2012 The End

[Pumpkin_Man]

RisingDeadMan, that is EXACTLY what all these doom sayers want to do. They want to freak you out, insire fear and have everhone huddlbe under a rock some place, trembling in fear and then when the prophecy fails to materialize, they go from being afraid to feeling stupid. The worst aspect to this whole thing is that when the world finaly does end, when the Antichrist does come to power, or Armagedden does finaly break out, a lot of people are not going to realize it. They will figure it to be another "cracked pot" prediciton of the end of the world.

NOBODY KNOWS. NOBODY KNOWS when the antichrist is going to come to power. NOBODY KNOWS when Christ is going to return to Earth. NOBODY KNOWS when the great War of Armagedden is going to break out. NOBODY KNOWS, except for God the Father Himself. He didn't confide his Secrets in me, and I'm sure He didn't confide them in all these con men on lat night tv and the Internet trying to sell "Survival Kits," or space in an underground bunker.

Mike

[Nostalgiascape]

I dont know about 2012 exactly, but I do believe its close. However I don't care to try and scare anyone over it, as I am not afraid myself.

[Andybev01]

I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to freaking out over stuff like this.

I'll read all sorts of blogs about recent events overlayed with traditional writings about the apocalypse and my over active imagination starts to work overtime.

[shanda]

The Bible says the "Day of the Lord shall come like a thief in the night"

I have told my kids that if one of our calendars were found 1000 years from now, They may think that our world would end Dec 31!

I think the Myan thing is just a cycle in the universe. A big calendar. Brilliant that they could see the planets and plot their movements and rotations. But a calendar, none the less.

And if I am wrong, well then, Bring it on. I am ready.

[MacPhantom]

People have been predicting the end of times for as long as they've been writing and thinking, and the predictions are always wrong. Jesus predicted it would come in a generation, and it never did (Luke 21:32). The Toledo Letter predicted the world would end in 1186. In 1948, George Orwell, while not predicting the end of the world, predicted a terrible world in 1984, which was ironically the year that the movie The Terminator came out, predicting end times as occurring on August 29, 1997 (happy birthday to me!!!).

Remember when the changing of the year 1999 to 2000 was gonna be the end? Remember how many people thought that 9/11 was the beginning of Armageddon? And now it's 2012. And in the year 2013, someone else will be predicting 2020. None of it is anything more than the psychological desire of human beings to make their insignificant lives seem more meaningful.

Think about it. A human life is a terribly short thing in the span of the Earth's existence. Most of us will never leave a lasting impression on the world. We have a circle of friends and family who love us and to whom we matter, but once we are gone, and our circle is gone, no-one will have any idea that we ever existed at all. Think about one of the most important decisions of your life. Now think about your great great grandfather. If you are lucky enough to know anything about him at all (even his name), I seriously doubt you have any idea what was the most important decision of his life, but when he made that decision, it was all consuming. It seemed the world to him. But now, in the grand scheme of things, that decision was so insignificant no-one even knows he ever agonized over it.

So what do we short-lived, insignificant mortals do when confronted with our impending death and ultimate insignificance? We create stories to make us feel more important. "The world won't outlast me; I'll outlast the world!!" Unfortunately, sometimes those stories have the opposite effect, causing anxiety and distress in a life that is filled with enough of both already. Even worse, these stories sometimes lead people to waste their lives planning for something that will never happen, or committing horrible acts in anticipation of these events.

Don't worry about the world; it doesn't worry about you. It was here long before you, and will be here long after you are gone. Take the time you have to enjoy life as much as possible, to cause the least harm to others that you can, and don't get worked up or worried about things you can't know and can't control.

[Pumpkin_Man]

MacPhantom, those are some good points. Nobody knows when the 'end of days' is going to happen. And the Mayan Calender is just that. A calender and nothing more.

The only thing that I disagree with you on was the part about the end comming in a generation. When Jesus refered to the generation, he was refering to the Jewish people. He stated very clearly that only God the Fahter knows when the end will be, and when Christ will return to earth. Him, and ONLY HIM knows when it's going to be. The angels don't know, the saints don't know, even Jesus Himself didn't know in a knowledge that he could communicate to others.

Mike

[MacPhantom]

According to Christian theology, is not Jesus also God? I understand the concept of God the Father and God the Son, but find the idea that they are simultaneously one thing and two separate things to be logically inconsistent.

If Jesus is God, and God is infallible, and Jesus said "this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled", than it follows that that is what he meant. If he meant the Jewish people, he would have said the Jewish people. Unless he made a mistake. Which, if he is infallible, he is incapable of.

Thoughts?

[Ghoul of the Graves]

I don't think anything is gonna happen, but my soon-to-be-stepsister is all worried about it. I just roll my eyes, nothing will happen I'm almost certain. Next time my future-stepsister starts worrying I'll remind her about the Y2K fears, and make her feel better.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Mac, nobody knows what Jesus meant when he said "This Generation." He could have been refering to the Jewish People, He could have been refering to a generation of people living in the end times, he could have been refering to all kinds of things. The Bible is one of the most difficult documents to interpret, especialy when it comes to end time prophecy.

And yes, I do believe that Jesus is God, and He probably does know when the end is to come, but for some reason He couldn't communicate it to his apostles. I read that in the footnotes of a very old Catholic Edition Bible that my older brother had when he was in high school. The exact phrase int he note was ".......in a knowledge that He could communicate......"

Mike

[Pumpkin_Man]

Goul, that is exactly the way I look at it. Over the past 50 years, I have seen so many 'end of the world' prophecies come and go it isn't even funny. The very year I was born, 1960, the world was supposed to be consumed by a nuclear holocause, and a couple of years later, that almost did happen when the Cuban Missile Crises heated up. We were all huddled inour basement, I was just 2 at the time so I don't remember, I'm relating this to you as I was told about it by an older siblign. We had a finished basement. We had all kinds of canned foods and containers of water, and the tv was on. There was a portable battery operated transistor radio on top of the basement tv, a huge counsel black & white, which they were all glued to through out this crises.

And NOTHING HAPPENED. Nothing happened in 1980, 1988, 1996, 1997, 2000, and NOTHING WILL HAPPEN in 2012.

Mike

[MacPhantom]

The Bible is one of the most difficult documents to interpret, especialy when it comes to end time prophecy.

I think the difficulty level is different depending on what approach one takes to the Bible, and whether they view it as a divinely inspired sacred text, a semi-historical document, or a compilation of various historical and fictional stories as recorded by many different people. I know you and I disagree on which of these best describes the Bible, so I think we'll have to agree to disagree. But I'm glad we are able to touch the edges of a very tricky subject to discuss in polite company and still manage to keep the discourse civil. I think it's also interesting to note that, despite our different views of the world, we agree on the folly of trying to predict the time and manner of its end. There is always common ground to be found!

[Andybev01]

Mac Mac Mac...

You would either make or break a good party.

[MacPhantom]

It's definitely the latter, mate. Trust me.

[Spookymufu]

like Buzz Killington?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcyiskNIiBI

[Andybev01]

...and do you bring your own soap box?