APART from being utterly pessimistic, the foregoing doomsday scenarios have three things in common. First, they are based on the speculation of men, and humans have a far-from-perfect record when it comes to guessing the future. Second, human survival, if possible, would be a matter of chance. Third, survivors of a post-doomsday world would have a real struggle to stay alive.

In contrast, the Bible’s version of what the future holds paints a more reasonable picture. According to the Bible, for a certainty, a great change is coming. But survival is guaranteed to all who do God’s will. Furthermore, the Bible does not foretell that the earth will be blasted to a cinder or frozen like an ice cube. It will be transformed into a global paradise.

Many people, though, have a problem accepting such Bible predictions. Skeptics view as fantasy the Bible’s teachings about a great tribulation, Armageddon, a millennium, and Paradise. These concepts have been endlessly discussed, debated, and interpreted by theologians. Their theories compete and clash with one another. Concerning the time of the end, author Bruce A. Robinson states: “Probably more obscure theological text has been written on this topic than on any other belief in Christendom.” The result? Confusion.

Yet, the Scriptures are not obscure. The Bible is God’s message, and he does not want us to be puzzled about what lies ahead. Consider some frequently asked questions, followed by what the Bible itself says. If you want to learn more, request the book What Does the Bible Really Teach? published by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.”​—Psalm 37:29.

“The upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. As regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth; and as for the treacherous, they will be torn away from it.”​—Proverbs 2:21, 22.

God “did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people; and by reducing the cities Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them, setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come.”— 2 Peter 2:5, 6.

“Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.”​—Matthew 24:36-39.

“In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.”​—2 Timothy 3:1-5.

God “will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”​—Revelation 21:4.

Though the Scriptures give us but a glimpse of what lies ahead, they assure us that humanity is not doomed. The future will be glorious beyond our ability to comprehend. You can count on that, confident that what Jehovah God has promised, he is also able to do.