The world didn’t end in 2011. As I recall, there were two prominent predictions by the same pundit. Doomsday was confidently predicted for March 21, 2011. The date came and went and our mundane lives continued. Heads were scratched and calculations remade and an equally confident revised date for humankind’s demise was pronounced for October 21. Few held their breath and even fewer were surprised when the next day dawned and the world remained unscathed. Everyone carried on with their lives confident that the world would continue to turn for a very long time. But the Maya were about to have their say. However, unlike the two 2011 predictions, the Maya prediction came from the grave.

The Maya and 2012

The Maya were a significant civilisation in Central America before the coming of the Europeans. Like most peoples, the Maya kept a close eye on the passage of time and had an accurate and far seeing calendar. Unfortunately their calendar ended sometime in 2012. You have to wonder why a people, at their peak a little over 1100 years ago, would need a calendar to reach out this far, long after their civilisation had perished. Perhaps they were simply mischievous and wanted future humans to ponder and wonder at their diligence. And ponder we did and so was born: 2012 end of world. Not content with failed predictions for 2011, the doomsayers set their sight on 2012, December 21, to be specific.

2012, the End?

No one knows why the Maya did not extend their calendar beyond 2012; perhaps they had become lazy. Or maybe they felt the enterprise not worth perusing post 2012; a distant ancestor could always take on the task. There are those who think the Maya had the power to see deep into the future and surmised that they foresaw the world’s end in 2012 and consequently did not see a need to extend their calendar beyond that date. It seems a pity that they didn’t harness this all seeing facility and focus their penetrating gaze on their own fate. The civilisation of the Maya petered out, according to expert opinion, in the seventeenth century, with a little help from the Spanish Conquistadors. A calendar stopping at around then would have suited their purpose much better and have saved them a lot of unnecessary calculation. It could be argued that maybe the Maya were altruistic and wanted to provide distant mankind with a warning of their impending doom. That being the case it wouldn’t have hurt them to have given us a clue of what fate had in store. In fact it wouldn’t have hurt them to be more specific. After all, they bothered to give us the date, why not the fate? Could it be that the Maya possessed a sense of humour?

2012, End of World

As I write, December 21 is some ways off and there is still plenty of time to place our affairs in order in preparation for the big event. Personally, I don’t think I’ll bother. I would like to make a prediction of my own. I am confident that I will still be around to summon in 2013, at midnight December 31. Probably I will be dead drunk, but still very much alive. The world will not have stopped spinning in fact it will be spinning much faster, at least to my eyes.

It’s not just the Tin Hat Club that’s grabbing on to idea that the world will end in 2012.  The media and educational television have so bombarded us with explanations for why it’s plausible that pretty much any of us can recite the reasons it makes sense.  There have been more than the usual number of natural disasters recently, right?  We’re about due for a comet or an asteroid to plow into Earth, right?  We’ve so screwed up the planet that God has to be way pissed, right?  So, surely it’s reasonable if not likely that we’ve squandered our time here and the plug is about to be yanked.  Right?

I don’t know about that.    As a species we tend to misinterpret things in ways that are logical to us, and we’re prone to jumping to conclusions.  In other words, just because something makes sense to you doesn’t mean it’s true.  A lot of information we’re calling evidence can be brought under some serious scrutiny.  The Bible, for instance, can be interpreted in numerous ways.  People have  argued for thousands of years over the meanings of different passages.  You think that ends in 2012? 

What about the signs we’re seeing in the natural world?  Calling on the dim and jagged knowledge of natural history I possess, I do believe it’s accurate that the planet has gone through various periods of upheaval over the course of billions of years.  This doesn’t necessarily equate to Armageddon.  The real question is whether or not those upheavals are survivable by mankind.  It’s possible to have some really bad days on Planet Earth (just ask a dinosaur).  But how we can come to the conclusion that on a certain date at a certain time the world is going to end just because a certain group of people said it would makes no sense to me.  It could end (for us) just as well today as it could a thousand years from now, or a million years from now.

So, what if the world is going to end in 2012?  What do we do?  Sorry to say, there really isn’t a darn thing we can do.  In fact, every action we might take would have a negative impact.  People panicking, making dangerous decisions, selling all their things and stocking up on shotgun shells and canned soup – none of that is helpful.  I enjoy a well-provisioned survivalist bunker as much as the next guy, but what happens if you’re wrong?      

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to choose to live 2012 with the assumption that the world will not end.  I’m going to do my best to be positive, set goals, and treat people as though we’ll all still be around in 2013.  To do anything less seems negative, unproductive and more than a little ridiculous.  Planning for the apocalypse makes for good television, but it’s a darn silly way to live your life.  And if I’m wrong, I promise I’ll check the comments on this post one last time so you can all tell me I told you so!  

###

Thanks for reading!  If you enjoyed this article please LIKE it on Facebook using the thumbs-up button below!

More by MJ here: MJRapp’s Portfolio

It Starts With John Nelson Darby.

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

Harold Camping is following in the foot steps of many dispensationalists, starting with the first of that lot, John Nelson Darby, {November 18, 1800 -April 29, 1882}. In point of fact the use of the term “rapture” is found no where in the Bible, in any language. This concept was incorporated into Christian thought less than 200 years ago, credited to John Nelson Darby, who preached about the “rapture” in the 1830s. So, for more than 1,800 years of Christian history, no Christians anticipated the “rapture”. Throughout that time, no priest or preachers taught about the “rapture”. Jesus did not teach the “rapture”, nor did Paul, nor any of the Disciples. The “rapture” is not of true Christian origin, but Darby’s distorted misinterpretation of Paul’s writing in 1st Thessalonians 4:15-17. John Nelson Darby came up with this delusional misconception during his convalescence following a serious injury when he fell from a horse in October 1827. You’d think if it had any genuine validity as a Christian concept, it would have been a part of Christianity long before Darby fell off that horse. Unfortunately his distorted post horse fall ideas have influenced far too many evangelical and fundamentalists Christian types over the years since then. The entire concept of the “rapture” is little more than wishful thinking escapism, for those who feel they just can’t face the judgments of the tribulation or maybe a way for the “special” to avoid the four horsemen. I can see why Darby might want to avoid those horsemen, after his fall. It is among the most unsound “modern” bits of quasi Christian theology, in all of Christian history, second only to “Dispensationalism”, also credited to post horse fall Darby, which maybe should really be called Sin-sationalism, (sic).

Biblical Date Calculations, a Misguided Pursuit

Any time they tell you they crunched the numbers, and have figured out when anything is going to happen according to their Biblical date calculations, watch out, they are pretty much off their nut, or they fell off a horse. It’s been done before, so many times, and every time the faithful don their ascension robes and mount the hill tops to get a head start on being lifted up, they are disappointed. With good reason; for it’s not going to happen.

From Darby to Miller:

Almost immediately, following Darby’s horse fallen ramblings, William Miller, leader of the Millerite movement, started preaching in 1833 his own calculated date of Christ’s return, in 1843. Of course, we know now that didn’t happen. So, he re-calculated and taught that March 21, 1844 was the definite date. It definitely was not. Then April 18 of that same year was the next re-calculation. That was wrong, too. In August, of 1844 Samuel S. Snow another Millerite preacher did some further calculations, and declared October 22, 1844 was it. It wasn’t. With such poor date marksmanship, you have to wonder how the Millerite movement kept any followers all that time. October 23, 1844 was known as The Great Disappointment, and the Millerite movement did finally brake up. However, from its remnants emerged both the Advent Christian Church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

From Miller to Russell:

Influenced by both Darby and Miller, the founder of the Bible Students Movement, Charles Taze Russell came onto the scene and started setting dates right away. Russell published many tracts and gathered up quite a following. 1874, 1878, 1914, were among his set dates, none of which panned out. After his death in 1916, his movement went through leadership crisis, and a large portion of them ultimately became what we now know as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Like the followers of Darby, and Miller before them, they have a lengthy history of being “end times” obsessed, and have set many dates over the years, all of which have been just as wrong as all the other set dates. After their last disappointment in 1975, they stopped officially setting dates and have established a doctrine of no longer being specific about when, rather maintaining vigilance that it could happen any day now.

Image Source: Wikipedia Commons

In 1984 there was an alignment of most of the planets in the Solar System, and many “New Age” prophets of doom started spreading this crazy idea that the collective gravitational pull of all the planets being lined up on the same side of the sun would bring about global cataclysm. Guess what, didn’t happen.

Y2K, in 2000, and 2001, nothing happened.

Is it just me, or isn’t it about time to stop all this insane date setting? Come on people, learn from history. When you set a date, it doesn’t happen. So, let’s just stop wasting our time and energy, and stop setting these silly dates.

Will Camping Re-Calculate?

Now let’s see if Harold Camping is going to re-calculate his date for the “rapture”, or will he come up with some lame explanation for the latest “Great Disappointment”. Face it; Camping is just another Darby, Miller, Russell, sensationalist attention grabber with Biblical delusions of grandeur. There is only one proper solution to the problem presented by this kind of misguided delusional prophet of doom, ignore him. Don’t give him any further attention, for he does not deserve it. Camping was wrong, that makes him a false prophet, so it is now simply time to stop listening to any of his nonsense. Frankly, no one should have ever listened to it to start with. After all, we all know the right date is December 21, 2012, NOT. Honestly, just like all the others, I have no doubt, that date will also come and go and again just like all the others, no doom will happen. We have a long history stretching out before us. Humanity has much to do before the end of our time. We must fix the mess we’ve made of the Earth’s environment, then spread from this world and go to the stars. We must populate the entire galaxy and beyond. That will take many thousands of years, likely even millions of years. We are far from the end. Let’s stop putting so much wasted energy into this whole “end times” obsession. It just isn’t healthy, and is in fact quite counter productive, not to mention a rather sick distraction from our genuine and beautiful destiny, spreading throughout God’s wondrous Universe.

Yet, it is not the first time camping refers to an exact date of doomsday.On September 6, 1994 dozens of followers of Harold Camping Egberd or gathered in the Alameda Veterans Memorial Building with Bibles open to the sky waiting for the descent of Christ on earth, an event that promised him two years Camping And as you know it did not happen. Camping is saying that you appear to have made a mathematical error, which is why he spent the next 10 years doing the math in November finally reaching the correct date of Jesus return to earth is actually May 21, 2011, and the date end of the world, God will destroy the earth is on October 21, 2011.

In 2010 a woman aged 31 years in Colorado Spings U.S. named Mary Exley, after listening to Family Radio station which broadcasts Horald Egberd Camping asked the world to make known this time around the country and the world began spend, being unemployed $ 1,200 on ads that appear on 10 public buses in Colorado Springs with the message: “Save the date! Return of Christ: 21 May 2011 Mary Exley is not one person, and other backers of his rented Camping billboards to promote its May 21, 2011. Amazingly, all 21 on the day, as December 21, 2012.
I wonder what he will say that when you see that Camping was wrong this time too!? We can say that again made a miscalculation and that the world will end on 21 December 2012. And when this time will fail, will not be able to explain where he was wrong because it will probably be dead … to 88 years old, I do not think that will start December 21, 2012 …
True or not, we will find out exactly over four months, until then you can leave comments below with your views. 

21 December, 2012

Many believe that this date is a prophecy of the end of the world because it is the day on which the Maya Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ends. On the subject of this date pointing to a doomsday or cosmic shift event however, the executive director of the Mesoamerican research organization FAMSI, is reported in USA today in 2007 as saying this is, “…a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in…”

Alternatively of course, the world could be hit by a massive comet or near earth object right at the time you’re reading this and you wouldn’t have time to even consider it. Or maybe we might not be so devastatingly lucky.

Perhaps we’ll all slowly die off as a result of a supervolcanic eruption that leaves our world in the grip of a sunshine starved winter for tens, maybe hundreds of years afterward.

Of course we could all be wiped out by the expected and seemingly arriving second phase of swine flu.

Absolutely bizarrely, we could even suffer or perhaps enjoy a complete rehash of human society before any of those things happen, and it may all have been orchestrated by our own thoughts alone.

The desire for the human mind to find pattern where there is no pattern, and meaning where there is no meaning, may have brought us right back to the 2012 prediction. So, as the world grows ever smaller in terms of communication of knowledge, this prediction, however baseless, begins to permeate through more and more of society. More than any other prediction has ever done so, because of our wonderful technological and communication advances such as TV, telephone and internet.

December 2012 arrives, and in the lead up to the 21st, a panic unfolds that has been spreading for the past three years, unavoidable to a world increasingly swayed by what they see on a screen or read in a magazine. Store shelves are empty, gas/petrol station tanks are empty, civil unrest and societal and infrastructure breakdown has happened so rapidly as a result that mankind resorts to survival of the fittest in the most brutal form, just to get their next belly full of food, or their next gulp of clean water. Civilised society as we know it comes to an end. Those who have no knowledge of how to be self sufficient or live off the land, wither and die….

As far fetched as this may sound, consider if you will what rise in fuel price and inevitable truck drivers strike or industrial action might cause you personally to be cautious and fill your petrol/gas tank ‘just in case’, and on your way back, stop off for some bread, milk, water….’just in case’. There have been many such scares through recent history that have very nearly brought areas of our society to a complete stand still.

I am not a religious man, but one common theme it seems, in most any religion you care to look at, predicts that the meek shall inherit the earth. Interpret that as you will, but the results of the societal breakdown I envisage above, could be just one of many interpretations of that phrase.

Interpret predictions and the progress of the human race as you will, ultimately, survival of the fittest is how the race will progress in any future event.

Sleep well, and please, don’t have nightmares.

Now this brings up a whole story upon our idea of what may happen just a few years from now.  Of course with the prediction coming closer, there will be mass religious hysteria all over the world.  But from what?  From what astronomers have seen, there isn’t an asteroid in earth’s path for quite some time.  And I’m sure that we won’t yet create a super AI robot that will take over the world, or destroy it.  What about the world possibly completely falling apart from the inside out, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis.  And what about the possibility of a Second Ice Age, greatly portrayed in the movie The Day After Tomorrow.  Then there is also a possibility of a nuclear war that could occur.  Even now, there are plenty nuclear warheads to cover every major city and country in the world.  Going with the Christian Revelations, what about the Rapture, and people are stuck on earth to live with 7 years of what is described in the Revelations.  So many possibilities, but what will happen?

What I have learned recently has changed my perception of what is going to happen, but I still will think, what if I’m wrong, what may happen?  What I have learned is that the Mayan calender ends on December 21 2012 because it is the end of a cycle.  What could that possibly mean?  They were great astronomers, could this mean that something may happen in space, or to our solar system?  Possibly a great climate shift?  And cycle gives me the hint of the cycle of man’s dominance on earth, what if thats ended (goes along with the paragraph about).  There are too many possibilities, but I know that once I know that something may happen, will happen, or won’t, I’ll be at the place I most want to be.

Image via Wikipedia

If there is one thing that can be said for the human race, it is that they take a small bit of information and blow it out of proportion in a short period of time. Anyone can look at the plithe of the celebrity in the news and notice the effect of this habit. From 0 to 60 in a few nanoseconds, the celebrity that is caught doing something wrong is instantly the hit of all major media. Within hours, or maybe days, the celeb is replaced with another hot story or celebrity fall. The same is not true for the date December 21, 2012. The end of the world is heading our way according to believers. This may be the largest media storm of all time.

Remembering the Year 2000

Many people will remember the year 2000 and the power the media had over the masses. The computer system was going to shut down and all human life was going to halt in its tracks. There would be no communication, no way to get the goods we need to live and no more DEBT (hooray for that one!). The trouble with the year 2000 phenom was that nothing happened. People stored up supplies for years to come; spent their life savings on pallets of water, food and clothing. Nothing happened. Is 2012 on the same path to be the next year 2000?

Taking a Look at the History of 2012

The majority of the people who have no idea about December 21, 2012 will find out the power of that date from Hollywood. In an attempt to play off the fright associated with the date, a major motion picture is being released that covers all of the theories of that fateful date. For the older generation who has been living with the Mayan calendar for a while, this movie will play off the fear already present in the mind.

In reality, the date December 21, 2012 at 11:11 GMT is the end of the Mayan calendar. With this end is supposed to come a catastrophic event that will change the face of the earth. This event could be caused by man or by some other force. For religious believers, God has even been brought into the equation as the cause for the end of days.

What is Real and What is Perception?

The realities of December 21, 2012 are far less exciting. The Mayan calendar is cyclical. This means the calendar is written to a certain date where it then can be restarted and followed again. The Mayans were very smart and would never continue preparing a calendar if they were already finished the research. Just like a Lifetime movie, the dates may change but the information is the same.

Nibiru, The Great Scare

When first heard, this doomsday theory deals a lot of panic to ordinary people. Nibiru is considered the Twelfth Planet or Planet X by Zecharia Sitchin, author of books promoting ancient astronaut theory of the Sumerian culture. According to him, Nibiru was the homeland of alien beings called Anunnaki of the Sumerian mythology. This extraterrestrial race was referred by him as Nephilim, offspring of the “Sons of God” and “daughters of men” as mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4 of the Bible. They arrived here 450,000 years ago to mine gold and genetically engineered Homo sapiens to work as slaves. His works centered on the idea that Nibiru’s orbit around the Sun is highly elliptical with its farthest point beyond the orbit of Pluto and it’s nearest as far side of the asteroid belt bringing it closer to the Sun. It takes 3,600 years to enter our inner solar system. With its immense gravitational pull, it is believed that Nibiru could trigger orbital misalignment of other planets especially Earth, which will result to great tidal waves, mega earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other environmental calamities.

Doomsday Forecast

Internet websites predicted that Nibiru is on its way to destroy Earth in December 21, 2012, the end of the Mayan Calendar. Many videos and articles claim that governments are hiding the truth from the public so as not to create panic and civil disorder. Marshall Masters, publisher of the website yowusa.com even published a survival guide tailored for this cataclysmic event. Is Nibiru really the star mentioned in the Book of Revelation?

Nibiru, a Celestial Phenomenon

1. According to the videos submitted on youtube.com, if Nibiru would come near to Earth, we could experience two suns shining starting on May 2011.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLyli2ctZM&feature=related

2. On December 21, 2012 planetary alignment will take place affecting gravity and tides
3. It is further said that on February 14, 2013, the Earth will move between Nibiru and the Sun, global pole shifting and planetary tilting will take place creating mega tsunamis and earthquakes
4. July 1, 2014, Nibiru will no longer affect our world and will move farther away from our solar system

Finding Nibiru in the Bible

If we link Nibiru with the prophecies presented in the Bible, surely we will take into account the evidences about this celestial phenomenon in the pages of the Holy Scriptures:

1. Nowhere in the Bible mentioned about two suns bringing disasters to mankind. According to Matthew 24:29, Joel 3:14-15 and Mark 13:24, it only talked about one sun that will be darkened, one moon that will not give its light, and numerous stars that will fall from the sky.
2. According to Matthew 24:36, no one knows about that day or hour when the Apocalypse will commence, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Are the Mayan people exempted? Or it is just the doomsayers who are setting December 21, 2012 as the end of the world because it is the end of the baktun (a Mayan Calendar cycle)?

What the Science Says

According to the website Bad Astronomy, planetary alignments have little to do with earthquakes. Every time planetary alignment occurs, doomsayers are predicting that it will cause earthquakes, floods and other great calamities that will beset our planet Earth. Planetary alignments happened in 1982 and in May 2000 but did we experience the end of the world or even the calamities that they’re always predicting along with it?

According to Dr. Sten Odenwald, “From Ask the Astronomer”, a sudden pole shift or drastic changes on the rotation axis of the Earth would cause great earthquakes of magnitude 7 and higher. No area on Earth will escape the 100-500 mile per hour wind it will create. Polar ice caps will melt that will suddenly change the temperature causing seal levels to rise by 30 feet. If it is caused by collision from an asteroid or other heavenly bodies, the result would be more catastrophic sending dust and debris from the atmosphere creating radioactive environment because of too much heat of such disastrous force. Our biosphere will be destroyed, and the only survivors would be bacteria.

Tel Megiddo

The Book of Revelation, specifically Revelation 16:16 mentioned a place called Armageddon:

“Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”

Armageddon or Tel Megiddo to the modern day Israel is an area where battles always occur dating since the ancient times. Here it will be the staging ground for the final battle at the time of Christ’s return. Notice that after with the “wormwood” disaster that fell from the sky in Revelation 8:11, humans still managed to wage war. Is it plausible in the Nibiru theory? The Earth will be bombarded with great calamities due to the presence of a big unknown heavenly body within the inner solar system causing to disrupt its rotational axis, shifting its pole, creating high velocity winds, massive earthquakes, mega tsunamis and volcano eruptions and yet man managed to go to war? What trigger them to go to Armageddon amassing great number of armies where their formidable enemy is nature itself?

A nuclear weapon is a political symbol, a driving force that makes a country to achieve international supremacy, global domination, worldwide recognition and national prestige. One wrong decision to use it will plunge neighboring nations to conflict. Any tyrant and madman is susceptible from the sway of the devil and his minions. These evil spirit beings will do anything to let us destroy ourselves, even urging us to push one button to release the holocaust of nuclear war. If you want to know how the Devil and his minions work to influence and possess us unknowingly, read the article, Beware of the Demons’ Whisper.

http://www.socyberty.com/Paranormal/Beware-Demons-Whisper.666313/1 

Like a Thief in the Night

In 2 Peter 3:10:

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”

According to Gotquestions.org, the “Day of the Lord” is a period of time where the wrath of God Almighty (Rev. 16:4) will be poured out. Notice that it will come like a thief. If Nibiru will come to fulfill the Day of the Lord, it could be predicted like comets, weather, eclipse and other celestial phenomenon. We will know when Nibiru will enter the asteroid belt, the distance it will fly near to the Earth, how many months before it will arrive and so on and so forth. But in a nuclear strike, can we know when it will commence? No. In case of Nibiru, sooner or later astronomers not within holding grasp of the government will discover that it is indeed fast approaching towards Earth. We could be warned months to years of preparation before we could finally feel its impact. While in a nuclear strike, we will be caught off-guard with only days or month of thinking how to survive-if you are lucky enough you are far from ground zero.

Nibiru or Nuclear War?

From the Bible point of view, we could see that the Nibiru doomsday theory is far fetched from reality. It is a myth based on Sitchin’s stories of aliens rather than prophecies of our times. Set dates were also been given, which the Bible clearly reminded that no one knows (not even Jesus) except the Father when will the time of the Apocalypse will be. Celestial manifestation and calamities that the Nibiru will create if it will flyby near Earth or will collide with it is far unbelievable when it comes to science and the Holy Scriptures. If Nibiru is destined to create havoc, chances are that nations all over the world will be too busy preparing for the impending doomsday even cooperating to survive rather than squabble for a piece of land in the Middle East. Governments all over the world could prepare for the impending cataclysm, for an unknown object as large as Nibiru could be detected by amateur astronomers as far as planet Pluto-thus denouncing the Bible’s claim that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

A nuclear war could create the horrifying destruction described in the Bible more accurately, with less intense and not overkill, thus allowing the bitterness (Wormwood) to creep for man to suffer in the Tribulation period. We could not predict it because it is driven politically, and politics worldwide is always unstable-especially in the Middle East where the great battle in Armageddon will take place. A nuclear war is likely to occur in the coming future but it will not end the world. It will be cut short, because Jesus will return to establish the kingdom of God.

For more information regarding nuclear war in prophecy, read Prophesied Nuclear War Will Happen.