When will the end come?

Here’s the $64,000 question (not adjusted for inflation):

And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

-Matthew 24:3 and 24:36 KJV

Jesus of course was correct: no one can know the day or the hour. But there may be things we do know that could be among the proximate triggers of the end. Here’s an example:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

-Genesis 3:22-24 KJV

We were driven from the Garden to keep us away from the tree of life. Eating its fruit after also eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would give us both of the attributes of divinity: the power to judge and punish and immortality. If we ever achieve immortality, we will become a direct threat to God’s authority. Do you think He would tolerate that? I don’t. I think that would precipitate the end.

Is there any danger that could happen any time soon? There is, if you believe people like Ray Kurzweil who predict that “the singularity is near”. The singularity of which Mr. Kurzweil speaks involves an explosion in human knowledge and capabilities which will result from the combination of man and machine intelligence. The new man-machine entity might then become immortal, and I predict that on that day and hour God will finally have had enough of our rebellion and will put an end to it.

That, my friends, will be THE END. And if Ray Kurzweil’s prediction for the timeline leading to the event is correct, it will happen within the lifetime of this generation.

[See also my 11/18/2012 blog post “Back to the Garden: End (for now)”]