Apocalypse Does Not Mean War by George Wolfe

This article was originally published in The Star Press, Muncie, Indiana on January 9, 2012.

Welcome to 2012, the year of the apocalypse, or so it is for those who interpret the Mayan calendar to mean that December 21 will bring on the end of the world.  This prophecy is nothing new. Since the year 1800, there have been well over 100 predictions of Judgment Day. The difference is that since the 1970’s, politicians and religious leaders have increasingly used apocalyptic language, invoking images of Armageddon to stir up public support for a hard-line, militant political agenda as we move forward into the new millennium.  Such rhetoric greatly increases risk that the violent interpretation of apocalypse will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, even to the point of believing a nuclear exchange is inevitable. It is a belief rooted in an antiquated worldview that ignores reason and the discoveries of science.

Ironically, the linguistic derivation of the term apocalypse does not denote calamity or human-inflicted mass destruction; rather, “apocalypse” comes from the Greek word apokalyptein which means, “to uncover,” as if one were removing a veil. The prophet Isaiah uses the metaphors of veil and covering when he writes, “And the Lord will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.”  (Isaiah 25:7). The apostle Paul also applies the veil metaphor when he describes the veil that lies over the minds of those who are bound by the Law of Moses (2nd Corinthians 3:14, 15). In addition, the veil metaphor is also found in the writings of the Sufi poet Rumi, and in Hinduism where it is associated with the concept of Maya or illusion (lit. “that which is not”). Maya is depicted as a veil that shrouds the soul.

The root meaning of apocalypse signals not war and catastrophe but a sudden collective awakening, symbolized in the Gospel of Matthew by the “lightning” that “comes from the east and shines as far as the west” (Matt. 24:27). It is more akin to what in philosophy is called a paradigm shift, which is a significant and relatively sudden change in the way Humanity defines itself and its relationship with the universe.

Such a paradigm shift actually began early in the Twentieth Century. Einstein’s theory of relativity, Hubble’s discovery that the universe is expanding, quantum field theory, and DNA evidence demonstrating that humans evolved from a common ancestor, are all discoveries that are forcing us to redefine ourselves as a human race.

We can also redefine how we deal with international conflict.  Armageddon need not be our fate or our destiny. Exploitation and the depletion of our natural resources can be replaced with sustainability.  God may have provided individual salvation, but our survival as a human species is up to us. Let us make 2012 a year of interfaith cooperation and understanding rather than a year of religious and cultural conflict.

George Wolfe is the Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also a trained mediator and the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.