Apocalypticism is a worldview. It involves the idea that God is going to intervene decisively in order to bring this world to an end and initiate a new age. In this new age, the righteous will be rewarded and the evil will be punished. Furthermore, in the apocalyptic worldview we often find that those who are saved are the "elect." Put differently, some people have been predestined for life in the new age.
Jewish and Christian apocalypticism generally emerged in contexts of crisis. When things were going from bad to worse, when the powers in control seemed too evil to be addressed by human intervention, when the problems seemed so great that only a decisive act of God could make things right, people would sometimes see the situation as indicating that God would bring this world to an end and usher in the new age. This does not necessarily entail messianism, because the Messiah was generally thought of as a human figure, while the apocalyptic worldview envisioned a direct act of God. For example, Daniel 7.1-12.13 is an apocalyptic passage that was probably written in response to the oppressive policies of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (see the page on the Maccabean revolt).
Jewish apocalypticism generally looks for the coming of the new age in a single, definitive act of God. The literature of Jewish apocalypticism often has symbolic indications of the events that foretell the coming of the end.
Christian apocalypticism differs from its Jewish counterpart in that Christ is conceved as God's agent who has come to initiate the beginning of the new age. In the return of Christ, the kingdom will be fully consummated.
While "apocalyptic" describes a worldview, "apocalypse" describes a genre of literature. Works such as the Revelation to John and Daniel 7-12. A writing can represent an apocalyptic worldview without being an "apocalypse" in the strict sense. We will discuss the "apocalypse" as a genre when we come study Revelation.
We see other examples of the apocalyptic worldview in Isaiah 24-27; Joel; Zech. 14; Mark 13; and 1 Thes. 4.13-18.
Apocalypticism
