The End Is Near

The End Is Near: December 21, 2012 - J.L. Robb - http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7403 NEW YORK (Reuters) - - Nearly 15 percent of people worldwide believe the world will end during their lifetime and 10 percent think the Mayan calendar could signify it will happen in 2012, according to a new poll. This was a Reuters report May 1, 2012. Think about that. Ten percent of the world population thinks the world, as we know it, will end this year because of interpreted predictions of Mayan prophecy and the predictions of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton and the Hopi Indians, among others. That’s about 700,000,000 people. So how is the world preparing for the coming devastation? They're partying! According to a FOX News report March 20, 2012: Over the coming weeks Cancun's visitors bureau will put the finishing touches on their end of the world celebration plans for the city many of them including good food, good wine and good company. If one can't fit the end of the world party in Cancun into your schedule, there are websites that will help you plan your own party. What is it with the 21st of the month and the end of the world predictions? Last year Harold Camping said the end of the world (EOTW) was going to be May 21, 2011. Didn't happen. Then Harold acknowledged he made an error and changed the EOTW date to October 21, 2011. That didn't happen either; or at least if it did, sure weren't many people raptured! I woke up October 22 in a cold sweat, thinking I didn't make the cut. But alas, neither did any of my friends or family. Now we have to worry about December 21, 2012, the end of the Mayan Calendar. Mainstream TV hasn't covered the upcoming, potential apocalypse, and apparently gives these theories no credence. However, if you watch educational television, ie. History Channel, Discovery Channel and National Geo, you will see programming that heavily leans toward the apocalypse coming at any time, maybe even tomorrow. Last week I watched Seven Ways the World Might End, or maybe it was ten ways; but by the time we got through Gamma Ray Bursts, super-volcanic eruptions and 3000 foot tsunamis caused by earthbound asteroids, I needed a drink! It was downright scary. According to Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the international poll for Reuters, 16,262 people in 20 countries were interviewed. One in seven believes the world will end in their lifetime, either by the hand of God, Mother Nature or world war. That's one billion people. The responses varied by country with only 6% of the French believing in an impending Armageddon to 22% of Americans and the Turkish who believe that Armageddon is right around the corner. The Mayan long count Calendar spans 5125 years, and the last cycle started in 3114 B.C. which brings the end of the calendar on December 21, 2012. Most Maya history scholars do not hold the belief that the end of the calendar indicates the end of our world as we know it. Maybe they just ran out of room. If interested in learning more about the Mayan prophecies, this 44 minute documentary from the History Channel is a great watch: Doomsday 2012: The End of Days. So if one-tenth of the world population believes the world will end this year, why all the partying? But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24: 36-39 NIV) Jesus made the above comments after His followers asked Him when the predicted end times would be. These predictions of a coming end flow throughout the Bible in the Old and New Testaments. Jesus told them that He didn't know, that only God knew. Not even the angels in heaven knew the answer to that question. The general context was this: Before the flood, everyone seemed to think that Noah wasn't playing with a full deck. He was building a huge boat on the side of a hill, and there had never been a flood purported before this time. As a matter of fact, until the flood of Noah's day, there were no reports of rain in the preceding biblical text. Many believe this was the first rain, that fresh water pooled up from within the Earth and had not fallen from above. The book of Genesis is full of amazing detail, and one can only wonder how they knew, way back then, that there was more water in the Earth than on the Earth. This was only confirmed in the last hundred years. In the above quote, Jesus (Yshua in Hebrew) was explaining that after He was killed, He was going to come back. He just couldn't tell them when, because He wouldn't be coming back until the end. He tells the apostles that in the end, just before He does come back, the world will be like the world of Noah. So how was the world of Noah? In Genesis 6, God states that, The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. In the same chapter, God continues to express His displeasure: Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. God was so upset that He had created mankind; He was willing to destroy all life and even the planet itself. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground for I regret that I have made them. Now how ticked off did God have to be to feel this way? That's how close we came to not even having this conversation! Except for Noah, who was apparently the only righteous man on the face of the Earth and his three sons and their wives, we would not even exist. God had mercy on Noah and his family, so eight people made it. Lucky for us. Dan Cathy, Chief operating Officer for Chick-fil-A created a firestorm a couple of weeks ago concerning his beliefs about biblical marriage and not the Hollywood-beliefs they have thrown among us; and even stated that he was concerned that we were about to experience the wrath of God. Why would we be about to experience God's wrath? Haven't we all been good boys and girls, at least most of us? I am afraid He thinks not. Sometimes, when we won't take a stand for what we know is right (or wrong) for God, then that in itself is being a bad boy. Is there any of God's wrath going on in the world? I mean, other than the coming world-wide economic collapse, the record floods and droughts and food shortages, the record tornadoes and heat, the new and untreatable viruses hmmmm. Like in the days of Noah, they laugh and scoff at those of us who believe the Bible stories about an end and that the end is certainly one day closer than yesterday. The people continued to party, celebrate, drink and be merry; and then it began to rain. My suggestion: Get an umbrella, right after you get a helmet.