2012: TEOTW, or TEOTWAWKI?

Inspired by a recent conversation on another blog.

2012: The end of the world, or the The end of the world as we know it.

Doomsday prophecies have been around since before the era of Christ, and some were written down during the era of Christ. Of all the prophetic visions, though, none has become more popular and more studied than the doomsday prophecies of the Torah, the Bible, and the Koran. Many a faithful person and preacher has done every single mathematical calculation and Biblical referencing to attempt to discover when the End of the World would occur. I remember hearing of one occurrance, during the Dark Ages, where a preacher had convinced his flock that the End was Nigh...well, it was for that community because they went to the church and prayed rather than taking care of their flocks and fields, and they starved that winter.

After 1900 years, people began to doubt these calculations, so some turned to Nostradamus in an attempt to discover when the end of the world may be, and who the prophecied anti-Christ was. And it seems that all of those attempts to decipher his quatrains proved fruitless as well.

So, now people are turning to the Mayan Calendar. For those who don't know, the Mayan calendar is an excessively acurate calendar (even more accurate than our current Romanized Calendar with leap years). It has lasted 5,125 years, with various prophecies written in, and seems to end on Dec. 21 or Dec. 23, 2012. So now, it has become the b***h of the Christian prophecy.

But there is one thing we have to remember...nearly all prophecies made have come true. Its just...no one noticed ! If you look at Jesus' End of Times prophecy, it already happened...probably between 70 A.D. and 80 A.D. when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, during the time when most of the disciples were still alive. (Remember: "This generation shall not pass away"...he was speaking to his disciples, not to us 2000 years later).

But despite the fact that I, and others, believe that the prophecy of Yeshua ben Yusef had already been fulfilled, many are still looking for it to come. Why? Because the entire Earth has not been destroyed. And the good Christians of the Earth are still stuck here with us Schmucks who...well, lets just us those of us Schmucks who aren't perfect enough to get into Eden.

So, Christians have turned to the Mayan calendar. If the Calendar ends at that time, then so should the world. Correct?
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Perhaps not.
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The Mayans were a bit more honest about their prophecies. They flat out admitted that to them, "The End of the World" really meant the end of an era. And if we truly look at some of the more popular prophecies, such as Jesus' "End of the World" and the Viking Ragnarok, they did come true...just, no one noticed because they were looking for the actual physical end of the world, just as I said before. Add to that, one psychic who entertains me (who also said don't fly on the East Coast in August and September of 2001, interestingly enough), she, too, said that things will change that year, but does see a future for us many years later. And she admits that she cannot see 100 years beyond that, but says it just may be that she's not allowed to see that far.

The Mayan calendar ends in Decemeber 2012. How many of us have a calendar that goes on for more than 5000 years? It could be they ran out of space. It could be they couldn't see, prophetically, that far into the future. It could be that the rest of the Calendar was written somewhere else, and is currently a pile of dust somewhere. Or it could be that they simply got tired of writing it, and thought someone in the future would continue the calendar. After all, the Calendar is said to reset after 13 Baktun's (a baktun being 144,000 days). Who knows? Just because my calendar ends on Decemeber 31st of this year doesn't mean that there will be no 2010.

And finally, some of the Mayan prophecy is defaced. The words are broken off. So it is unclear whether there will a great war in 2012, or a great celebration because things will change for the better, or whether some Mayan King had simply declared that there will be a major party to celebrate the new 13 Baktuns.

Or, as the alluded to psychic says, "Who cares? If the end of the world does come, we'll all end up in the same place anyway. Now go home and worry about that." Of course, she says this while rolling her eyes.



Still worried? Allright then...prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. We are all hard-wired to look for patterns of threat. But we cannot allow those alledged threats to ruin the lives we have today. We have to continue to love those we love, and work towards a brighter future. The worst thing about End of the World prophecies is that it brings a hopelessness and depression that can ruin a life, and the lives of those around you. Remember my first story of the people, following their preacher's words, did not tend to their fields and spent the time praying instead. It is a horror story that has replayed over and over again, particularly in the past 200 years. Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. Its all we can do, with or without a doomsday prophecy.