In reflecting on a passage in the Kevin Riley text it was quite interesting to find that a lot of Christian roots come from Jewish root. Even tough Judaism was here long before Jesus Christ ever walked the Earth, Christianity flourished and still flourishes today in much of Europe and America. In reading this passage it referred to the book of Matthew in the Christian Bible. It tells a story of Jesus performing miracles and making many speeches to the people. He did so in a welcoming way and warned them to follow him. Among the Christian faith, Jesus Christ is Gods son and therefore was to save the world from total damnation. In this text he preaches about the coming of the end of the world. In this he states that the end will not coming until the words of the gospel reach every single person in every single nation. He warns them that there will be many false prophets and many people will be persecuted for being Christian and following Jesus Christ. It is interesting to see that many if not all of the things mentioned have happened in some form or another excluding, of course, the part about the gospel reaching all nations for that has not yet happened. Also in this text Matthew talks about what Christ says the end of the world will be like. He describes it as "the sun will darken", "the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken". In describing the terrible things that will happen he also lays down a short parable about a fig tree. In comparing the signs that Christs gives his people about the end of the world and the signs of spring apparent with the leaves on the fig tree, he is able to allow Christians to connect to the word of their God and understand these things that are being said.

It is a very interesting passage to read, and says a lot about Christianity. Whether Christianity is the truth or not, it is interesting the amount of people in the world today that can call themselves Christians. The very gruesome description of the end of the world in a Christians eye tells a lot about the world in itself. Also in comparing it to other religions, it is interesting to wonder what truly is the truth.

Riley, Kevin. Worlds of History; A Comparative Reader. 3rd ed. 1, To 1550. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2007.