Between 20 and 22 percent of people in Argentina, Turkey, South Africa and the USA believe the world will end during their lifetime according to a poll for Reuters a decade ago. These countries’ anxiety levels are above average but “nearly 15 percent of people worldwide believed the world will end during their lifetime”.

“Whether they think it will come to an end through climate change, the hands of God, a natural disaster or  political events, whatever the reason, one in seven thinks the end of the world is coming,” said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll of 16,262 people in more than 20 countries for Reuters. 

This fear is not an old wife’s tale because Gottfried also said that people under 35 years old, are more likely to believe in a judgement day during their lifetime, or have greater anxiety over the prospect.

It is true that the world has not ended on any of the many previous dates that various Christian sects have predicted throughout the tumultuous decades of the 20th century. But there also are many millions of Christians, Jews and Muslims who do believe that the Bible’s and the Quran’s war of Gog and Magog (Gog u-Magog in Hebrew and “Yajuj amd Majuj” in Arabic) is coming in the 21st century. 

Many Muslims now have started to think of “Ya’juj and Ma’juj or Gog and Magog who are mentioned in the Qur’an in two places: in surat al-Kahf 18:94 and in surat al-Anbiya’ 21:96. Gog and Magog are also mentioned in the Biblical book of Prophet Ezekiel chapters 38-39. Many people believe that “Ya’juj and Ma’juj” is a generic name for some unruly, barbaric, uncivilized and non-religious people who caused trouble in the past, and will cause vast mischief before the end of our not so peaceful world.

The world will then be saved from destruction by Divine intervention working through several of God’s Messianic agents. Abu Hurairah reported that Prophet Muhammad said,” By Him in whose hand my soul is, Mary’s son will descend among you as a  judge. He will break crosses, kill swine and abolish the jizya (a tax paid by a non-Muslim community to a Muslim ruler), and wealth will pour forth to such an extent that no one will (need to) accept it.”

It is true that human society has changed more rapidly, violently and fundamentally in the last 200 years than ever before in history. Doctors saved the lives of millions. (Infant mortality in the United States decreased by 24.2% between 1999 and 2022.) Dictators sacrificed the lives of millions. Populations are exploding in Africa and populations are declining in Europe. Technology produces both worldwide prosperity and worldwide........

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