Saturday, December 22, 2012

The End of the World

It didn’t happen, of course, though, as I write this, it is still December 21 in Mexico so I suppose it could still occur.  I can’t say I am amazed that so many people panicked over it; the education level among government-taught people on earth is (probably deliberately) extremely low, so worldwide ignorance is pervasive and, ultimately, destructive.  Actually, the Mayans never predicted that the world would end on December 21, 2012; it was simply the termination of one of their calendar cycles.  It would start all over again the next day.  Somehow that got lost in all the illiteracy and fear. 

Even if the Mayans had predicted the end of the world for December 21, there was no way it was going to happen—unless that is what God had ordained.  God has simply not given humans the ability to specifically predict the future; that knowledge belongs to the Almighty alone.  It is one of the major evidences for the inspiration of the Bible.  In the Old Testament, there are many, many specific predictions about future events, things that only God could have foreseen and revealed to man.  The most obvious relate to Jesus (for those interested, I have listed some of the more interesting Biblical prophecies at the end of this article).  For those who study history—and the Bible—we can see some vague outlines of future events.  This is why I said, four years ago, than an Obama administration, economically and many other ways, would be a failure.  There are certain moral and economic laws and principles that God has established for the governance of man on earth (we can find those in Scripture, too).  Violate those laws, ignore them, reject them, or try to legislate contrary to them and, more often than not in the short run, and always in the long run, negative consequences will accrue.  Wise men of the past have recognized this; however, finding a wise man in Washington, D.C., now is as difficult as Jeremiah finding a righteous man in Jerusalem (Jer. 5:1).  As I’ve written before, I’m sad for my country, but I’m not surprised.  It isn’t the first time in history that evil has been in the ascendancy.  Noah preached 120 years before the flood and didn’t convert anybody.

So, the world is still here, the next cycle of the Mayan calendar begins, 512 years from now there will probably be panic again, ignorance of the Bible, with all its consequences, will continue, but the earth will remain until the Lord returns and ends it.  That is my prediction.

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Regarding Biblical prophecy, Scripture foretells, in the Old Testament, the following about a Messiah who would come and redeem the world:  the people from whom He would be born (the Jews, Gen. 12:1-3); His direct lineage (Isaac, Gen. 21:12; Jacob, Gen. 26:4; Judah, Gen. 49:10; Boaz and Ruth, Ruth 4:18-22; such is the only explanation for why that book is in the Bible; David, II Sam. 7:12-14). The Bible tells us, 700 years in advance, where He would be born (Micah 5:2).  We know when He would be born (during the Roman empire, Dan. 2:44), we know the exact year of His death, Dan. 9:24-27.  His triumphal entry into Jerusalem is specifically mentioned in Zechariah 9:9.  Some of the events regarding His death are alluded to in Psalm 22, and His resurrection is predicted in Psalm 16:10.  This is just a smattering of prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Jesus.  There are also accurate predictions regarding nations (for example, the destruction of Babylon by Persia is predicted in Isaiah 13:17 well over 100 years before either of those countries became a significant power).   Jesus Himself predicted, 40 years in advance, the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21).  When combined with Christianity’s perfect moral code, its inerrant understanding of man, and its historical and scientific accuracy, then we have a book that could only have come from the mind of God.  The claim that the Bible was written by “priests” is nonsensical (very few of the Biblical writers were indeed priests; none of the New Testament writers were); priests come in for some of the harshest criticism in the Bible.  Why would priests write a book that condemned themselves?  No, man could not have written that Book had he wanted to; and he would not have written it if he could have.