Another end time drama begins

2011 is almost over. We can literally count the hours that remain of New Year’s Eve and this year. With the exodus of 2011 comes also the end of a year of embarrassing apocalyptic end time predictions.

Most famously, Harold Camping led the charge of end time charlatans. The multimillionaire broadcaster and amateur Bible scholar made at least two predictions of the end for 2011, May 21 and Oct. 21. Both dates came and left without as much as a whimper of the end. Unfortunately, that does not mean the drama is over.

Tomorrow, Jan. 1, 2012 may be the beginning of another end. By some accounts it could be the first day of the last year of our lives.

For many years, people have been predicting that 2012 will be a significant year for Earth. The movie 2012 may not have been a critical success. Still, the film did generate revenues of $769 million. It also spawned a renewed interest in end times.

I am glad to report that these 2012 predictions do not come by way of the Bible. Instead, the 2012 apocalyptic crowd base their end time fantasies on another old document. That document is called the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.

While the calendar served a number of pre-Columbian civilizations, it is most commonly associated with the Mayans. The Long Count calendar dates everything from a mythical date for creation. That date, as it relates to our calendar, is Aug. 11, 3114 BCE.

By some interpretations of the Mayan calendar, we are presently living in our fourth world. The other three worlds or eras have come and gone. Here is where 2012 comes into the picture. Again dating back from creation forward, the fourth world or era will end on Dec. 20, 2012.

What happens on Dec. 21, 2012? That is part of the Mayan mystery. Most of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendars discovered have nothing past Dec. 20, 2012. That is when the end is supposed to happen.

I do take some comfort in that archeologists have discovered one Long Count calendar that provides for a fifth world to begin on Dec. 21, 2012. There was at least one Mayan optimist.

None of us should give any more attention to a 2012 end of the world than we do any other Hollywood fantasy. The movie and the propaganda generated by it are nothing more than entertainment. Some critics would say not even good entertainment.

The Mayan people, like the other pre-Columbian civilization, may have a great deal to teach us, but it is not about the end. Susan Milbrath, a Latin American art curator said, “We have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end in 2012."

Mayans were not experts on the end. Remember that their end came a long time ago, and they never saw it coming.

Yet, the 2012 hype is helpful in a couple of ways. First, not all end time crazies carry a Bible. Yes, there are plenty who do, but not everyone.

Second, all end timers are interested in one thing, the date! Try as they may, sooner or later they will nail it down and be wrong. Will anyone ever be right? I have doubts. However, if someone does finally predict the end by day and year, to whom are they going to brag?

Dr. Mark Ross is the pastor of Marion Baptist Church. To learn more about MBC, visit http://www.marionbaptistchurchva.com/.