All language subtitles for 02 Eng The.Story.of.God.with.Morgan.Freeman.S01E02.Apocalypse.HDTV.x264-ASCENDANCE

Every morning starts the same.

Coffee and crossword.

And every day things
seem to get worse.

Religious conflict.

Climate change.

It all seems so apocalyptic.

None of this is new, however.

We've been predicting
the end of the world for

thousands of years.

From Nostradamus
all the way back to the

book of revelation.

Something about the drama of
annihilation seems to grip us.

Is it just human nature
to worry and wonder about

the end of days?

Or is it really coming?

I'm setting off on a
journey to find out why

so many religions
predict an apocalypse.

This beast has a human name,

it's number is...

666.

To discover
the roots of judgment day.

The suns
of light shall battle the

suns of darkness.

Our ancient prophecies...

There's no peace
between us and our neighbors.

Reverberate today.

If these
guys ever came to power,

it would be hell on earth.

And to
ask whether the end is really

what we imagine...

Or if it's all
just in our minds.

♪ ♪

My first destination
is Jerusalem.

The spiritual set of the
Jews, christians and muslims.

All three of those
fates predicted Jerusalem

will play a role in
the end of the world.

It has long been a flash
point for religious tensions.

I've come here to
meet yoram Hazony,

an expert in the politics
and theology of judaism.

I want to know why the
end of days is so closely

tied to this city.

You're looking at the absolute

epicenter of the
monotheistic world.

Right over there,
that's the dome of the rock,

which according to
islamic tradition,

Muhammad descended to
heaven from right that spot,

and over there, the...

of the mount of
olives and gethsemane

below where Jesus and his
disciples used to meet,

and of course down here
is the western wall plaza,

the holiest shrine,
prayer location for all of

the Jewish people in judaism.

This whole area
is called the Temple Mount.

This is the Temple Mount?

The temple was
a building seven stories high,

stood on top of
this Temple Mount,

on top of that flat area
where those trees are.

In 20bc, king herod the great,

build a temple where Jews
could worship their god.

It was designed to last forever.

Herod says
we're going to create the most

spectacular physical structure
in the entire middle east,

maybe in the entire world.

You can see these
gigantic stones at the bottom,

those are called
herodian stones.

The Jewish temple to the one
god stood on top of that mount

before there was
islamic christianity.

But, in the year 70ad,

the Romans sacked Jerusalem
and demolished the temple.

In the centuries since,

Jews have come to
pray at it's remains,

the western or wailing wall.

It was almost 1900 years
before the site returned to

direct Jewish control in 1967.

We are about 70 years
into the new Israel,

why hasn't the
temple been rebuilt?

Two reasons.

One is cause the Jews
aren't ready and the other

is cause the
muslims aren't ready.

The state of Israel militarily,

politically
controls this whole area,

but the state of Israel
gave the Temple Mount area

on the top to the muslims.

While the top of the mount is

off limits to Jewish
religious rights,

there are sacred
spaces underground,

which yoram says will
help me understand the

Jewish vision for end times.

This is it.

We've come to the closest
that a human being can come

to the holy of holies, the
most sacred spot in the world.

That's the room in the
temple that one human being

would enter once a year,
the high priest,

on yom kippur on the
holiest day of the year and

he would say god's name.

Orthodox
Jews believe that without this

temple, their religious
rights are incomplete.

So they await the day when
their temple is rebuilt.

Is there a Messiah?

In judaism?

In judaism?

Judaism invented the Messiah,

but it's not the same Messiah
that most people think about.

Okay.

'Cause when
christians think of the.

Messiah, they think of
someone who's divine.

Yeah.

They think of, you know,

the end of days.

What we have for
the Messiah is a man,

a king of this earth was
going to bring peace among

the nations in this world.

And he will not be divine.

He will not be divine.

And yoram
tells me this mortal Messiah

has a very specific to do list.

According to Jewish tradition,

he has three things
he is supposed to do.

Number one, he's gonna
reconstitute the Jewish

kingdom of the Jewish today.

Number two, he's gonna bring
peace with the neighbors.

And number three, he's
gonna rebuild that temple.

Rebuild the temple.

Here we are, this is 2015,
what are you gonna do now?

What is contemporary
Jewish position on the temple?

The Jews think
of the world in terms of this

dream that once existed in
the world that was taken away,

the Jews want to bring
back into the world.

That is the
reconstruction of the temple?

The reconstruction of the temple

as the crowning symbol of
this era of justice and peace

that we're supposed to
be assisting to bring back

into the world.

Judaism is
just one of many religions

that envisions the coming
of world peace one day.

But, looking at this place,

where so many
religions intersect...

It's hard to
imagine peace coming.

Rebuilding the temple now
would almost certainly not

herald an age of peace.

It would obliterate some of
the holiest sights in islam.

In fact, it might even
trigger an apocalyptic battle.

But, the idea of a violent
end of the world is not new.

2000 years ago, not
all Jews anticipated the

coming age of peace.

One Jewish sect
fervently anticipated

the bloody apocalypse.

Archaeologist, Jodi Magness
has taken me to the shores of

the dead sea, where
their ancient prophecies were

miraculously preserved.

Welcome to Qumran.

Qumran?

Right, right, this is where
the scrolls were found, right?

That's right.

The dead sea scrolls were
found in eleven caves in the

cliffs surrounding Qumran.

How did they get up there?

Well, they were
deposited in the caves by the

people who lived at
Qumran who were members of

a Jewish sect
called the essenes.

Essenes?

Uh huh.

So, why, why come here?

They came out
here to the desert because

they wanted to
live in isolation apart

from everyone else.

Jody tells
me that the essenes settled

here at Qumran around 100bc.

They believed an
epic battle was coming.

One that would bring on
the end of the world.

Thanks to the
incredibly dry climate here,

their apocalyptic
writings have been preserved

for more than 2,000 years.

Looking over
the edge of the cliff here,

look at what we see below us.

Holy cow!

This cave is very important.

Approximately 700 different
scrolls were found in this

cave including
fragments of the war scroll.

The war scrolls,

what now, what is that?

That's the
scroll that describes a

40 year long apocalyptic war
and one of the famous lines

from this scroll says,

"there shall be a
war of terrible carnage."

The suns of light shall
battle the suns of darkness

"and it shall end in
eternal redemption."

This war
that they're talking about,

is that like a
call to revolution?

Or is it more like
mythological expectation?

When you read the war scroll,

one of the interesting
things is that it interweaves

real and then what
seems to us to be fantasy.

That the people were
leading them into battle are

priests who are
dressed in priestly outfits,

the fact that they talk
about angels fighting in their

midst, but the soldiers
are equipped in the way that

soldiers at that
time were equipped,

so you have a combination of
what seems to be very real,

combined with things that
to us seem to be imaginary.

Like many doomsday cults,

the essenes believe
the end was imminent.

And took precautions
to be ready to meet god

at any moment.

This is one of the ritual baths

here at Qumran.

They literally believed
that god's presence dwelled

in their midst.

According to
biblical Jewish law,

if you enter the
presence of the god of Israel,

you have to be in a
state of ritual purity.

So all of these pools were
filled by the flash flood

waters, but water was not
replenished over the course of

the year, so it
got pretty gross.

Nevertheless, it was
still considered pure for the

purposes of ritual immersion.

You could probably come close to

walking on it.

Yeah, you
could probably cut it with

a knife at that point.

So they were all here preparing

themselves for the apocalypse?

That's right.

What happened?

Well, the
apocalypse sort of did arrive,

but not the kind of apocalypse
that they anticipated.

In 68ad,
their battle with the suns of

darkness took place.

It was the Romans.

As part of that campaign
to crush the Jewish revolt

against their rule, they
wiped Qumran and the essenes

off the map.

So the Romans, armies
just were sweeping past here

when all of these
people were in the way,

just get rid of them?

That's exactly right.

The Romans were basically
subduing the entire area.

But the idea
of an apocalyptic battle with

the forces of darkness did
not die with the essenes.

It crept into another faith.

One that was just being born.

All roads lead to Rome.

That's were I want to
uncover how the Christian idea

of the end of days began.

It's most famous
book of prophecy,

revelation,
written around 100ad,

foretells an impending
battle with the antichrist.

"Let anyone with
understanding calculate"

the number of the beast, for
it is the number of a person.

"It's number is 666."

I want to know if I
can calculate the number

of the beast.

I've come to the biblioteca
casanatense near the Vatican

to meet an expert in
early christianity.

Kim Haines-Eitzen.

She tells me she has
compelling evidence that

reveals the
identity of the beast.

Good morning.

So, what exactly
do we have here?

Well, I've
been looking at some fragments

of the book of revelation.

The book of revelation?

That's right.

The book of the end of days.

The end of days,

the apocalypse.

It's a prophetic book,
it's got loads of symbolism,

but it's also very much a
political book and making a

political claim
about the cause of evil.

The cause of evil.

Or who's responsible for evil.

So tell me
about this coding because as I

understand it, the antichrist
was given a code so they would

never call his name, they
would just say it by code.

Well,
there has been a lot of debate

about what this
number, in particular,

666, who it refers to.

There has also been a
strong argument made for 666

referring to nero.

Nero was emperor of Rome from

54 to 68ad.

Around the time when the
first christians began to

arrive in Rome.

So how do you make
666 translate to nero?

When you
apply numerical values to the

name, kaisar neron and
you add up those numbers,

you come to 666.

In ancient Greek and Hebrew,

every letter had a
corresponding number.

If you add up the letters of
the name for emperor nero,

written in Hebrew, kaisar neron,

the total comes to 666.

But nero is just one of many
names that can add up to 666.

Kim believes a later copy of
the book of revelation found

in an archaeological
dig in Egypt confirms the

beast is nero.

One of the
interesting things about these

fragments is that we've
got two different numbers.

What are those letters?

A chi is the 600,

xi 60, sigma a six.

666.

This one over here, we
have a chi yota sigma,

616 with a line over the top.

Why is it different?

You might think that this number

destroys the possibility
that it could be nero.

Yes.

What's
striking about this is that

it may help to confirm the
identity of nero because this

will be the number that
we would get if we spelled

nero according to
the Latin spelling.

Nero kaiser.

Without the n, the
letter n represented 50,

the number 50,
so 666 minus 50...

616.

616, so we've just gone...

So we just
subtract and we time up with

616 and we have the same guy?

That's right.

I'm so clever!

♪ ♪

But why might early
christians have called nero

the antichrist?

Kim brings me to the
very heart of the Vatican.

St Peter's square to
show me the answer.

So we know that the code,

666 refers to the emperor, nero.

Why?

Emperor
nero was despised for many

things including
persecuting christians.

Now, in the square here,
you can see an obelisk that

he arranged to stand at the
turning point in his circus.

Circus Maximus.

The circus neroeus.

Neroneus?

Yeah, the circus stood here and

was a place for
chariot races, games,

but he also used it then
for persecuting christians.

So in 64, there was a major
fire in Rome and much of the

city was destroyed, nero
wound up blaming christians and

he executed them in great
numbers as far as we can tell,

right here in this circus.

Tradition says
nero even executed the man

many considered to be the
founder of the church in Rome.

Peter.

The story
about Peter was that he was

crucified upside down, some
of them were lit on fire.

Burning?

To light the place.

It explains
why they despised him so much.

So now we have the basilica
of St. Peter standing here

commemorating his death.

So the
irony that this is where Peter

founded the church.

Yeah, it's pretty dramatic.

The crucifix on which Peter died

could have been just
yards from where I stand now.

Obviously, the
christians hated nero.

He was the antichrist.

Even after his suicide, it
appeared that he had the power

to come back and rule,
which is why it was safer to

refer to him in a secret code.

But, the christians living
under the conditions that

they were living, judgment
day couldn't come too soon.

The Christian idea of
apocalypse took hold under the

oppression of Rome.

This evil empire had
destroyed Jerusalem and

persecuted the early
followers of Jesus.

But, the idea has since
spread to a different faith.

It targets a
different evil empire.

And threatens to engulf
us all in the apocalypse.

I'm traveling
the world to find out why

billions of people
believe in the end of days.

My journey has
brought me to islam.

Islam is an arabic word
that means surrender.

Submission to god's will.

The same god the Jews
and Christian worship.

Meeting muslims face to face,

I've learned that islam aims
for people to live in peace.

But watching the news today,

you'd be forgiven
for not knowing that.

A tiny percentage of
muslims are waging war

against the west.

Isis and other religious
extremist groups believe the

apocalypse has already begun.

To understand why,
I've come to New York.

To meet a man who was
once a high level recruiter

for an apocalyptic
islamist group.

Maajid nawaz was radicalized
as a teenager in the uk.

Please tell me about
that radicalization.

I think it's
important just to distinguish

between islamism and
islam, a religion.

What I mean by islamism
is the desire to impose any

version of islam over society.

Although ideology was
sold to me as if it was the

religion of islam and
that's what I adopted.

I grew up facing a very, very
severe form of violent racism,

domestically within the uk.

I'm talking hammer attacks,

machete attacks by
Neo-Nazi skinheads, thugs.

On many occasions I had to
watch as my friends were

stabbed before my
eyes as a 15 year old.

I began seeing myself as
separate from the rest of

society and an islamist
recruiter found me in that

state as a young,
angry teenager and it was

very easy for that recruiter.

I joined a group called
hizb ut-tahrir and that's

the group I spent 13 years
of my leadership on.

Is that
the precursor to al-qaeda?

Yes, it's the
first islamist organization

that was responsible for
popularizing the notion of

resurrecting a modern
day theocratic caliphate,

as we now see that
Isis has laid claim to.

But, my former group,
they were the first ones to

popularize that term.

I ended up in Egypt
where I continued to recruit

people to this cause.

I was eventually
arrested on 1st march in 2002.

I was taken
to the headquarters of the

state security in Cairo,

down underground in
their torture dungeons.

I was blindfolded
and that's when they,

the worst ordeal began.

Torture?

They began
electrocuting everyone.

You served four years in prison?

Four years, yeah.

And then
you came out not so radical.

- I.
- am still a Muslim,

but I am now liberal.

Now, when I was in prison
and I was living with the

who's who of the jihadist
terrorist movements and

islamist movements,

we had a leader of
the Muslim brotherhood.

When I saw him I thought,

"my god, if these guys
ever came to power and

declared a caliphate,
it would be hell on earth."

Of course, when Isis
eventually did declare the

caliphate, that utopian dream
that we all used to share has

become that dystopic
nightmare that we see now.

So, lets talk
a little bit about Isis and

the apocalyptic prophecies of
Muhammad and how they're using

that for their purposes.

Yeah, so there
were a lot prophecies that

most muslims share in
common with each other.

The difference is what Isis
has done is it's manipulated

those prophecies to
serve its own political and

ideological ends.

So as an example of this
end of times battle that Isis

believes is going to take
place in a small village

called dabiq in Syria.

Now this village, has
absolutely no strategic value,

militarily whatsoever.

Has hardly any economic
strategic value either.

But Isis has nevertheless
committed resources to

conquering this small
village called dabiq.

They believe that the
international community and

the coalition must
somehow be driven to come

and meet them in dabiq
and engage in a final battle.

Would
that be part of the apocalypse

that America would fall?

Yeah.

Now there's a
prophecy of the prophet,

Muhammad that says that
constantinople will fall first

and then Rome will, so Isis
has interpreted this piece of

scripture that because
constantinople has already

fallen to muslims, that
the next big battle will be

against the west and the
west will eventually fall.

The idea would be
that actually in fact,

that America today
represents Rome.

Ah-ha.

You know, a
continuation of the western

civilization as represented
by the Roman empire.

Why do you think the idea of the

apocalypse is so appealing,

particularly to so
many young people?

When you feel powerless,

when you feel that
you don't actually control

your own destiny,

when you feel that
you have absolutely no voice,

then it's incredibly
tempting, though wrong,

to feel like you're
becoming an agent of destiny.

To suddenly feel like
you do have a voice,

that you are shaping history.

Maajid now
runs the quilliam foundation,

whose goal is to prevent
Isis and groups like them from

recruiting people in the west.

He produces counter-propaganda
videos like this.

So we're taking
real examples of people who

have become disillusioned and
we put them to actors voices

and actually put out
some of those stories.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Most informative and
I'm glad you're here.

Thank you, a pleasure.

It's probably
natural that the apocalypse

is appealing to the
disenfranchised.

They have the most to gain
and the least to fear from

overturning the status quo.

But it's more
widespread than that.

Culturally, we seem to
have a morbid attraction

to the apocalypse.

It's almost as if we
draw some comfort from it.

At the university of
Illinois at Chicago,

psychology professor,
Stewart Shankman is studying

our subconscious
belief in the apocalypse.

He thinks it may be hard
wired into our brains.

So the
gist of what we're doing today

is we're looking at
people's different response to

different kinds of threats.

Since this is
a lab experiment that relies

on volunteers, the
catastrophe is survivable.

A sudden noise combined with
a mild shock to the wrist.

A skull cap of electrodes and
sensors on the subjects face

capture the raw data of fear,

of brain activity
and her stress levels.

Together, they measure the
size of the startle response.

And the first condition is

called shock at
anytime and during that,

you might receive it when
the countdown reaches one,

you might receive it in the
middle of the countdowns,

you might receive it in
between your countdowns,

you might not receive it at all.

Look, there's a
bit startle for the

unpredictable condition.

When people are in the
unpredictable condition,

they don't know when
this bad thing is coming.

They're gonna show a
greater activity in their

brain and pupil dilation.

Their heart
rate's gonna increase.

Now, Stuart changes to a

different condition.

A predictable shock.

Called shock at one and

you will get a shock at
the end of the countdowns.

Your reaction to this painful,

but foreseeable
shock is different.

Surprisingly so.

When people are in the

unpredictable condition,
their startle response is much

higher than when they're in
the predictable condition.

Knowing when the bad
thing is gonna come creates a

qualitatively different
emotional experience

than not knowing.

So, whatever we can do
to try to make something

as unpredictable, predictable,

that's gonna give us
a little bit of solace.

This metal
mechanism could explain why so

many of us believe in
an impending apocalypse.

But, it may also
explain the morbid appeal

of doomsday cults.

I'll
tell you about a kingdom level

beyond here and if
you want to go there,

then you have to follow me.

This is the end of the age.

But is it
possible to predict the end?

A few years back, many
people thought they had.

According to popular legend,

the ancient Maya thought
the apocalypse would arrive

on a specific date.

December 21st, 2012.

I want to know if
this is really true,

so I've traveled to
their ancient capital,

tikal in Guatemala.

I'm meeting Stanley guenter,
who's a world leading decoder

of Mayan inscriptions.

So this
is the temple of the masks.

And on the other side,

the temple of the giant Jaguar.

This would have been
the early center of the

ancient city of tikal.

What about those headstone

looking things, there?

Those are what we call stelae.

Stelae.

Stelae.

And they commemorate periods

in the Mayan calendar.

So we see that they
would have been dedicated

to periods of time,

such as every 20 years,
every 10 years and especially

every about 400 years,

the ending of the
great b'ak'tun cycles.

The festival to mark the end of

a b'ak'tun cycle would
have culminated in the

king sacrificing the captive.

Does that go to say that the
Mayans felt that 2012 would be

the end of time, the apocalypse?

So we heard a few years ago,

about 2012 when people said
the end of the 13th b'ak'tun

was going to be the end
of the world predicted by

the Maya and there's a
monument down here,

I think we should
take a look at that would

help explain that.

This is stela 10 and you
can see we've got a king,

there is his head, big
headdress full of feathers.

His shoulders,
all of his jewelry,

down to his feet.

And if you look down below,

we can actually
see we have a captive.

We can see his head, we
have his hands and even down

to his legs.

He's all tied up for sacrifice.

So now, what did this have to do

with the apocalypse?

Well, we have to go around the

other side, here.

Okay.

We have a
date that gives us a specific

point in time, we have
eleven years and 360 days.

Then we have three katuns,
that's about 20 years each,

so we've got another 60
and then here we have nine

b'ak'tuns because this
is a date of about 525ad,

so if you remember, we had
13 b'ak'tuns ended in 2012.

But the really interesting
thing is this monument

doesn't stop there.

It goes on and tells us there
were 19 of the higher unit,

the piktun and even higher,

we have eleven of
the next unit and so on.

Each one of those units is
20 times larger than the

previous, so what we see
on this monument then,

is that 13 b'ak'tuns wasn't
the end of any calendar,

it was simply the end of
one cycle within a whole

series of nested cycles,
each one larger than the other.

Just as we mark the start of a

new millennium,

the Maya marked
December 21st, 2012 as a

major event on their calendar.

The ending of
another 400 year cycle.

There would have been
parades, music and sacrifice.

If the ancient
Maya were still here,

they'd have had a huge party.

No apocalypse.

No apocalypse.

Just a beginning.

Another beginning.

And another one and another one

that would go on
for almost eternity.

Why not eternity?

We've never
found the end for the Maya,

and we'll still have
to keep searching.

Okay.

Thinking about the way the
Maya saw time makes me realize

that the idea of an end
we have in christianity,

judaism and islam
are not universal.

For these religions, the
ultimate hope is that god will

intervene in the world of men,

pass judgment and right the
wrongs that we see around us.

But there are billions of
believers out there who don't

see the world that way at all.

For them, time moves in cycles,

perhaps forever.

I'm headed to India
to understand what the

apocalypse could mean...

In a world without end.

India is the birthplace of

two great religions.

Hinduism.

And buddhism.

Hindus believe an apocalypse
comes every few billion years.

But every end leads to
a new beginning and the

world starts again.

Buddhists don't imagine
a violent end of days.

To them, the word apocalypse
does not mean a revelation

of god's judgment to the world.

It's a personal revelation
of truth in the mind.

It's called enlightenment.

To find out what that means,
I've come to sarnath, India to

meet one of the world's
most revered Buddhist lamas.

His holiness, gyalwang Karmapa.

Tibetan Buddhists
believe that Karmapa is the

17th reincarnation of a
great teacher who lived

900 years ago.

Good morning.

- I.
- think you should wear this.

I should?

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can we walk?

Yeah.

In 1992, a
holy commission hunted for

the new Karmapa and
found Ogyen Trinley Dorje,

a seven year old son
of a nomadic family in

eastern Tibet.

You were kind of
young for this station?

Yes.

Okay, so what is it like,

how do you, is it all right?

One way it's meaningful,

one way is a little bit heavy.

People have lots of expectation.

The expectation is heavy for a

30 year old man.

The Karmapa must teach
how to find enlightenment

while still working
to find it for himself.

This is
the start of the site that

the Buddha's give
first teaching.

This is the place then,

where he had his
first sermon after

he reached enlightenment?

Yes, yes.

Right.

Talk to me just a little bit,

your holiness about
enlightenment.

How does one even begin to
go about trying to obtain that?

Wow!

Big question isn't it?

Yes.

Huge challenge.

Huge, yeah,
maybe I think the first part

is maybe you need to
recognize yourself like,

where you're from, come from.

Why am I here?

Yeah.

So I would
like to get some instruction

about enlightenment.

I will try, I will try.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

I will try.

Thank you.

The Karmapa tells me meditation

is the key to enlightenment.

If the apocalypse is the
revelation of the true will of

god, meditation aims to
reveal the true will of me.

They have lots of different

ways to meditate,

but the simple
one is to focus your breath.

That's the one I know.

You relax your mind.

And don't follow the past,

don't anticipate future,
just relax at the moment.

Just focus your
breathing and that's all.

Yeah, we should try.

It's a lot of work to move past

all the memories,
thoughts and emotions...

To just concentrate on being...

To see what's left when
all the noise has gone.

Okay?

Beautiful.

Good?

Yes.

Thank you.

Can I ask
you a philosophical question?

Philosophical?

I will try.

It's
about the westerners idea...

Yeah.

Of apocalypse.

The end of time,
the end of being.

Is there such a
thing in buddhism?

If when everything
stops and every...

The world comes to an
end and mankind is judged.

We believe that every day is

somewhere one
universe it's like...

Ending.

Ending one it's...

Beginning.

But it's not like a...

This kind of judge, how
do I say, judge things.

No judgment day?

No, not judgment day.

This is maybe a
little bit different.

So actually,

what you're saying
I think is that...

There is no end, only change?

Yeah, change, yes.

One thing ends, another begins.

Yeah, maybe it's,

there are not absolute
sort of ending, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

When you
meet someone like his holiness,

the Karmapa, I guess
the thing that stands out

most is his humility.

Karmapa doesn't give you
the impression that he thinks

of himself as greater
than you, higher than you,

better in any way than you.

He's here like the
rest of us on this quest,

trying to understand
why we're here,

seeking to unveil the
truth, seeking enlightenment.

But the truth isn't
always revealed in a moment

of calm reflection.

♪ ♪

August, 2005.

Hurricane Katrina
slammed into Louisiana.

A catastrophe of
historic proportions.

Some even thought the end was
happening here in New Orleans.

New Orleans
had a level of sin that was

offensive to god and I believe
that the hurricant Katrina was,

in fact, punishment against
the city of New Orleans.

Katrina was
a judgement from god.

I'm in New Orleans to meet

Katrina survivors.

To learn how they
dealt with the end and

how it changed them.

So right now, we
are in flood country?

Yes, sir.

This is
where the water actually...

Yes, this is
actually the 9th ward.

You were here during Katrina,

is that right?

Yes, I was.

I was in an apartment building
and I was on the first floor

and I got eight feet of water
and I lost everything I owned.

Did you
have a feeling at some point

that this was like
the end of it all?

It did seem like the end to me.

Ernest was far from alone.

New Orleans residents Charles
and Angela marsalis came to

their local church, a shelter
in the time of the storm.

We're in the carrolton
Avenue church of Christ,

this is, you spent a little
time here during the storm.

How did you wind up here?

We were gonna
lodge here for the night and

then we were gonna go
home the next day and there

was a night we could
hear the wind rushing in.

It's just really, really loud.

I mean, at that time it was
really scary and I just began

to kneel down and pray.

We could actually, you know,
see the water rising and we

thought it'd be stopped,
but it just kept rising.

The marsalis
family was completely cut off.

More than a hundred billion
gallons of water had surged

through broken levees.

Three days passed before
the red cross evacuated them

to a marooned bridge
full of desperate survivors.

It was like, pitch black dark.

Everything in that water,
alligator, snakes, everything.

I mean, they had sick people,
they had women in wheelchairs.

We saw the
guys having drugs over here,

selling drugs, guns, I felt
that the devil was at work.

It was really a dark time.

It was really dark, yeah.

Now this,
these are dire circumstances

and dire circumstances
can bring out the best and

the worst in people.

Yes, yes.

How did
you function through that?

Well, I'm a minister and you got

children of god sitting here,
so I told me wife,

it's time for us to get busy,
we got to do something.

And so we just started
singing and, and then the

next thing we know
in the darkness,

you can hear people saying,

sing this song, sing that song.

And how long, can't remember,
how long did we sing?

All night.

We just knew that god would get

us out of there.

Not even
Katrina could shake that faith

of god, no way.

Jesus is
a rock in a weary land, ♪

♪ a weary land,
a weary land. ♪

♪ Jesus is a
rock in a... ♪♪

Charles and
Angela did get out in the end.

A year later they
returned to New Orleans and

rebuilt their lives.

The experience of getting
so close to the end and

so close to god drove them
to start their own church.

Well, how
many out here remember Katrina?

Y'all remember the storm?

I remember that.

Some folk even said that that's
god punishment on New Orleans.

And I had to tell them folk, no!

God allowed it to happen.

You know,
a lot of people had their

eyes on New Orleans,

but they saw something
good that could come out

of something bad.

Had it not been for the storm,

we wouldn't be here
at this building, probably.

We wouldn't have met
some of these people that

you seen in here today.

I believe if it
wasn't for that storm.

You know, Charles,

that's very Buddhist.

Yeah?

Yeah, the Buddhist say every

ending is a beginning.

It's god's will.

God saw this before we saw this.

We just got to allow ourself
to be willing to let god

use us in part of that will.

Katrina didn't
wash New Orleans of its sin.

It didn't come as
divine punishment.

It caused suffering, yes.

But it also
opened people's eyes,

to cherish what they had
left and to work together

to build something better.

I set out to understand
what the apocalypse means

to people of many
different faiths.

I had always thought of it
as a all destroying doomsday.

But I've discovered
that some people yearn

for the apocalypse.

They want to be
free of injustice.

They want to escape suffering.

They want a better world.

Apocalypse.

It's a Greek word
meaning lifting the veil.

It's not about war,
it's about enlightenment.

It's not about death.

It's a state of mind
and heart that helps us

see the truth.

Not some far off
day of judgment.

It's here, it's now.