Many pictures and films have showed cataclysmic events leaving people in myriad of emotions. Fear and terror, wonder and doubt, even mockery has enveloped the hearts and minds of the masses about the end of the world predictions. Many have prophesied, many have interpreted, but when is the exact time when the world is coming to its end?
The Mayan calendar has been making a clamor these days with its “predictions” about the world’s end since we have come to the year 2012 where the Mayan had stopped counting days. Does this mean life is really going to end this time, for real? And do the Mayans only have a say on this?
WHO ARE THESE MAYANS AND WHAT’S WITH THEIR CALENDAR, ANYWAY?
The Mayans were said to be a very highly developed civilization and were to be found in the jungle of Mexico and Central America. In the whole of ancient America, it was said that the Mayans were the most developed. The Mayans were found to be very intelligent as supported by their books, calendars, study of Astronomy and number system.
The Mayan calendar is a system of complex and highly developed calendars created by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Since it is a system of highly developed calendars, they have three series of calendars including the Tzol’kin, a sacred 260-day calendar; the Haab, a 365-day calendar and the calendar round which is a 52-haab cycle synchronizing the Tzol’kin and Haab cycles.
A “LONG COUNT” CALENDAR: AS IF THREE ISN’T ENOUGH?
According to the “Goodman, Martinez-Hernandez, and Thompson” correlation (also known as “GMT”) this was said to have started at [0.0.0.0.0] (Maya record) on August 11, 3114 BC. “GMT” was the most widely accepted correlation between the Maya and Gregorian calendar. It was said that this cycle is 1,872,000 days in length and would end on December 21 (ad 2012) which falls on the winter solstice. Lounsbury, another widely used correlation, states that the start-day was August 13, 3114 BC and the end that would be December 23, AD 2012.
SO THIS MEANS THE 21ST OF DECEMBER 2012 MARKS THE DOOMSDAY, RIGHT?
Luke 21:5-11 (KJV)
v.7 Then they asked him”Teacher, when will this happen?” And what sign will there be and when all these things are about to happen? 8 He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am He’, and ‘The time has come’. Do not follow them!
v.9 When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” 10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will powerful earthquakes, famines and plagues from place to place; and awesome sight and mighty signs will come from the sky.”
In verse seven notice that Jesus was asked as to when the end times will come. We could say that the word “they” was used to refer to his apostles (or maybe the disciples). And those people would have been the closest to him. If you will be in Jesus’ shoes you could simply answer the question straightly and give a specific time since the ones who were asking were really close friends, right? Jesus simply did not. He enumerated signs but did not exactly tell when these things shall happen or come to an end.
Wars, famines, earthquakes, plagues and mighty signs were spoken of. Which one of these has not yet been experienced in a thousand years? None. All of which came to pass and surely there will be more to come. But this does not assure the immediate end of the world.
Why would Jesus tire himself of a lengthy answer when he could have given the exact date? Maybe he does not want them to pay more attention to the coming end but to focus on what they can do while they were living and serving for Him. Maybe he wanted to focus on their purpose and calling and work on it rather than do nothing but wait for the end of the world that surely will come.
A SLICE OF HISTORY BEFORE THE WORLD ENDS
Wars and Conflicts
Great wars had passed, alright. There was the First and Second World War. And there is still the wars occurring in the Middle East; in Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and even in Israel just to name a few. Conflicts are everywhere. Nations cause fear among other nations. The world’s history has been a witness to these conflicts. One of those memorable and shaking conflicts occurred September 11, 2009 when the Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, in United States of America killing nearly 3,000 people. There were many more to date and we do not have to enlist them just to point that conflicts and wars existed are still existing.
Earthquakes
Japan and Haiti were just the recent among the many earthquakes that happened all over the world for a very long period of time. We have no records of the most previous earthquakes that occurred when people are not yet gathering them for keepsakes so we cannot tell exactly how many have already passed by.
Plagues
AH1N1, Swine flu, Avian Influenza, SARS; these are just some of the diseases that broke out and created such a widespread chaos among the nations. There was the HIV-AIDS that still threaten and takes a hold to many lives.Not to mention the diseases that have already been a "household" disease.
Famines and Droughts
Here is the list we have found on the internet regarding the worst famines that had occurred around the world to date. (http://www.ranker.com/list/the-worst-droughts-and-famines-in-history/drake-bird)
1. Great Chinese Famine - from 1958 to 1961, as few as 15 million and as many as 43 million were killed as a result.
2. Chinese Famine of 1907 - In a matter of months an estimated 24 million people were killed.
3. Indian Famine - took place between 1896 and 1902, claimed an estimated 19 million lives.
4. Bengal Famine of 1770 – took place between 1969 and 1773 in what is a now part of Bangladesh. An estimated 15 million perished in the famine, which was blamed on greedy principles from the British East India Company's rule.
5. Northern Chinese Famine - this disaster lasted from 1876 to 1879 and is believed to have killed 13 million people.
6. Indian Great Famine of 1876-78 - took the lives of as many as 10.3 million, affected over 250,000 square miles in India. The two-year famine also distressed over 58 million in the Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad and Bombay areas.
7. Great European Famine - was actually a series of crises. The tragedy, that killed an estimated 7.5 million people, was caused by strange weather and unrelenting rains.
8. Soviet Famine of 1932-33 - remembered by some as the Holodomor, a term that translates to "hungry mass death." Between seven and 10 million were killed in the area, which is now part of the Ukraine and Siberia, among other areas.
9. Chinese Famine of 1936
Hitting China over a few months in 1936, the Asian country lost an estimated five million people during the Chinese Famine of 1936. This incident was one of several to affect China during the first part of the 20th century.
10. Russian Famine of 1921
Though it may have killed as many as 10 million, the Russian Famine of 1921 is considered to have resulted in five million deaths. This disaster affected the Volga-Ural region and was believed to be as a result of hard times during World War I.
FACTUAL FORECAST
Many people constructed “predictions” and made “prophecies” about the world’s doom. Some have proven themselves phony for after the date they have released, the earth is still revolving around the sun; the people are still busy with their businesses. The gathered facts above were presented so that you would be able to make your own conclusion as to when really will the earth stand still and everything will end.
v.7 Then they asked him”Teacher, when will this happen?”
Like the disciples, we might also want to ask, with all the commotion and chaos that are already present, “when will these things come to an end, really?”
V.9 when you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will powerful earthquakes, famines and plagues from place to place; and awesome sight and mighty signs will come from the sky.”
Again, we gathered the facts that can be read above so that we can examine this. Many we have heard of the wars, the powerful earthquakes that threatened the hearts of humanity. Many are the lives lost in the famines and plagues that have been experienced. Many even are the signs that we have seen across the sky, most can be explained by the Science.
“…for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.
These things are just the mark of the beginning for the things to come. And when all these things have passed and then the end will draw near. The fact is these already happened. They are still happening even. So we can expect that the end may be nearer but not nearer than it could have been beforetime. Who would have known, it could be this year, as “predicted” or maybe next month, next week even, or tomorrow. Maybe the end is today. Doom’s day may be knocking it’s way on the door. See for yourself.
V.32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32, KJV)
Hey there, we found a good read about the same topic. Check this out:
Gyaboo! God Bless!
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