The Cassandras are at it again. These prophets of doom and gloom are saying the world is going to end in 2012. Their cataclysmic end-time prognostications are all over the Internet—on websites, inside chat rooms, on blogs, and on You Tube. They back it up with the abbreviated Mayan calendar and the quatrains of the popular 16th century French seer, Michel de Nostredame, better known in his Latinized name Nostradamus. One of the quatrains the Cassandras are toying with is Quatrain 91 (Century 2) of Nostradamus’ book of prophecies. Also, they are looking at Chapter 32 in the prophetic Book of Isaiah in the Bible.
I wonder why some people are fascinated by the outrageous and the macabre. Even worse is that some “seemingly legitimate” Bible teachers have joined the fray, talking about tribulation and mass annihilation periods when it will be better for people to be dead than alive. I tell you, it does not make them any better teachers. Listening to them is like reading the out-and-out outrageous stuff in the supermarket tabloids
Well, I have two words for them: Shut up! If the world were to end tomorrow, so be it. Nobody can do about it. The best and worst of men are not going to change what God is going to do. So that when God says, “I change not,” there is absolutely nothing anybody can do to challenge that. God doesn’t swear to anyone higher than Himself because He is the Most High.
The Lord’s Disciples themselves had already asked that question, and the Lord himself had answered it. “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? (Matt.24:3), the Disciples asked the Lord. The Lord responded by describing the events that will lead to the end of the age. “But of the day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only (Matt.24:36),” He said. So, let’s leave it that way. Instead of buying gas masks and bottled water, let’s prepare our hearts instead, and be ready to meet our Savior anytime.
What these Cassandras don’t understand is that people are a lot smarter than what they think they are. Are they going to buy this apocalyptic nonsense? The gullible among us might ride on the foretell-and-scare game, but I doubt if they can create a mild havoc like they did with Y2K glitch that turned out to be a big dud. Yes, these Cassandras don’t seem to learn. The big embarrassment they suffered when the computers continued working at the turn of the millennium should be a great lesson learned. Obviously, these airheads don’t have anything better to do. Instead of telling encouraging people that there is a God who loves us and holds the world in the palm of His hand, they are doing overkill on the outrageous and the macabre.
My friend is wondering aloud, “Why are those Nostradamus scholars and some so-called Bible teachers doing that? Why are they talking about end-times’ scary events with their faces full of joy and excitement? Do they think they can get away with it? It’s too cavalier of themselves, too self-righteous posturing. I don’t listen to them,” he said.
I told him, “Stop watching television.”
The fascination of predicting the end-times started as soon as Jesus was done pronouncing it to his disciples at the Mount of Olives. Then people started looking hard at a premise lifted from an epistle by Barnabas, an early Christian leader that outlined 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, 2000 years from Abraham to Christ. So, then, the epistle speculates that after 2000 years of the Christian era, the Great Day will come, “even as the six days of creation were followed by the Day of Rest.” This theory is often called the Millennium-Sabbath theory. This explains somewhat why some Christian subcultures get unreasonably excited about the millennium, wars and rumors of wars.
The real Christians, i.e. the people living consecrated Christian lives, are not worried one bit. But they don’t talk about it with full of glee either; they are prayerful and humble. Try talking about end-times to anointed spiritual leaders. Their views are the same: “if a person totally trusts God, the coming of the Great Day is a welcome respite anytime.” (davidlvnow@aol.com)
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