In tens days, on Friday the 13th, Hollywood's next blockbuster movie "2012" opens in theaters worldwide, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the front lawn of the White House.
Thats not all... The Great Wall of China crumbles and thousands of screaming tourists plummet to their deaths. Then the destruction reaches merry old England. A massive earthquake sends Big Ben crashing to the ground and destroys the newly-built Olympic stadium... the one now being built for the 2012 Olympics. Across America great surges in rivers drown millions and plunging asteroids turn towns and cities into smoking ruins.
Those who are lucky enough to survive the initial onslaught of destruction flee in terror, but there’s no where to run...for this is the ultimate catastrophe... the end of the world as fortold by the intricate and complex Mayan calendar.
The Mayan calendar fortells the end of the world? The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical Aztec civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize. Today, they are renown in doomsday prophecy discussions surrounding their ancient calendar, which many believe predicts the end of time in the year 2012.... hence the movie’s title.
The Mayan calendar is divided into Seven Ages of Man. In the mythology of the Aztecs, the first age of mankind ended with animals devouring humans. The second age was finished off by wind, the third by fire, and the fourth age by water.
According to their calendar, humanity is living in the fifth age which began on Day Zero–– August 11, 3114 B.C. and will end on December 21, 2012. The Mayan calendar comes to an abrupt end but resets itself again to Day Zero, December 22, 2012. Predictions are that the fifth age of the world ends in catastrophe. Only a few people will survive the end of the fifth age.
But wait, there’s a morning after! Day Zero simply marks the beginning of a new calendar cycle. The end of one age is the dawn of another age! According to the Mayans in the coming ages, humanity will realize its spiritual destiny, discover God within ourselves, and in the seventh age we will become so spiritual that we will be telepathic.
Really, do people take this stuff seriously? Unfortunately, the answer is yes! The scientific community has been researching the calendar and its prophesies for decades, attempting to explain the massive cataclysmic events predicted. The most expensive resort hotels in the world are booked out ten years in advance for that fateful night. Fear is palpable. A Cornell University, a research scientist says people are scared. "It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," the researcher said. "We had a mother of two young children who is afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."
There’s a big problem with how the Mayan calendar tracks time. It’s essentially circular... a series of cycles beginning and ending with Day Zero. To the Mayans, time was something that could be slowed down, and even stopped, through sacrifices and elaborate ceremony to their Sun gods. They got it all wrong.
Time is linear. Time has a beginning, a middle, and eventually an end. Within this linear concept of time, the idea of prophesying the end of the world seems to be natural. In fact, there are many contemporary prophets––single individuals and religious organizations who have predicted the end of time, numerous times.
For those who have taken up the calling of doomsday prophet, seizing upon the Mayan Day Zero as evidence of the end of the world, or perhaps the end of the world as we know it, is a useful and convenient piece of history to perpetuate their apocalyptic worldview.
God has something to do with time... the end of the world, when it will happen and how it will happen... don’t you think? Last time I checked, the Mayans and all the Aztec cultures were just like us... humans born into a sin-filled world who grew old and died. No evidence exists to suggest they ever manipulated "time" in their favor.
The end of the world as we know it... is God’s business not mans. God has not given any one people group on earth any special knowledge of end time events, the dates of such events or the nature of what willl happen. What He has done, is reveal to all of humanity through His Word the Bible what we must do to be prepared for the end of the world. Preparation is essential and critically important.
Near the end of Jesus earthly ministry, his disciples asked him a question that has intrigued people ever since... As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3 NIV).
People in every generation since have wondered about this question. Will the world end in my lifetime? How? Why? When? What does the Bible really say about this crucial and disturbing question?
Religious people aren't the only ones asking these questions. That’s why people are consumed by the implications of the Mayan calendar and movies like 2012 are destined to be blockbusters. People from all walks of life have expressed concern about the possibility of the end of the world as we know it. Politicians, educators and scientists foresee the potential destruction of our world from a number of causes—including nuclear warfare, environmental disaster, planetary pollution, overpopulation, killer diseases and collision with a comet or asteroid. Hollywood has made a movie about each of these cataclysmic events.
Scoffers, naysayers and many others, say there is no need to be concerned about the world ending. Such criticism is justified to a point. Doomsday predictions have abounded for centuries. They can point to epidemics of end-time panic that have raged in the past. They can list numerous failed predictions made by religious groups about the end of the world. Among the more notable failed predictions was made by Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were convinced that the world would end in 1975, but it didn’t. Date-setters have been wrong every single time. The world is still here.
But it’s not going to last forever... it’s going to end... but probably not on December 23, 2012. For now, be comforted by this fact... "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son.... only the Father." Matthew 24:36.
Next Tuesday, November 10th I’ll discuss the Biblical view of the end of the world. It’s all about “preparation”. When Christ returns... are you prepared to meet him? Can you confidently stand before the Living God?
