Apocalypse - The Misunderstood Cousin of Armageddon

I remember learning about the origins of the word Apocalypse years ago, and was recently reminded about it on a radio program on CBC 1.  Apocalypse gets a bad wrap.  It has garnered a bad reputation by being associated with much darker events.

The word apocalypse originates in Greek, with a literal translation of "to uncover" or "to reveal".  So it begins its life as innocent, and even hopeful.  To uncover facts and reveal truths, are inherent to learning about the world around us and expanding our knowledge.  So far Apocalypse seems like a pretty awesome character.  But, "to reveal" can also be called a revelation; and long ago someone wrote a book about revelation, and called it Revelation, and put it in the Bible.

This book of Revelation turned out to be a chronicle of the end of days.  It describes the eternal battle between good and evil, Heaven and Hell, Judgement Day, The Seven Seals, The Four Horseman, the cleansing of the earth, and its inheritance by the chosen.  Most of these themes are pretty dark, and have become associated with apocalypse, and the end of days.

So the moral of this story is that at its core apocalypse is an act of revelation, of uncovering new truths.  And not all revelations are bad, I would argue that most are in fact good, and many are freaking awesome! So maybe the Apocalypse is something to be celebrated, rather than feared.  Unless it's a zombie apocalypse... that would still suck.

PS - with a little further research, it turns out Armageddon gets a bit of a bad wrap too.  Armageddon is a location where the final battle between Heaven and Hell takes place.  Totally not Armageddon's fault. Armageddon was just there, being a location, and then Heaven and Hell decided to duke it out on the front lawn.  Now Armageddon also gets to be associated with the end of days.