“Apocalypticism” [refers] to an ancient Jewish and Christian world view that maintained that there were two fundamental components of reality, good and evil, with everything in the world aligned on one side or the other (God vs. the devil, the angels vs. the demons, life vs. death, etc). This dualistic perspective applied to human history: the present age was seen to be evil, controlled by the devil and his forces, whereas the age to come would be good, controlled by God. According to this view, there was to be a cataclysmic break between these ages, when God would destroy the forces of evil to bring in his kingdom. At that time there would be a judgment of all beings, both living and dead. This judgment was imminent.
- [Dr. Bart D. Ehrman](http://ehrmanblog.org/apocalypticism-and-apocalypses/)
One of the popular answers [to the question of why G-d allowed Israel to be ruled by foreign heathens] was given by ancient Jewish prophets, including those whose writings were later canonized in the Hebrew Bible, prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea. According to these authors, Israel continued to suffer military and political setbacks because it had disobeyed God. He was still their God and he remained the all-powerful ruler of the world, able to dictate the course of human events. But the people of Israel had sinned against him, and their mili- tary defeats and economic disasters represented God's punishment for their sins. According to the prophets, if the people would only return to the ways of God, and again become devoted to keeping his Law, he would relent and establish them once more as a sovereign power in their own land.
This basic point of view has always been popular, not only among Jews but also among Christians: people suffer because they have sinned, and this is their punishment. Some Jewish thinkers eventually became dissatisfied with this answer, however, because it could not adequately explain historical realities. For in fact it was not only the sinners who suffered, but people who were righteous as well. And matters never improved even when people did repent and return to God and commit themselves to keeping his Law. Why would Israel continue to suffer after it returned to God, while other nations that made no effort to please him prospered?
Around the time of the Maccabean revolt, when the oppressive policies of Antiochus Epiphanes became too much for many Jews in Palestine to bear, when they were forbidden on pain of death from keeping the Law of Moses, some of them came up with another solution. In their view, the suffering of God's people could not be explained as a penalty for their sin. God surely would not punish his people for doing what was right, for keeping his laws, for example. Why, then, did the people suffer? There must have been some other supernaturalagency, some other superhuman power that was responsible. God was not making his people suffer; his enemy, Satan, was.
According to this new way of thinking, God was still in control of this world in some ultimate sense. But for unknown and mysterious reasons he had temporarily relinquished his control to the forces of evil that opposed him. This state of affairs, however, was not to last forever. Quite soon, God would reassert himself and bring this world back to himself, destroying the forces of evil and establishing his people as rulers over the earth. When this new Kingdom came, God would fulfill his promises to his people.
This point of view, as I have said, is commonly called apocalypticism. It was an ideology that tried to make sense of the oppression of the people of God.
COSMIC DUALISM.
Jewish apocalypticists were dualists. That is to say, they maintained that there were two fundamental components to all of reality: the forces of good and the forces of evil. The forces of good were headed by God himself, the forces of evil by his superhuman enemy, sometimes called Satan, or Beelzebub, or the Devil. On the side of God were the good angels; on the side of the Devil were the demons. On the side of God were righteousness and life; on the side of the Devil were sin and death. These were actual forces, cosmic powers to which human beings could be subject and with which they had to be aligned. No one was in neutral territory. People stood either with God or with Satan, they were in the light or in darkness, they were in the truth or in error.
This apocalyptic dualism had clear historical implications. All of history could be divided into two ages, the present age and the age to come. The present age was the age of sin and evil, when the powers of darkness were in the ascendency, when those who sided with God were made to suffer by those in control of this world, when sin, disease, famine, violence, and death were running rampant. For some unknown reason, God had relinquished control of this age to the powers of evil. And things were getting worse.
At the end of this age, however, God would reassert himself, intervening in history and destroying the forces of evil. There would come a cataclysmic break in which all that wasopposed to God would be annihilated, and God would bring in a new age. In this new age, there would be no more suffering or pain; there would be no more hatred, despair, war, disease, or death. God would be the ruler of all, in a kingdom that would never end.
HISTORICAL PESSIMISM.
Even though, in the long run, everything would work out for those who sided with God, in the short term things did not look good. Jewish apocalypticists maintained that those who sided with God were going to suffer in this age, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. The forces of evil would grow in power as they attempted to wrest sovereignty over this world away from God. There was no chance of improving the human condition through mass education or advanced technologies. The righteous could not make their lives better, because the forces of evil were in control, and those who sided with God were opposed by those who were much stronger than they. Things would get worse and worse until the very end, when quite literally, all hell would break loose.
ULTIMATE VINDICATION.
But at the end, when the suffering of God's people was at its height, God would finally intervene on their behalf and vindicate his name. For in this perspective God was not only the Creator of this world, he was also its Redeemer. And his act of vindication would be universal: it would affect the entire world, not simply the Jewish nation. Jewish apocalypticists maintained that the entire creation had become corrupt because of the presence of sin and the power of Satan. This universal corruption required a universal redemption; God would destroy all that is evil and create a new heaven and a new earth, one in which the forces of evil would have no place whatsoever.
Different apocalypticists had different views concerning how God would bring about this new creation, even though they all claimed to have received the details by a revelation from God. In some apocalyptic scenarios, God was to send a human Messiah to lead the troops of the children of light into battle against the forces of evil. In others, God was to send a kind of cosmic judge of the earth, sometimes also called the Messiah or the "Son of Man" to bring about a cataclysmic over- throw of the demonic powers that oppressed the children of light.
IMMINENCE.
According to Jewish apocalypticists, this vindication by God was going to happen very soon. Standing in the tradition of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, apocalypticists maintained that God had revealed to them the course of history, and that the end was almost here. Those who were evil had to repent, before it was too late. Those who were good, who were suffering as a result, were to hold on. For it would not be long before God would intervene, sending a savior—possibly on the clouds of heaven in judgment on the earth—bringing with him the good Kingdom for those who remained faithful to his Law. Indeed, the end was right around the corner. In the words of one first-century Jewish apocalypticist: "Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that that Kingdom of God has come with power." These in fact are the words of Jesus (Mark 9:1). Or as he says elsewhere, "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away before all these things have taken place" (Mark 13:30).
This final vindication would involve a day of judgment for all people. Those who had aligned themselves with the powers of evil would face the Almighty Judge and render an account of what they had done; those who had remained faithful to God would be rewarded and brought into his eternal Kingdom. Moreover, this judgment applied not only to people who happened to be living at the time of the end. No one should think, that is, that he or she could side with the powers of evil, oppress the people of God, die prosperous and contented, and so get away with it. God would allow no one to escape. He was going to raise all people bodily from the dead, and they would have to face judgment, eternal bliss for those who had taken his side, eternal torment for everyone else. And there was not a sweet thing that anyone could do to stop him.
- Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, [*Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium*](http://www.preteristarchive.com/Books/pdf/1999_ehrman_jesus-apocalyptic-prophet.pdf)