Does the Mayan calendar prove that the world will end this year? Will there be a third world war as Nostradamus predicted?
The Bible says this about the end times: “No one
knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven” (Mark
13:32). But there’s one thing we do know – that whether the world ends
tomorrow or a million years from now, your body will die someday. Your
soul, on the other hand, will live forever. Will you spend eternity with
God, or in a constant state of suffering and anguish?
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our
sins so we can live forever in God’s presence. All you have to do is
accept God’s free gift of salvation. Don’t live in fear about tomorrow;
turn to Him today and be assured of eternity in heaven.
Question: "What is the year 2012 Mayan prophecy?"
Answer:
The ancient Mayans, in their “Long Count” calendar, had December 21,
2012, as the end of the calendar. This “end” of the Mayan calendar leads
to many different interpretations. Some see it as nothing more than a
reset, the beginning of a new cycle. Others see it as the date for the
end of the world (or at least some type of universal catastrophe). So,
what is the Mayan Long Count calendar, and does it have any relation to
the end of the world?
The Mayans developed their own calendar (The Long Count) ca. 355 B.C.
They were able to use their observations and mathematical prowess to
calculate the future movements of stars across the sky. The result was
that the Mayans discovered the effect of the earth’s wobbling as it
spins on its axis. This wobbling rotation causes the stars’ movements to
drift gradually in the sky (an effect called “precession”) in a
5,125-year cycle. The Mayans also discovered that once every cycle the
dark band at the center of the Milky Way (called the “Galactic Equator”)
intersects the Elliptical (the plane of the sun’s movement across the
sky).
During the year of the intersection, the sun reaches its solstice (a
brief moment when the sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest
angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the
observer) on December 21 for the Northern Hemisphere and June 21 for the
Southern Hemisphere. At that time, the solstice occurs at the same
moment of the conjunction of the Galactic Equator with the Milky Way.
The year this occurs (in relation to our Gregorian calendar) is A.D.
2012, and happened last on August 11, 3114 B.C. With Mayan mythology
teaching that the sun is a god and the Milky Way is the gateway to life
and death, the Mayans concluded that this intersection in the past must
have been the moment of creation. Mayan hieroglyphs seem to indicate
that they believed the next intersection (in 2012) would be some sort of
end and a new beginning of a cycle.
All the so-called “Mayan prophecies of 2012” are nothing more than
wildly speculative extrapolations, based on the yet-uncertain
interpretations by scholars of Mayan hieroglyphs. The truth is that,
apart from the astrological convergence, there is little indication that
the Mayans prophesied anything specific regarding the events in their
distant future. The Mayans were not prophets; they were not even able to
predict their own cultural extinction. They were great mathematicians
and accomplished sky watchers, but they were also a brutally violent
tribal people with a primitive understanding of natural phenomena,
subscribing to archaic beliefs and the barbaric practices of
blood-letting and human sacrifice. They believed, for example, that the
blood of human sacrifices powered the sun and gave it life.
There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that would present December 21,
2012, as the end of the world. The Bible nowhere presents the
astronomical phenomena the Mayans pointed to as a sign of the end times.
It would seem inconsistent of God to allow the Mayans to discover such
an amazing truth while keeping the many Old Testament prophets ignorant
of the timing of the events. In summary, there is absolutely no biblical
evidence that the 2012 Mayan prophecy should be considered a reliable
prediction of doomsday.
Also included in the ancient Mayan prediction that December 21, 2012,
would be the end of the world are the following theories: our sun is a
god; the sun is powered by the blood of human sacrifice; the creation
moment occurred at 3114 B.C. (despite all evidence that it happened much
earlier); and the visual alignment of stars has some significance for
everyday human life. Like every other false religion, the Mayan religion
sought to elevate the creation instead of the Creator Himself. The
Bible tells us about such false worshipers: “They exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the
Creator” (Romans 1:25), and “since the creation of the world God’s
invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are
without excuse” (Romans 1:20). To accept the Mayan 2012 prophecy is also
to deny the clear biblical teaching about the end of the world. Jesus
told us, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels
in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32).
© Copyright 2002-2012 Got Questions Ministries.
That's plain enough! We know that the Lord has yet to reign for a thousand years anyway.
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