Nearly everyone assumes that the world economy can continue to grow for many, many years into the future. The physics of the situation indicates that this is not true, however. We are now in a situation where there is not enough inexpensive-to-extract energy for the economy to continue to grow; near-term collapse seems very likely. The response of the economy to COVID-19 is evidence of the extent of inadequate supply of energy of the kind required. In some ways, the situation bears similarities to the end times problems forecast in the book of Revelation.