Eschatology

===Zoroastrianism===
{{Main|Frashokereti}}

Frashokereti is the [[Zoroastrian]] doctrine of a final renovation of the universe when evil will be destroyed, and everything else will then be in perfect unity with God ([[Ahura Mazda]]). The doctrinal premises are:
# Good will eventually prevail over evil.
# Creation, initially perfectly good, was subsequently corrupted by evil.
# The world will ultimately be restored to the perfection it had at the time of creation.
# The "salvation for the individual depended on the sum of [that person's] thoughts, words and deeds, and there could be no intervention, whether compassionate or capricious, by any divine being to alter this". Thus each human bears the [[responsibility (disambiguation)|responsibility]] for the fate of his own soul, and simultaneously shares in the responsibility for the fate of the world.<ref name="Boyce">
{{cite book
|last= Boyce|first= Mary|author-link= Mary Boyce
|title= Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
|year= 1979|location= London
|publisher= Routledge & Kegan Paul
|isbn= 978-0-415-23902-8|pages= 27–29
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=a6gbxVfjtUEC
}}.
</ref>

Zoroastrian eschatology is considered one of the oldest in recorded history. The birth of its founder, [[Zoroaster]], is unknown, with scholarly dates ranging from 500 BCE to 1,500 BCE. [[Pliny the Elder]] even suggests there were two Zoroasters.<ref name="WestDate13">{{Cite book|first=Martin Litchfield|last=West|author-link=Martin Litchfield West|title=Hellenica: Volume III: Philosophy, Music and Metre, Literary Byways, Varia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHdCAgAAQBAJ |year=2013 |publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-960503-3|pages=89–109}}</ref> However, with beliefs paralleling and possibly predating the framework of the major Abrahamic faiths, a fully developed concept of the end of the world was not established in Zoroastrianism until 500 BCE. The [[Bahman Yasht]] describes:
<blockquote>At the end of thy tenth hundredth winter, the sun is more unseen and more spotted; the year, month, and day are shorter; and the earth is more barren; and the crop will not yield the seed. And men become more deceitful and more given to vile practices. They will have no gratitude. Honorable wealth will proceed to those of perverted faith. And a dark cloud makes the whole sky night, and it will rain more noxious creatures than water.</blockquote>

A battle between the righteous and wicked will be followed by the [[Frashokereti]]. On earth, the [[Saoshyant]] will arrive as the final savior of mankind, and bring about the [[resurrection of the dead]]. The ''yazata''s [[Airyaman]] and [[Atar]] will melt the metal in the hills and mountains, which will flow as lava across the earth and all mankind, both the living and resurrected, will be required to wade through it. ''[[Ashavan]]'' will pass through the molten river as if it were warm milk, but the sinful will burn. It will then flow down to hell, where it will annihilate [[Angra Mainyu]] and the last vestiges of wickedness.

The righteous will partake of the ''parahaoma'', which will confer immortality upon them. Humanity will become like the [[Amesha Spenta]]s, living without food, hunger, thirst, weapons or injury. Bodies will become so light as to cast no shadow. All humanity will speak a single language, and belong to a single nation with no borders. All will share a single purpose and goal, joining with [[Ahura Mazda]] for a perpetual and divine exaltation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Richard P.|title=Death and Afterlife: A Cultural Encyclopedia|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2000|page=312}}.</ref><ref name="Boyce" />