THE APOCALYPSE-TO BE FEARED OR HOPED FOR?

THAT use of the word "apocalypse" by a leading world figure reflects the way most people understand it and see it used in film and book titles, magazine articles and newspaper reports. It conjures up visions of a cosmic cataclysm. But what does the word "apocalypse" really mean? And more important still, what is the message contained in the Bible book named Apocalypse or Revelation?

The word "apocalypse" comes from a Greek term that means "uncovering," or "unveiling." What was unveiled, or revealed in the Biblical Revelation? Was it exclusively a message of doom, a harbinger of annihilation with no survivors? Asked what he thought of the Apocalypse, historian Jean Delumeau, member of the institut de France, declared: "It is a book of comfort and hope. People have dramatized its contents by focusing on its catastrophic episodes.

Next time: Early Church and the Apocalypse

Watchtower, 1999