The Future

1. Civilization is going to spike.
2. Most of the Church will go along for the ride, but part won't—a new monasticism.

1. Some global catastrophic risk materializes.
   
   
1. The risk is existential. Game over. The dead are raised. Last Judgement. (Or not, of course.)
   
   
   
   
2. The risk is merely catastrophic. The new monasticism preserves culture through another Dark Age. Sooner or later we ramp up another growth cycle.
   
   
   
   
   
2. No such risk materializes.
   
   
1. Eventually the Universe itself ends. "The new heavens and the new earth" are discontinuous with the present order.
   
   
   
   
2. The Universe does not end. "The new heavens and the new earth" are continuous with the present order. Once civilization has spiked we find that God has evolved us into what he intended in the first place. Or "heaven" is the condition of racing ever-faster towards an asymptote. Or, you know, whatever.