The Mayan Calendar mysteriously concludes today (Dec. 21) which, in case you haven't heard, has caused some to believe that the end of the world is imminent. We are told that as the planets line up the universe is about to suffer a cataclysmic heart attack of sorts. Don't hold your breath. We've heard this before.

I'll continue below, but first allow me to offer a couple of scenarios as to why this phenomena is occurring.






The hysteria surrounding the end of the Mayan Calendar (on December 21, 2012) is right up there with the Harmonic Convergence silliness from back in August of 1987 as New Agers far and wide claimed everything from the end of civilization, to the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, to the end of the world.

It is interesting that one of the principal organizers of the Harmonic Convergence event was famed occultist and new age leader, Jos� Arg�elles. Besides being intoxicated by occult spirituality (and numerous LSD trips), Arg�elles was influenced by the Mayan mystique and was driven by his own interpretation of Mayan cosmology to promote the August 16-17, 1987 date. He speculated that the August '87 time frame was the culmination of twenty-two cycles of 52 years each (13 "heaven" cycles and 9 "hell" cycles totaling 1,144 years) which was begun by the Mayans in AD 843. According to Arg�elles, the Harmonic Convergence of 1987 also began the final countdown to the end of the Mayan Long Count in 2012, which would signal the end of history as we know it. Arg�elles taught that the ills of the modern world would end with the birth of the 6th Sun and the 5th Earth on December 21, 2012.

Adding to the fervor twenty five years ago, there was an alleged unusual and highly controversial alignment of the planets on August 25, 1987, just a week after the Harmonic Conversion "celebration." (Barely enough time for the peyote to wear off if I do say so.) Believers took these events as a sign that the universe was going to realign and New Age, mystic, and Occult leaders took the opportunity to gather their followers around places like Mt Shasta, Roswell, Stonehenge, Japan's Mt. Fuji and other sites held spiritually significant by great minds like Shirley MacLaine. New Agers claimed that by coming together to have a sort of mind-meld with the cosmos, they could overcome evil and bring mankind into the New Age. (Can you say "far out, man?") Nothing much happened except elevated sales of psychedelic drugs and a few arrests.

Staunch New Agers are probably thinking of Jos� Arg�elles tonight. Though he died last year, I'm sure many perceive him to be camping out under a pyramid awaiting his next journey back to Earth through reincarnation. However, you shouldn't expect to see him here anytime soon as Jos� is not coming back to planet earth.

The media loves reporting about the wild predictions of people like Jos� Arg�elles. However, they usually fashion news stories to leave the impression that new age prognosticators are mysterious, intriguing, and their ideas perhaps plausible. On the other hand, the fear and mayhem caused by the false predictions of a charlatan such as Harold Camping are not only reported as the ravings of a "Christian fanatic," but give the anti-Christian media ample of room to discredit and marginalize sound prophecy teachers lumping them in with a loony heretic. With Camping, they got double their money, for not once, but twice he predicted apocalyptic events in 2011. First on May 21 about the Rapture of the Church and again in October when he predicted the end of the world.

Many of us also remember the saga of (and accompanying damage done by) former NASA rocket scientist, Edgar C. Whisenant, who wrote 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. Upon missing his September launch date that year, Whitenant sadly followed up 88 Reasons with another book proclaiming that God was taking His Church out in 1989!

Truly, the Church has had her share of quacks, but its been a while since so many around us have given so much credence to an end-of-the-world prediction like we're seeing this week. I even heard of someone requesting to be baptized out of fear over the Mayan calendar's end. But why? It is simply because we either do not know what the Bible says or we have chosen not to trust it.

Besides the understandable lack of knowledge of a new convert, is there any reason why real Christians would place stock in a far-flung catastrophic prediction culminating from the conclusion of a calendar concocted by a civilization who've been extinct for centuries and who knew not Jesus Christ? Trusting the Mayans is like rolling the dice or reading your astrological chart for guidance. Why not visit a psychic too?

Why we will be here on Saturday, December 22

As a fitting reminder that only God knows our individual and corporate future, on this Saturday's Understanding The Times radio program, we are playing Mark Hitchcock's tremendous message concerning the Mayan Calendar, the end of the world, and December 21, 2012, that was recorded at the 2011 "Understanding the Times" Conference. I hope you'll take time and listen because what Mark states goes far beyond the 2012 hysteria. It's about the reliability of The Bible. And that is the bottom line my friend.

December 21, 2012, likely holds no significance for this planet as a whole and if something were to occur it is NOT because of anything the Mayans somehow predicted. Though Friday may possibly be a great or terrible day for individuals around the world, God still has much more to fulfill here on planet Earth as recorded in His prophetic Word. That is a truth you can count on. Even if God calls His whole Church home tomorrow, the end for this planet is not yet.

The reason that I'll lay down in complete peace tonight - and every night - is that in my heart, as Paul confidently enumerated, I know whom I have believed. And as the passage in II Timothy 1 states, I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Why was Paul confident? It was because he trusted God who he knew held life and death - and every millisecond of existence between the two - in his grip. I too am assured of tomorrow, but so is every person on this planet. That's right. No matter what happens to their bodies or to this planet we live on, everyone who's alive today will also be alive tomorrow. And isn't that the real issue?

Forget the Mayan Calendar! The question remains - where will you be for eternity? Some day, each and every person will stand before God and give an account of their lives and of their relationship (or lack of it) with Jesus Christ. On that day will you hear the words "well done, good and faithful servant" or in terror, will you hear "be gone from me! I never knew you"? Delusions stronger than the ending of the Mayan calendar are no doubt coming at us in days future. Don't allow anything to deter you from trusting in Jesus Christ each day of your life - December 21st included.