A type of Jewish and Christian religious writing that developed during the period between the writing of the Old and New Testaments. It had its roots in Old Testament prophecy.

The word apocalypse is derived from the Greek apocalypsis, which means "revelation" or "unveiling." (See Revelation 1:1), where the same term is used). The term is applied to these writings because it is believed they reveal the secret purposes of God, information about the end of the world, and the establishment of God's kingdom on earth.

The secular media generally uses the word in reference to predictions of impending end-time dissaster (as in "the Apocalypse").

Cults like Japan's Aum Shinrikyo - the group that tried to bring about fulfillment of it's own end-time predictions with poison gas attacks - are sometimes referred to as "doomsday-" or "apocalyptic cults."

» Doomsday Cults
» End Times

Apocalype! ''The evolution of apocalyptic belief and how it shaped the Western World'' Companion site to the Nov. 22, 1999, PBS frontline broadcast
A Brief History of the Apocapypse