But the bumper sticker says, “Hindsight is 2020; Foresight is 2012.” Polls show that one in five Americans believe the world might end in the next 20 years. So let’s consider the topic and not dismiss it.

The anticipated 2012 doomsday-ism has begun, but not for true believers. Most Christians don’t even hold to doomsday scenarios. Not that the world isn’t engulfed in trauma past, present and future. It’s just that the end of the world as we know it doesn’t happen courtesy of Mayan forecasting. Their math and science genius didn’t allow them to save their own civilization.

Look at the destruction and the story of their demise. You’ll quickly see a big clue: Their love for all things demonic. This is the biggest key to the mystery. They were, in fact, divinely inspired; it’s just that it wasn’t from godly forces. And say what you will about the forces of evil—they cannot tell the future. They’ll blow it every time.

To be fair—and thorough—the Aztec calendar ends in 2012. The Kali Yuga calendar of the Hindus forecasts global changes around 2012, and China’s “Book of Changes,” also known as the “I-Ching,” predicts the end in 2012. Maybe they’re all talking to the same spirits. This does seem strange that various societies have a pre-occupation with our new year.

So who is the lunatic fringe paying serious attention to this? Not conservative Christians (or even Tea Partiers.) It would be the “New Agers” who claim 12/21/12 is the “shift in collective conscience”; the “dawn of a golden age”; a “global Woodstock”; the “birth of our higher selves.” Imagine all of that and more and the world is destroyed. Guess those terms then apply to another world.

This year is just a bit unusual. We will see above average solar flares. Science gets it right when it says that the alignment of the earth, sun and other objects in the sky will be unusual this December. That’s sure to have believers in the doomsday scenario on edge.

What’s really wrong with this picture? Could it be summed up in one simple Bible verse? It’s Acts 1:7: “And He said unto them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own power.’”

Only God knows these things. Occult-saturated Mayans can’t get ahead of God. They knew calendars and numbers, but they didn’t know the future.

I’m a Premillennial Dispensationalist, so I believe there is a pattern to our future. I believe the Bible teaches there is yet a future Rapture (the timing can be debated), a seven-year Tribulation, rise of the Antichrist, Second Coming of Christ and a literal Millennium.

Those events cannot all fit into 2012. It doesn’t help that our pulpits are silent about our last days so most people, including most Christians, have no understanding of it. If they even understood the simple outline of prophecy—skipping the bowls, vials and seals of Revelation, which will confuse those new to the topic—they could understand our times and even the senseless would make sense.

But because of the blueprint found in the Bible, I can say without a doubt that we’ll be here Jan. 1, 2013. If you’re not convinced, you can buy an app that will count down every minute and second throughout this year.

Here’s what could happen in 2012. I am not saying it will happen. Harold Camping’s nonsensical date setting as it concerns the Rapture has disillusioned people and even caused folks to take their own lives when it did not happen in 2011. But the Rapture could take place in 2012. Since much of the world is looking for a cataclysmic event this year, what would be the reaction to the disappearance of people? Panic and pandemonium.

So use 2012 as an opportunity. First Peter 4:7-10 says: “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

People are listening more than you think. Most everyone knows that something has gone terribly wrong in our world. Share the Gospel as it offers hope. Point them to the truth about Jesus Christ and what the Bible really says about our future.

Tell them the future is glorious if you know the truth of the Bible. In a hopeless world, it is the Rapture of the church that the Bible calls a “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). To the believer, “the end of the world as we know it” does not have to be a fearful mantra.


Jan Markell is founder of Olive Tree Ministries, which helps followers understand the times through radio, conferences, newsletter and Internet outreach. Learn more at www.olivetreeviews.org or call 763-559-4444 for a free newsletter.