The End Times: Canadian Inter-Religious Conference Examines “Visions Of The End Times”

Are all the signs pointing towards the end times ?

Majority of the religions of the world prescribe to ‘final days’, ‘last days’ ,’escalation’ and ‘end time’ and believe that world is destined to have an ultimate ending as we know it.

The scriptural prophecies vary a lot and self declared Messiahs, have time over time, come with dates of ‘doomsday’ also.

Those who believe in the linear pattern of existence think that everything has a beginning, middle and end. Thus the end of universe is inevitable. Since the development of the concept of ‘deep time’ in the 18th century, and  with that also the calculation of the estimated age of Earth has been debated, even though most of these predictions can be described as wild guesses.

However, the scientific discourse about end times has centered on the ‘ultimate  fate of the universe’; and theories ‘ such as -Big Rip, Big Crunch, Big Bounce and Big Freeze, have been included.

Some of the spiritual leaders, however, also believe think that the end of the world is a material issue and that people should not waste their time and energy in discussions about it.

The Hindu views of "eschatology" are related with creation and dissolution. Creation begins, they say, when Brahaman (God) makes his energies active and ends when he withdraws the energy. Hindus also believe that the process of creation and dissolution  is cyclic.

Judaism qualifies‘end of days’ makes reference of the Messianic Age, coming of Messiah and the resurrection of the brighteous.

Buddha said  that after 5000 years his teachings will be forgotten and that then a Boddhisatva named Maitreya will come and discover the teaching of dharma.

In  Christianity the  ‘end time’ is  addressed as a period of tribulation, that precedes the Second Coming of Christ, while others think that it also signals the end of personal tribulation, before they become enlightened with a Godly enlightened world government .

Islam in reference with ‘end times’  calls it ‘The Day of Judgment’ that is first preceded by the appearance of Mahdi mounted on a white stallion.

Professor Laura Duhan Kaplan of the Vancouver School of Theology organized this three days conference in May.  The theme of the conference was ’VISIONS OF THE END TIMES’.

Several scholars, academics, graduate students, sociologists and psychologists  presented a total of  nineteen  research papers.

For additional insights also read Daniel 12 : "End Time Events"