When will the world end? People have been asking this question . . . since the beginning. Virtually every religious tradition accounts for the end times. Christianity, with the Second Coming, is no exception. During the public ministry of Jesus, his disciples pressed him on this very point. “Tell us,” they say in the Gospel of Matthew, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus then provides some guidance as to what the end will look like. False messiahs. “Wars and rumors of wars.” Persecution of believers. The sun and moon no longer giving off their light. But he stresses above all the uncertainty. He will return like a “thief” unexpectedly breaking into a house. Indeed, He is coy about the exact moment: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So we “also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
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