The Year IT All Ends

I am going to make a prediction: 2012 will be the year it all ends. I can say this with every ounce of certainty I can dredge out of my bucket. Unless you have been doing a Rip VanWinkle for the last couple decades, you know that new predictions of earth's 2012 doom are surfacing about every news cycle. It is undeniable that something is going to happen on December 21, 2012. A Wikipedia article mentions no less than nine different reasons why 2012 is going to be a significant year. The article includes everything from galactic alignment to magnetic pole reversals.

They missed the fact that many think that the Muslim 12th Imam, an apocalyptic figure, will appear this year. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is firmly convinced that he will be an agent in the revelation of this epic, and he sees the destruction of Israel as one of the major factors. Given the fact that speculation about Iran's immanent nuclear capability can be found in places like the Army strategy briefings and the Council on Foreign Affairs, one must take the otherwise insane rants of this man seriously. Considering the large number of Muslims world wide who sympathize with Ahmadinejad, the number of 2012 doom watchers swells dramatically.

Although they haven't hopped on the 2012 bandwagon as far as I know, dispensationalists like Tim LaHaye, Pat Robertson, and Hal Lindsey have been trying to tie Mid East events to a Bible chronology since the 1970's. If Iran does make war on Israel, watch for 24/7 coverage on CBN, hoping to scoop the story of Jesus' landing on the Mount of Olives. If I understand the rapture timeline, there will have to be some very quick construction on the Temple Mount that will also merit CBN coverage if 2012 is to be the year it all comes down. However, if the pre-tribulation rapture scenario is correct, I doubt there will be any cameramen "left behind" at CBN.

I want to add my two cents to the 2012 hype. It has always fascinated me that the magi who visited the young Jesus had learned of his birth (at least in part) by watching the stars. At the risk of offending my fundamental brethren, I must say that I have no problem believing that God might have a way of synchronizing astronomical events with terrestrial ones. Thus Persian magi in the first century or Mayan shamans in the tenth might have seen something in the heavens that accurately revealed the divine timetable.

I would also note, although a far less precise predictor, God seems to have done things on a 2,000 year time table as far as the Biblical record goes. It was approximately 2K from Adam to Abraham and the same from Abraham to Jesus. I can easily imagine it being another similar period from the Incarnation to the end of time. I do not pretend to know God's mind, but what I do know of him reveals a very symmetrical mind. There is also the whole thing about everything coming in threes (ie. three sets of 2000 years.) The problem here is that December 2012 is only going to be 5773 on the Jewish calendar, so that theory might be off by a couple centuries.

I am not being entirely sarcastic when I link Hal Lindsey, Nostradamus and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  with dozens of New Age theorizers. This convergence of prophetic opinion may be a harbinger of the end of the world. Or it may turn out like hundreds (or thousands) of previous predictions of the apocalypse. What I do know with certainty is that it will all end on the winter solstice in 2012. If nothing else changes on that date, at least there will be copious amounts of egg being wiped from countless faces.

What does not change, either now or then, is the admonition that we believers keep oil in our lamps, wicks trimmed in anticipation of the coming of our Bridegroom. My understanding of prophecy tells me that he could come at any time. The other thing the Bible tells us clearly about God is that he loves to surprise those who think they know what's up. Maranatha.