astronomy

World to come

World to come is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand World to come rather than just read about it. In short: The world to come, age to come, heaven on Earth, and the Kingdom of God are eschatological phrases reflecting the belief that the current world or current age is flawed or cursed and will be replaced in the future by a better world, age, or paradise. The concept is related to, but differs from, the concepts of heaven or the afterlife in that heaven is another place or state of existence generally seen as above the w…

Key takeaways

World to come belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect World to come to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of World to come from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The world to come, age to come, heaven on Earth, and the Kingdom of God are eschatological phrases reflecting the belief that the current world or current age is flawed or cursed and will be replaced in the future by a better world, age, or paradise. The concept is related to, but differs from, the concepts of heaven or the afterlife in that heaven is another place or state of existence generally seen as above the world, and the afterlife is generally an individual's continued existence after death. The following section reviews religions chronologically by date of the composition of various religious texts, from oldest to most recent, although the chronology of ancient religions is not known with certainty. Later dates are more certain than earlier dates.

Zoroastrian eschatology

In Zoroastrian eschatology, the world to come is the frashokereti, where the saoshyant will bring about a resurrection of the dead in the bodies they had before they died. This is followed by a last judgment. The yazatas Airyaman and Atar will melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and the molten metal will then flow across the earth like a river. All humankind—both the living and the resurrected dead—will be required to wade through that river, but for the righteous (ashavan) it will seem to be a river of warm milk, while the wicked will be burned. The river will then flow down to hell, where it will annihilate Angra Mainyu and the last vestiges of wickedness in the universe. The saoshyant is first mentioned as a savior in the Yashts written around 625 and 225 BCE, according to some interpretations.

Jewish eschatology

HaOlam haBa (Hebrew: העולם הבא, lit. 'the world to come') is an important part of the afterlife in Jewish eschatology, which also encompasses Gan Eden (the Heavenly Garden of Eden), Gehinom and Sheol. According to the Talmud, any non-Jew who lives according to the Seven Laws of Noah is regarded as a "righteous gentile", and is assured of a place in the world to come, the final reward of the righteous. There is much Aggadic material relating to this topic. Much of this has been collected in popular form in Legends of the Jews, by Louis Ginzberg, discussing esoteric and mystical kabbalistic concepts such as Paradise, and the "higher" Gan Eden.

Christian eschatology

In Christianity, the phrase is found in the Nicene Creed (current Ecumenical version): "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." It is also found in the King James Version of the New Testament at Matthew 12:32, Mark 10:30, Luke 18:30, Hebrews 2:5, Hebrews 6:5. Other related expressions are "age to come" which is typically found in more recent translations, Kingdom of God, Messianic Age, Millennial Age, Golden Age, the New Earth and New Jerusalem, and dispensation of the fulness of times and possibly also eternal life.

Islamic eschatology

Both Sunni Islam and Shia Twelve Imams beliefs hold that before the Day of Judgment, the Mahdi and ʿĪsā would appear and defeat the Antichrist False Messiah (Al-Masih ad-Dajjal). The Mahdi's rule would be paradise on Earth, which would last for seventy years until his death, though other traditions state 7, 19, or 309 years.

Hindu eschatology

In Hindu eschatology the current age is the Kali Yuga, a period of decline. Kalki will appear to purge all evil, beginning a golden age of Satya Yuga. There have been a range of dates predicted, purportedly from different methods of calculation. Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra, for example, wrote 400 years ago in his Divya Maha Kala Gnana, or Divine Knowledge of the Time, that Kalki would arrive when the moon, sun, Venus and Jupiter entered the same sign. This is not a rare occurrence and last happened in early 2012, passing without event. The time of arrival of Kalki has not been consistently asserted by astrologers. The earliest copies of the Mahabharata that exist dates from 200 CE and is the first text to mention Kalki but was likely written in its final form around 400 CE. Kalki is also mentioned in the Vishnu Purana which has a contested date of composition ranging from 400 BCE to 1000 CE.

See also Messiah Messianism New world order (Baháʼí) Otherworld Possible world Problem of evil Technological singularity

References

Illustrations

World to come: Kalki with his white horse — Kalki with his white horse

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with World to come

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what World to come claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to World to come before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about World to come ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of World to come

In research: World to come appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses World to come in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: World to come is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biblical phrases, Eschatology, Nicene Creed, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for World to come outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study World to come in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what World to come means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain World to come out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is World to come in simple terms?

Why does World to come matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study World to come?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on World to come.