One of you told me recently about a pastor who one day visited a dear elderly member of the church. He decided to check on her salvation. He said, "Aunt Susie, do you believe in the hereafter?" She replied, "All the time, preacher, all the time. I go to the kitchen and think to myself, 'Now, what am I here after?"

That little story reminds us all that we have to specify what kind of hereafter we're talking about. This morning I'm talking about the long-term future of our world. I'm not referring to where each of us is going after death. I'm dealing with what the Bible tells us is going to happen when God brings earth's history to a close.

The primary Greek word used in the Bible for this subject is "parousia." It means literally "the coming of the King." The Bible teaches that at some unkno…