The Promise of Doomsday

The book of isaiah foretells how the natural world itself will be restored with the arrival of new heavens and a new earth. This hopeful anticipation of the future isn't what most people associate with prophecies of doomsday. In paintings such as michael angelo's last judgment in the sistine apell, it is the abject fear of those rising to be judged that seize the viewer's attention. So it's understandable that when describing the threat of large scale catastrophe, people often end up reaching for a biblical word that evokes the end of the world most forcefully: apocalypse.