But What About 2012?
Page 9 of the Dresden Codex (from the 1880 Förstermann edition)
As regular readers of the COGwriter news page are aware, I do not believe that the Great Tribulation can begin until at least 2012–and that it will most likely start in 2013-2017.
The reason for at least 2012 is biblical (comparing Daniel 9:26-27 to Daniel 11:31 and Daniel 12) as there needs to be a certain 7 year deal that gets broken in the middle to be started before it can be broken–adding 1/2 of seven years to any date after June 30, 2008 brings one to 2012 or later (more details are in the article End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something?).
Now part of the reason that I believe that the tribulation will NOT start until 2013 or afterwards is because I believe that since Satan knows when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, Satan has a pretty good idea of when his 6,000 year reign over humankind will be over.
I believe that Satan, thus, has inspired many throughout the ages to prophecy events to occur in 2012 and other periods so that when the true Church proclaims when the end is coming (which may be shortly after 2012) that the vast majority of humankind will dismiss those proclamations as more false prophecies.
USA Today reported the following in an article titled Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?:
Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasts widespread catastrophe in Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization’s End. Spiritual healer Andrew Smith predicts a restoration of a “true balance between Divine Feminine and Masculine” in The Revolution of 2012: Vol. 1, The Preparation. In 2012, Daniel Pinchbeck anticipates a “change in the nature of consciousness,” assisted by indigenous insights and psychedelic drug use…
Part of the 2012 mystique stems from the stars. On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that “whatever energy typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time,” Joseph writes (G. Jeffrey MacDonald. Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse? USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm viewed 01/14/08).
What the records actually were intended to mean by the ancient Mayans is unknown and has been subject to a lot of debate.
When the Spaniards came across the Mayans, they considered them to have pagan practices associated with the devil. Because of that, once they conquered them, they began to burn and otherwise destroy most of the writings of their civilization (known as codices), most notably under the direction of Bishop Diego de Landa. One Catholic, however, intervened and prevented three from being destroyed. These Mayan codices are now known as the Madrid, Dresden, and Paris codices. There also is a fourth, the Grolier codex, whose authenticity is sometimes disputed, but may be genuine–only a few pages from it survive. From time to time, other fragments of Mayan writings of this period have also been found. The Dresden Codex contains the highest amount of astronomical observations and calculations of any of the surviving texts.
One writer (probably Robert Bast who has his own “wiki”) has stated this about the Mayans and the calendar:
Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with celestial/terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars. The Maya priest had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. They also had to determine if the “heavens” or celestial matters were appropriate for performing certain religious ceremonies (Mayan Civilization. http://2012wiki.com/index.php?title=Maya_civilization viewed 01/14/08).
The actual Wikipedia states:
The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar forms the basis for a New Age belief, first forecast by José Argüelles, that a cataclysm will take place on or about 21 December 2012 (Maya Calendar. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar viewed 01/14/08).
The History Channel claimed:
The Mayan calendar seems to say that the world will end in 2012 (Crowley, Phil. 2012, Decoding the Past. Original air date 03/01/07).
So we see two interpretations from different sources that indicate that either something terrible or something very good will happen in or near the end of 2012 according to Mayan prophecies.
And while I believe that 2012 is just a little bit too early for the end, several divergent sources seem to point to that year for some type of major change.
Perhaps one of the more fascinating is related to the Chinese I Ching. Although some aspects of it slightly remind me of the so-called Bible Code, there have been some calculations made apparently based upon looking at all the 64 possible combinations one can obtain by throwing the three discs and plotting the associated full and broken lines from using the I Ching:
Fractal time and the I Ching…
Various fringe scientists have tried to calculate this point of infinity, giving us calculated dates ranging from 2010 to 2050. Dates that many of us will live to see. Perhaps the date is Dec 22, 2012. Ethnobotanists and fractal time experts Terrence and Dennis McKenna believe so, and they present their ideas in Invisible Landscape: Mind Hallucinogens and the I Ching (1993).
Their studies began with the I Ching, which is composed of 64 hexagrams, or six-line figures. It struck them that 6 x 64 = 384, which is exceptionally close to the number of days in 13 lunar months (29.5306 x 13 = 383.8978), and that maybe the I Ching was originally an ancient Chinese calendar. Further multiples had astronomical significance…
The McKenna brothers arrived at the 2012 end date by using fractals. Starting from a table of differences between one hexagram and the next, they developed a Mandelbrot fractal in which each level is 64 times greater then the one below it. They then laid this fractal pattern on top of a time scale. The peaks and troughs of the pattern relate to the level of connectedness or novelty in any span of time, whether it covers a day, millennia or even since the beginning of time. By matching the levels of the pattern with key periods in history, they determined it would fit best if the end of the time scale was December 22, 2012. This is the only point in which the level of novelty reaches its maximum, and everything that happens is new (Bast R. Survive 2012. http://survive2012.com/why_2012_fractal.php viewed 04/12/08).
So, some believe that December 22, 2012 was long known as the date for the world as we know it to end.
There is also a tradition from India:
It is interesting that this prediction of the emergence of a new world is prophesied to appear about the same time that the Mayans predicted it to come! The Mayan calendar began with the Fifth Great Cycle in 3114 BC and will end on 21 December 2012 AD. The Hindu Kali Yuga calendar began on 18 February 3102 B.C. There is only a difference of 12 years between the Hindu’s beginning of the Kali Yuga and the Mayan’s beginning of the Fifth Great Cycle. It is amazing that both calendars began at about the same time over 5,000 years ago and both calendars predict a totally new world and/or golden age after about 5,000 years into their calendars! We are definitely on to something with these Mayan and Hindu 2012 predictions. Historically, this is an amazing fact since these two ancient cultures did not have any contact…Lord Krishna’s Golden Age could easily begin in 2012! (Hindu Calendar. http://2012wiki.com/index.php?title=Hindu_Calendar viewed 01/14/08).
A source, related to the above India/Hindu comments, also stated:
The Hopi prophecy is an oral tradition of stories that Hopis say predicted the coming of the white man, the world wars and nuclear weapons. And it predicts that time will end when humanity emerges into the “fifth world.” The Mayan calendar predicts a similar end in 2012; some Hopis have said their prophecy roughly coincides with that time. The tradition says the years after 2012 could be a golden age with humans at peace. It also says the world will go through a time of trial, suffering and purification before a time of “one-heartedness” (Hopi Civilization. http://2012wiki.com/index.php?title=Hopi_Civilization viewed 01/14/08).
And although a Robert Bast is the source of many of those written quotes, a program (2012 episode of Decoding the Past) that The History Channel originally aired March 1, 2007, had a variety of sources that basically stated the same things that Robert Bast has written. And one of those was that the end of “the fourth world” in Hopi prophecy is about upon us.
I wish to make it clear that I do not believe that the world will end then or that a God-ordained golden age of peace will happen then either.
I should, add however, that Roman Catholics do believe that an “age of peace” is to arrive and, if the Malachy prophecies have merit (somewhat accurate predictions of all popes from the 12th century to present), there is only one pope listed to come after the current one (Bander, Peter. The Prophecies of St. Malachy. TAN Books, Rockford (IL), 1973). Hence, the end of the predicted line of popes will occur soon. And it is likely that the final pope will come on the scene by 2012-2017.
But as I have stated before, I tend to believe that the great tribulation will occur sometime after 2012 and because 2012 will have had so much attention, when we in the Living Church of God claim that the Great Tribulation is about to begin, most will dismiss us as being less likely important than the Mayan/Hindu/Hopi/I Ching prophecies.
But the end will come whether people believe us or not. Will you be ready?
Two articles of related interest may include:
End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something? There is a Mayan calendar prediction for change in 2012. 2012 changes were also centuries ago predicted by the Hopi Native Americans and the Hindu Indians (who were not even on the same continent). Do these Mayan/Hindu/Hopi prophecies have any value? Why might Satan have inspired this date? Can the great tribulation start before 2012?
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? When does the six thousand years of human rule end?
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