Q & A — end of the world

Update 2021-02-07: old links removed.

Riverview Church runs a few Hot Topic nights each year, evenings when people can text in questions on a topic that churches tend to avoid as controversial of difficult. His Kingdom Come: Preparing for the End of the World was the topic — appropriate for the date (9/11).

Graham Irvine and I (Allen Browne) began by providing some background (15–20 minutes each), while the audience texted in their questions. You can listen to the audio:

• initial addresses, with notes (PDF),
• responses to the questions.

The questions we addressed:

1. What signs will tell us the end is near? What signs should we look for? Why are people so intrigued by looking for signs?
2. Who is the “antichrist”? What does this term mean? How does this fit into the story?
3. If you believe that God wants to restore the earth, how does 2 Peter 3:10 relate? That verse talks about everything being burnt up.
4. What’s the point of preaching the gospel if Jesus is going to come back and make everything right anyway?
5. Why hasn’t Jesus already come again? What’s he waiting for?
6. What happens to sinners/non-Jesus followers at the final judgement and if they don’t go to a physical ‘hell’ – what happens to them/what was the parable about Lazarus and the rich man all about when the space the rich man was in was described as ‘hell’?
7. Allen, you spoke about there being no seas in the ending, because it is unruly, but God created the seas, so surely he is ruler of them, is he not?
8. Does 1 Corinthians 15:25 mean that everyone will have become a believer? What about Hell and Satan?
9. Will there be gender in heaven – male & female?

We’ll never satisfy everyone with a topic like this, but it’s still worth having the discussion, not least so we can consider how the end resolves the Bible’s narrative.