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found in other religions and beliefs.
    The Torah outlines some of the events that are at the heart of the End of the World for the Jewish faith. We’ll discuss these elements in a lot more detail over the next few chapters, but you’re probably aware of these, regardless of your faith. The Jewish people believe that as part of the End of the World the following will happen:

      The Jewish people will be returned to the land of Israel.
      A Messiah – specifically from the House of David – will lead the Jewish people.
      A new age of global peace will be ushered in, when all will accept and share the Jewish faith.
      The dead will be resurrected to share in the new world.

    This Jewish vision of the Endtimes gives us some new ways of looking at the End of the World: no longer are we just afraid of the world around us and the whims of angry gods, but we are also given a list of qualities to adhere to, a way of behaving which we should follow in order to avoid meeting our end when the Apocalypse comes.
    As the Abrahamic religions each grew in size, thoughts about the End of the World became contentious and exclusive: with multiple faiths and interpretations developing around the same books, there were suddenly different interpretations of the End of the World, with a promise that only some of us would or could be saved, and all the rest would be damned.

5
    THE MESSIAH AND THE ANTICHRIST

    While the notion that a single person can singlehandedly avert the End of the World is laughable, human culture has a fascination with heroic characters, from the gods of classical religions to the superheroes of popular culture in the twentieth century.
    As a people, we’re ready to embrace heroes and leaders, especially if they can save us from some awful fate – we’re also prepared to destroy them if they endanger us.
    Heroes aren’t confined to religious texts but their role in the End of the World is an important one, whether it’s Thor who singlehandedly slays dragons and snakes or Noah who builds the ark on which humanity can escape the flood. The hero doesn’t always have to fight battles or lead an army, but he is nonetheless a force to be reckoned with, one who will protect and unite humanity.
    This hero is a recurring part of the theories and thoughts about the Apocalypse, and for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, we refer to them as the Messiah. The arrival of the Messiah is an important part of all of these religions, with most religions awaiting his arrival as the culmination of their school of beliefs. With their origins long before a time of gender equality, most of these religions have been dominated by males for centuries, and the Messiah – and God – are usually discussed in masculine terms.
    For modern Christians, the Messiah is synonymous with the figure of Jesus Christ, who was born approximately 2,000 years ago and was hailed as the Messiah foreseen by the Jewish faith.
    Christianity grew around acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah: his teachings were added to the Old Testament, forming a new religious text that that became the Bible. These new chapters, the New Testament, discuss the life of Jesus and his followers, alongside the early days of the Christian religion; the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were written by Jesus’ own followers and specifically record his life, death and resurrection.
    Jesus fulfils some of the expectations around the Messiah, but not all of them. He was born to the House of David and there are many passages in the Bible that discuss how he was anointed with oil. The word messiah actually derives from moshiach , which literally means ‘anointed’ and was used to describe any leader who had been anointed with holy oil, whether a priest, king or other wise man.
    The details surrounding Jesus’ life, as recorded in the Gospels, focus on the fact that Jesus was not seen as the Messiah of the Jewish faith, ultimately leading to his death on the cross and with him