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On this Advent Sunday, churches of many traditions formally begin their preparation for Christmas. They focus today on the conviction that the Christ who came first in the weakness of a baby will come again in power and glory; and the world as we know it will end.

But it’s not only religious believers with their liturgies, and strange sects retreating to mountaintops, who talk these days about preparing for the end of the world.
Films, books and television series reflect a growing interest in an approaching Apocalypse – with titles like Armageddon, Oblivion, or Goodbye World. Alarmed by world events, some people have built themselves bunkers to increase their chances in the event of any doomsday they can imagine, while others pore endlessly over biblical prophecy to try to understand what they see as dark times. What are they waiting for, why are they watching for it – and do the rest of us need to worry?

Joining Roy to discuss TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) are Rev Byron Jones; recently retired as vice-chair of Prophetic Witness Movement International, an organisation which seeks to warn people that the time is short; Rev Dr Jonathan Black, who lectures at the Elim Pentecostal Regents Theological College, and reports that students are particularly eagerly to attend his lectures on the end times; Revd Professor David Wilkinson, Principal of St John’s College and author of a book examining Christian end times theology – eschatology – and its relationship with science; and Dr Susannah Crockford, an academic who’s studied apocalyptic communities and spent time with survivalists in Arizona.