The closing days of 2008 may be marked by floods, terrorism and global financial collapse - but Pope Benedict XVI has assured believers that the end of the world is not nigh.

Speaking at a ceremony at which he blessed figures of the infant Jesus for Rome Nativity cribs, the Pope said there had been "alarmism" about the end of the world since the days of St Paul, who in his Letter to the Philippians had told early Christians to rejoice because "The Lord is at hand" (Phil. 4:4-5). This had been wrongly taken to mean the imminent approach of the Last Judgement.

In his second letter to the Thessalonians St Paul predicted a day when "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ". Disbelievers "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power" (2 Thes. 17-8), St Paul said.

"But what does it mean that 'the Lord is near'?" Pope Benedict asked. "In what sense must we understand this 'closeness' of God? The apostle Paul, in writing to the Christians of Philippi, is clearly thinking of the return of Christ, and is inviting them to rejoice because this is certain."

However St Paul had also made clear in his first letter to the Thessalonians that "no-one can know the moment of the Lord's coming (1 Thes. 5:1-2)", the Pope said. The apostle, remarking that the day would arrive "like a thief in the night", had "cautioned against any alarmism" over the "imminent" return of Christ, telling his readers not to be troubled or "shaken in mind" by the fact that "the day of Christ is at hand".

Pope Benedict commented that "already at that time, the Church, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, increasingly understood that the 'closeness' of God is not a question of space and time, but a question of love: love draws near!" He said Christmas was coming "to remind us of this fundamental truth of our faith, and in front of the Nativity scene we can taste Christian joy, contemplating in the newborn Jesus the face of God, who out of love drew close to us."

St Paul adds in his letters that the end of days "shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition". In one modern translation (The Revised English Bible) this reads: "That day cannot come before the final rebellion against God, when wickedness will be revealed in human form, the man doomed to destruction". (2 Thes. 2:1-3).

The coming of "the wicked one" sent by Satan will be "attended by all the powerful signs and miracles that faleshood can devise", St Paul writes. However "The Lord Jesus will destroy the wicked one with the breath of his mouth and will annihalate him by the radiance of his presence".

Last year the Pope dismissed recurring "Messianical" predictions of the imminent end the world, saying "history is ongoing, and involves human tragedies and natural calamities." He added, echoing Pope John Paul II, his predecessor, "Do not be afraid".