2012 is almost here- you can mourn the Mayan prophecy or have Hope in Him

Doesn't that seem strange to you? With all the hype for so long about the Mayan prophecy of the world ending on December 21, 2012, now this portentous year is actually here. In 2009 I wrote about the Maya mania. I'd said it was pretty ridiculous. In fact, the world according to the Mayans does not end. In part, I'd said,

"Their daily calendar was of 260 days but their "long count" or b'ak'tun calendar toted up long periods of time, from a mythological starting point equivalent to August 11, 3114 BC. "Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is the basis for a New Age belief that a cataclysm will take place on December 21, 2012. December 20, 2012 is simply the last day of the 13th b'ak'tun. But that is not the end of the Long Count because the 14th through 20th b'ak'tuns are still to come." Their long count calendar went through cycles, and cycles end. 12 previous cycles have ended without incident. One such cycle is slated to end on December 21, 2012, but the news is that a new cycle begins immediately. According to the Mayans, the world does not end."

The more ridiculous thing is putting stock in any prophecy besides the ones Jesus gives us. THOSE are 100% accurate, guaranteed, all the time.

It's weird, I remember watching a documentary about the Mayan prophecy of the world ending when I was in my late teens or early 20s. So this would be somewhere between 1978 and 1985. It wasn't Leonard Nimoy's documentary, I found that online and watched it. No, I distinctly remember the last scene of this program. The program had been expounding on the Baktun long count and the end of the world. At that time, the 'prophecy' was decades away, but the documentary made it sound ominous. The final scene was of a Mayan elder, dressed in headdress and loin cloth. He was standing with his back to a dense jungle foliage, looking at the camera, which was across a narrow but deep ravine. A hemp rope bridge separated the Elder from the camera, and the viewer. He said a few short words in his language, and then looked mournfully at the camera. He slowly turned, and parted the jungle leaves, and entered in. The camera remained focused on the spot he had been standing until the leaves ceased shaking. The narrator said something like, "The world will end. Will we listen...?"

I wasn't saved then so I didn't know about Jesus. But it was the first time I gave deep thought to the fact that this planet might indeed not go on as it has always been. I did not begin "saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." (2 Peter 3:4). I am a science fiction fan, having watched my share of movies and read many books by Gene Roddenberry, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and the like...and I'd seen or read my share of planets blowing up. But this was the first time I thought about my planet blowing up. Hmmm.

The Lord draws us to Him. (John 6:44). I believe He does this all our lives, until we make a decision one way or the other, or until our fleshly desires become so pervasive that He gives us over to them and hardens our heart. (Psalm 81:12,  Acts 7:39-42, Romans 1:24). All along now I see, there were little forks in the road, at which I mulled, and each time I responded to His drawing. When I was ten, my Aunt told me about the rapture and the people coming out of the graves and lifted up with those who were living to meet Jesus in the air. That picture stayed with me, the people popping out of the graves. I responded as a kid, drawn to the more gory part, but also responded through my soul, and began wondering about life after death. In my twenties, this Mayan documentary made me wonder about the world ending. In my thirties I traveled the world and saw the complexity and fragility of the creation and began wondering about a Creator.

Mark 4:1-9 is the Parable of the Sower who sowed seed in different kinds of ground and the seed's response to it. I think as long as we keep the door of our hearts open, He continues sowing. He sees who responds because He is the only one who can see the heart.

Will the world end as the Mayans say on December 21 2012? Only Jesus knows. He did say that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." (2 Peter 3:10). But the world will be remade and become a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1, Isaiah 65:17).

My prayer for you is that your heart is the good ground  that the Sower sows the Gospel seeds upon. That you heed the warnings of the Christ and not the Maya, that the world WILL end one day, at His timing, but those of us in Christ will be forever with Him. It is not a fearful, mournful thing, but a hopeful one. The Greatest Hope of all! 2012 begins, and I wait. "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee." (Psalms 39:7)

Comments

  1. This is not a prediction of a timeline: I will be willing to bet that there are many carnal Christians who will believe just about anything that will fall in some measure for the Mayan (Mystery Babylon, Satanic prophecy). People at some point will just give up on who and what to believe and will lose all hope. It is just a distraction that the enemy is using to throw anyone who will listen. Of all the days that the world could end on it probably won't be December 21st 2012. NO MAN KNOWS THE HOUR OR THE DAY. He will return like a thief in the night. Are you ready though, if he should come within the next hour? That is really the question, He's coming back!Soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy New Years Eve. Welcome 2012!! Come Lord Jesus, we await your arrival.

    God bless you Elizabeth!
    <><

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Child of God! Happy New Year to you as well. God bless you :)

    Hi Jeff, Happy New Year :) I think 2012 could be the year He returns. I hope it is!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Elizabeth, I too hope this is the year He returns! I am watching and waiting with longing to go HOME!

    Happy New Year to you!

    May I share these thoughts and poem:

    "Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (II Peter 3:8-9 NIV)

    Each day is a gift from the Creator of our days. Since my birth, and new birth, how have I used the days (25,550 days!) He has given me? At the end of Time, will I have regrets or will I enter His presence and hear Him say, "Enter, good and faithful servant"?

    A NEW YEAR

    A day is to the Lord as a thousand years;
    And a thousand years is as a day!
    Should Christ come this moment,
    Will He find me ready?
    Can I face Him?
    What will I say?

    Another day I've been granted;
    Yesterday is gone.
    Should Christ come this moment,
    Will He find me ready?
    Can I face Him?
    Will my heart rejoice in song?

    Another year upon me!
    How many have I seen?
    Precious days and months and hours --
    Moments, oh, so keen!
    Should Christ come this moment,
    Will he find me ready?
    Can I face Him?
    Or will I "wish this was a dream"?

    A simple human being,
    Given time in this old earth,
    To love and worship and adore
    The One who gave me birth.
    "Lord, should You come this moment,
    I'll be ready, come what may --
    For my greatest desire, Lord,
    Is to trust You and obey!"

    "Thank you, Lord, for the gift of each new day;
    May I use them wisely, according to Your will and Your way."

    © Sharon A. O. Maxwell, 2010

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Sharon,

    Happy New Year! Thank you for the poem! It is wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  6. "I will be willing to bet that there are many carnal Christians who will believe just about anything that will fall in some measure for the Mayan (Mystery Babylon, Satanic prophecy). People at some point will just give up on who and what to believe and will lose all hope. It is just a distraction that the enemy is using to throw anyone who will listen."

    Jeff, there definitely are. I made a comment in another post that my brother came to me just this morning and showed me something about a webbot PROPHECY. A ROBOT. I just told him that God was in control no matter what and that we are in his hands. This year is going to be intense but we just have to be the ones that point people to the only true hope that is in Christ.

    Also I wish everyone a Peaceful and Blessed New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The two guys behind the webbots had a really interesting thing going. It was used starting in 1997 to predict stock trends. It was based on the premise of a collective consciousness, where people speak things they are not aware they know, and that some people speak of what they know (like the government making cryptic statements in interviews that are then posted based on intelligence,) and that between the two if a computer could collect those utterances (say, on the internet forums and boards and online ) and piece them together then a fore-telling kind of informational system could be garnered. The two guys say that the Web Bot works by using a form of the Wisdom of Crowds, with spiders that search the internet for about 300,000 keywords with emotional context and record the preceding and following words to create a "snapshot."

    Since no one understands how consciousness works or how memory works, the idea had some legs in the beginning. For example, the guys said that their bot predicted 9/11 half a year ahead.

    However, with the continual pasting and repasting of their predictions, it diluted the pristine pool of information and it became harder for the bot to figure out what was freshly said and what was a reposting of previous predictions. The 'Wisdom of Crowds' got muddy. They guys admitted that this was a problem they had yet to overcome. So by 2008, 2009, 2010, the dilution had dampened the effectiveness of the program and what was vague to say the least to begin with, petered out. In no way can it be used for prophecy by reasonable people. It was only a stock program turned transhumanism exercise anyway.

    Their following predictions failed:
    --A massive earthquake in Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest was predicted to occur on 12 December 2008.
    --A "global coastal event " in mid-2009, which Ure and High said that they recommended people to stay away from coastal areas.
    --A complete collapse of the US dollar beginning in 2009.
    --2009- The US dollar completely collapses, or Israel bombs Iran. In reaction to this crisis, administration of U.S. President Barack Obama would have been thrown into major chaos ten days later.
    --July 8th, 2010 - The web bot predicts a major terrorist attack
    --November 11th, 2010 - The web bot warns of a big tipping point possibly World War III
    --December 14th, 2010 - The web bot predicts the first missile launch of World War III

    Now, any prediction that fails means the prophet is bad. So, end of weebbot.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh I forgot one more comment on webbot: the computer program likely had some success in the beginning with predicting stocks and maybe success predicting terror attack because those were one time events with information stemming from a discrete pool of knowledge from few people having that knowledge. Predicting an earthquake is vaporous at best.

    ReplyDelete
  9. do not know the day nor hour, but what did he say about when you see the abomination of desolation in the holy place..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi anonymous,

      The day nor hour goes for the Tribulation's end when Jesus comes int he clouds for all to see, not the rapture. At the outset of the Tribulation, the antichrist will confirm a covenant of peace with Israel. This is presumably after one of the prophesied Israel vs. everyone else wars such as Isaiah 17, or Psalm 83 or even Ezekiel 38-39, but no one knows for sure. Anyway, he will confirm a covenant as Daniel 9:27 says

      "And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

      But the people remaining on earth (the church will have been raptured) will not know exactly who he is. His identity will not be revealed until the abomination of desolation occurs

      "Matthew 24:15 (KJV): “So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand.”

      This is referring to Daniel 9:27. When the Jews see the antichrist stand in the temple (holy place) and desecrate it, demanding that HE be worshiped instead of God, and he tears up the covenant, they will know they made a terrible mistake. That is when Jesus said in Matthew 24 that when they see that happen, not to stop for anything because the persecution will begin right away.

      Delete

Post a Comment