The actual timeline schism by Jeremy3681

Ok I don't think I've seen this theory yet, but it just makes so much sense to me I needed to post it to see if someone could poke holes in it.

Obviously in the normal timeline the presence of Sawyer's mementos in the otherton means that the losties still were in 1977 and all their actions there still transpired. Meaning that "what ever happened, happened", and the bomb didn't change things.
We are all watching the flash sideways thinking that it is "what if" the bomb had changed something, but I think it's something different.

I think the flash sideways are the timeline in which Jacob never "touched" our losties in the past. I put touch in quotes because who knows the amount of timeline altering things jacob did besides the touching we see in the S5 finale.
I believe that jacob did all these things to prevent the end of the world, an apocalypse which I predict we will get to see as the flash sideways story ends.

This dovetails nicely with juliet's words from beyond the grave "it worked" wasn't that the bomb was successful in changing the timeline, but that jacob was successful in changing the timeline thereby saving the world.