A Peculiar Blog

Over the last few months I’ve seen more and more talk about 2012.  People going on and on about how a Mayan calendar “runs out” in December of that year.  This, combined with some astronomical events that are supposedly going to happen then have more and more people talking about it as if the world were really going to end on or around Dec. 21, 2012.

Then, as if that wasn’t getting bad enough all by itself, along comes Hollywood with a movie titled “2012” where they’re turning this whole thing into a massive franchise opportunity.  The movie apparently pulls out all the stops and has the world suffering all of the typical “end of the world” disasters from earthquakes and meteor strikes to one scene I saw in a preview where the special effects guys go all out and have a tsunami drop an aircraft carrier on the White House!

I’ve seen plenty of websites popping up offering to sell ebooks and videos that purport to reveal the truth about 2012 and how to prepare for the cataclysmic disaster that everybody thinks will essentially be the end of life as we know it and possibly the planet itself.

Let me give you a bit of free advice, don’t waste your money.  Spend not one thin dime on such nonsense because that’s exactly what it is, nonsense.  It’s just a bunch of marketers that figure they’ll get rich off of everybody’s fears about the possible end of the world.

Next up, somebody’s going to ask, “Doesn’t the Bible predict the end of the world?” and I have to say it does and it doesn’t.  Frequently, when people talk about the Bible predicting the end of the world they’re talking about this exchange between Jesus and his disciples:

Matthew 24:3, “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

What they don’t realize (and most don’t stop to look up) is that the word “world” in that verse is translated from the Greek aion {pronounced: ahee-ohn’}[strongs number 165] which refers to a period of time, an age.  In fact, the end of that verse would probably be much better translated “and of the end of the age?”.

The age in question being the “Age of grace”, which refers to the time from Jesus’ death on the cross until His return.  This is the time before the judgment during which salvation by faith is available.  When that age ends, the judgement comes when all will judged according to their works and if they’re not covered by having placed their faith in Jesus will meet their fate:

Revelation 20:15, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

As for the timing of these events, and the setting of dates, that’s never worked.  There’s been several times in recent decades when one group or another gets the idea that the world will end on such and such a date and it hasn’t happened yet.  We’re still here and life still goes on.  Setting dates for the “end of the world” or for Jesus’ return, will never work.  Jesus Himself said as much:

Mark 13:32-33, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.  Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.”

In effect, the surest way to guarantee that Jesus will not be returning on a given date is to make a serious prediction trying to convince people that he will.  As for the world itself ending, yes, this current world will eventually be gone but only to be replaced by a new Heaven and a new Earth:

Revelation 21:1-2, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Although I have serious doubts that Dec 2012 is when that’s going to happen.