The central text in Christian eschatology is the Book of Revelation, composed around the year 95 CE on the Greek island of Patmos. After a great tribulation, Revelation tells us, Christ will return to resurrect the dead and preside over the earth; later, Christ will battle Satan, judge our souls, and bring the world to its final end. Christians have many dueling interpretations of this basic prophecy. Some identify the tribulation with historical events and predict Christ’s imminent return. Others think that the events of the New Testament were the prophesied coming of Christ and that we currently live in his kingdom. Most believe it all lies in the future.

Islam, the youngest major Abrahamic religion, inherited its core eschatological narrative from Christianity. In the Islamic version, a great caliphate will wage war against the Antichrist-like figure Dajjal, led by a descendant of Muhammad called the Mahdi. Christ, known as Isa in Islam, will arrive to aid the Mahdi, converting all Christians and announcing a period of just rule. Before the Last Judgment, a final showdown will occur with the evil forces Yajuj and Majuj, which appear as Satan’s helpers in Christian eschatology. Shia and Sunni Muslims disagree about some aspects of this prophecy — the Mahdi, for instance, is a much more important and mystical figure in Shia Islam.

Hindus believe that time is cyclical, so their apocalypse story leads to the rebirth, not the end, of the world. The fundamental unit of Hindu temporality is the Yuga Cycle, which consists of four repeating ages, each worse than the last. Since 3102 BCE, we have lived in the Kali Yuga, a time of violence and impiety ruled over by a demon. It is the last age in the cycle, and it will end when Vishnu arrives on a white horse to lead the few remaining faithful in a crusade against the world’s sins. Those who survive will sow the seeds of the Satya Yuga — the first and most virtuous age in the next cycle. After 4.32 million years, humanity will once more have fallen into turmoil, and the cycle will reset yet again.