed from the Earth before the battle between Christ and the Anti-Christ.  The expectation of this event and the fear of what would happen to humankind during it called for various people from numerous religious and ethnical backgrounds to try to predict the event so those alive could prepare for what they believed was an inevitable end, and so those soon to be born could be taught to live a pious life to survive such an ending.  The belief in Armageddon and the Rapture primarily stems from the Bible and biblical translators and interpreters, however the cryptic and symbolic language used in the text creates quandaries about the appropriate date and time of the so-called Second Coming.

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887. (Wikimedia Commons)

It was also feared for a long time that the year 1000 AD would be the end of the world.  Y2K created the same type of millennia fear, as it was assumed that the '00 of 2000 would be misread in computers as 1900 and create a bug that would force all technology to fail, causing worldwide confusion and tremendous destruction.  New millennia, years ending in '99, and the beginning of new centuries have all been subject to doomsday prophecies in the past, and the present era is no exception to that.  Uncertainties about the future continue to plague the human race, such as the recent belief that cataclysmic events would transpire on or around 21 December 2012, a date regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.

Mayan calendar on parchment.

Mayan calendar on parchment. Source: BigStockPhoto

More recently, there has been a doomsday theory put forward in relation to the four blood moons appearing in the twelve months between April 2014 and September 2015, which are said to be an indication of the end because such an occurrence is so rare.  Despite the advancement of the human race, and the technological tracking abilities at their disposal, new and unknown events and situation remain terrifying, leading many people around the world, known as ‘Doomsday Preppers’ to continue preparing for the ‘end of the world as we know it’, seeing such as efforts as a more ideal option than risking being blindsided.

It is clear that fear is the driving factor behind the prophecies of doomsday throughout human history.  The effort of mapping out the future—when the end will come, how the end will come, and who will survive it—is, and has always been, an attempt to outsmart circumstances that are not within human control and cannot be within human control.  Though many people know and understand this, it has never stopped humans from trying to predict the outcome.  It is safe to say that as long as life on earth continues to grow and thrive and even encounter devastating calamities, doomsday prophecies will continue to prevail.

Featured image: Depiction of Mayan Apocalypse. Source: BigStockPhoto

Bibliography

Boserup, Mogen, "Fear of Doomsday: Past and Present," Population and Development Review, 4.1, (March 1978), pp. 133-43.

Lemprière, John. Universal biography: containing a copious account, critical and historical, of the life and character, labors and actions of eminent persons, in all ages and countries, conditions and professions (E. Sargeant: BLANK, 1810).

Lewis, James R., "Doomsday Prophecies: A Complete Guide to the End of the World," Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 9.1, (August 2005), pp. 121-122.

Strauss, Mark. "Ten Notable Apocalyrses That (Obviously) Didn't Happen: Apocalyptic predictions are nothing new—they have been around for millennia," Smithsonian, November 2009.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ten-notable-apocalypses-that-obviously-didnt-happen-9126331/?no-ist=

Thompson, Damian. The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium. (University Press of New England: New Hampshire, 1997.)

By Ryan Stone

 

Comments

The earliest known undecipherable cuneiform writing is from around 23 - 24 century BCE and it is Akkadian and Summerian not Assyrian .... Assyrian empire came much later .... So how can this tablet be from 2800 BCE .... It is obviously based on a poor source or it is fake ...

Good comments all, but there is something being overlooked, and that is the ancients' universal claim, and reason for all of this mythological recording: As above, so below.

Otherwise, why bother? An eclipse, on it's own, is simply not a big enough deal to bother with so much hand-wringing. But, if very real, and still remembered, global cataclysms had coincided with such 'wonders in the heavens', then it seems much more plausible that entire nations would want to ensure their children were adequately warned and prepared. Just in case.

Moreover, as Graham Hancock has, I think, very convincingly shown, while there may not have been a flood quite in the way it seems to have been portrayed by the ancients, there was, nonetheless, a global flood, and that the continental shelves are proof of this.

Likewise the Tower of Babel. The mythologists now reveal that there was 'a' Tower of Babel. (Even the Egyptians recorded it in their own way.) And it did fall, quite calamitously. But we also find that many ancient sites were built around towers. And they all fell for one reason or another, sometimes under quite mysterious, almost 'heaven-sent' circumstances, such as at the site now called Mohenjo-daro, or the city of the dead. Could it be the real genesis of the Sodom and Gomorrah legend?

In any case, things seen in the heavens above were universally determined by the ancients to have very real, very clear, and often very frightening parallels on the ground, no corrupt, manipulating priesthood required.

No matter what the Tetrad of the Blood Moons does or does not do, the Godzilla El Nino is supposed to bring rains of near Biblical proportions nonetheless.

Time to wake up America! September is National Preparedness Month. Babylon the great will soon fall and three days of darkness will follow. Receive Jesus Christ into your heart to be protected from the wrath to come! Heaven and earth will be shaken and there will be chaos on the streets so please stay inside with your family tomorrow! Get into the ark before it's too late because you DO NOT want to be left behind. Many will have to die for their faith but will still go to heaven as long as they DON'T take the mark of the beast mandated by Obama through the NWO. All the signs are here and the Palestinians received approval by the UN to raise the flag and divide Israel. God will bring judgment to this world by 9-13 and the rapture will occur on 9-15. God bless and please click share so your loved ones can have time to prepare!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK5iXb8N7ds

Here it is people! This masterfully done bible code video is proof that the bride is taken out of here on September 15th! This is when the last blast of the feast of trumpets will occur. Please watch this to the end so you will understand what the blessed hope is. Thank you Jesus, we cant wait to see you in your glory!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMHSe_ufAkU

This is Your Message From God. You Have A Decision To Make Today that Will Have An Eternal Impact...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2TPeW_QBlE

If you are a Christian please watch this video to prepare yourself for the blessed hope and may God keep you and your family safe...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4xlzIT9qbA

In the book of Enoch is a scripture that tells when this world will end. It will end when God says it will end and could be millions of years yet in the future. It is about who killed Able, son of Adam and Eve. I think almost everything written in the bible has already happened even to the 'rapture' as written in Matthew chapter 27 starting with verse 51.This event happened all over the world. The only thing left is Revelations chapter 13. The Beast chapter. But is is what is IN your forehead, not on your forehead. One world system.

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Riley Winters's picture

Riley

Riley Winters is a Pre-PhD art historical, archaeological, and philological researcher who holds a degree in Classical Studies and Art History, and a Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor from Christopher Newport University. She is also a graduate of Celtic and Viking... Read More

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