The world is abounding with news of the end of the world. Some people are really freaked out about it and others are comically planning 'End of the World' parties. That is expected as Peter says that scoffers will come and make light of the end of the world predictions (2 Peter 3:3-9). But Christ says that no one will know when the end will arise (Matthew 24:36). So I do believe we are in the final days, but that could days, months, or even years off yet. I do not know for sure and neither does any appropriately educated Christian.
Of course we all have a morbid desire to know when the end of the world will come, and the apostles were no exception to that trend, and the fact that they asked Jesus when the end times events will come, Jesus gave them, and by extension, us, the answer that no one can ever know the exact time when the end will come, but we do know that it will be like a thief in the night, or in modern terms, a time that we do not expect (Matthew 24). Thus, this day, too, will likely pass with the end coming.
In our culture, we have tended to try to determine the end from information in the past. I am old enough to have lived through various end-of-the-world projections. I remember the initial end predictions from the 90's from the first accounting of the Mayan calendar. I remember the Hale-Bopp commit cult, Y2K, and a few minor ones. Of course all of these were not even in alignment with the only thing we know about the end times: that God has reserved the end times for fire. Is that nuclear war, or a volcano, or something else? I do not know, the Bible just says that it will be hot (2 Peter 3:7).
So our latest prediction is based on this Mayan calendar and that it ends on December 21, 2012. There are many funny things about this prediction. First, I find it funny that a culture that rejects the Bible because it is 'old and out dated' will subscribe to a culture's calendar which did not even survive to the end of their own calendar! Second, it was written on a round tablet. How do we know the spacing was correct, and that they were not just predicting the shape of an Oreo cookie! Third, and most important, the Bible says that no one will know the day or the hour of the end times, but somehow this pagan culture figured it out hundreds of years ago? Not likely.
So I declare that the end could very well be here, but I am going to doubt it. After all, we have only had one end of the world party day and there are many more scoffers to come yet. See you on Saturday!
