Peace,
I am guessing you are referring from an “Islamic” perspective.
I firmly believe that the end is what you make of it… if we keep believing that the Youm-il-Qiyaamah “end of times” will be the worst of times, then it will be so. That is the insurmountable barrier as described in the Quran in 7:40: “Those who have denied Our revelations, and became arrogant towards them, the gates of the sky will not open for them, nor will they enter Paradise **until the camel passes through the eye of a needle **(which IMO sounds impossible but that depends on one’s perspective). It is such that We recompense the criminals.”
Furthermore, I believe that Youm-il-Qiyaamah reveals itself linguistically as “The Day of PURGING”, when we shun all of our doubts and fears… it is that day that we as a race (i.e humans/naas/bani-aadam) shall transcend to a new level of existance (i.e. the state of paradise/firdous or whatever you may want to call it).
So it is not as black-and-white as you may think.