The most reasonable place to start a discussion of the 2nd century Christian views of the end of the world would be with the Revelation of John. Written in the 90s C.E. John's Apocalypse depicts in vivid detail the trials and tribulations that will happen at the end of the world. His vision is full of monsters, demons, and a slain lamb that saves those who have followed God's laws and lived a good life. The story is also full of symbols and metaphors that have been sources of disagreement throughout the last 2000 years of Christian history.

The main point of the vision is that there are two types of people: those that will be saved and those that will be damned. Those that will be saved are given a new home in a New Jerusalem made by God where death and misery will be no more. The damned will be punished by a second death in a lake of burning sulfur. This dictum between good and evil is paralleled closely by the non-canonical 2nd century Apocalypses attributed to the disciples Peter and Paul. In both accounts, the good are rewarded in paradise and the bad are punished eternally according to their transgressions. It is apparent that second century Christians had a clear sense that there was a separation of good and evil and that when the end of the world came, people would be punished or rewarded accordingly. This distinction is again displayed in the Epistle of the Apostles, an anti-Gnostic letter written sometime in the mid-second century. Jesus describes his return to earth, in glory brighter than the son, to judge the living and the dead.

The Christian view of the end of the world can be summarized as Jesus returning to earth, people being judged according to how they had lived their lives and then being rewarded or punished in accordance with their actions.