Your Belief in Something Higher

Lately, I’ve been feeling more and more that the world is going to end soon. I don’t envision an apocalypse in the way of zombies or a deadly solar flare, but rather I see it as such an event is described in the book of Revelation. I do believe in “the end times” and total destruction of the world. I think the biblical prophecies will come to fruition. Is that so crazy of me?

This also leads me to ponder death too. Everyone does. But now, I think more about how the idea of an apocalypse is actually comforting. That’s right: comforting and NOT scary. My reasoning is that if the book of Revelation is going to play out and be terrible and frightening and full of annihilation, then that also means the Rapture must happen too. I know not all sects of Christianity agree that believers will be taken up to Heaven before all evil breaks loose on Earth, but my American teachings have instilled this belief into me. And…I’m glad they have. Earth will be worse than all your worst nightmares, and Hell will be even worse than that.

I mean, really, if I freely choose to believe in God’s power and plans, I don’t have to fear death. I don’t want to sound flippant or self-centered or like that is my only motivation for believing, but I don’t want to fear death because then I can’t enjoy life. So, by simply believing that I could be raptured up to Heaven at any point in time–maybe even tomorrow–I don’t have to worry about the pain or emptiness of death. I don’t have to fear losing loved ones, because we’d all be leaving this earth at the same moment. I can live each moment like my last, without the worry that comes with it.

But there’s one main point I’m trying to make here: there are a lot of mental and spiritual comforts that come from believing in a religion. And that makes life–and subsequent death–less frightening and all-consuming.