It's Finally Here

We've been inundated with scary doomsday prophecies from books, movies, TV specials, websites, and YouTube videos, and now it's time to take a deep breath, fasten our seatbelts, and prepare to hang on for dear life: It's the year 2-0-1-2.

It's finally here.

We have the ancient Mayans to thank for all of this, bless their hearts. The Mayans were highly skilled in astronomical observations and created a calendar that ran in cycles of 5,125 years. And unless you've been living on another planet, you've probably heard that such a cycle apparently ends on December 21, 2012. For decades, people ranging from serious scholars to self-styled New Age gurus have speculated about the implications of this, although it has only reached fever pitch in the context of popular culture in the last few years.

EMPs, earthquakes, and aliens, oh my!

Even people who don't know (or care) about the Mayans and their calendar, however, seem to have gotten caught up in the idea that something big is about to happen that will change everything. They're not sure what, but they're sure it's something big.

The euro will collapse and the European Union will descend into chaos. The dollar will collapse...and America will descend into chaos. America will suffer an attack that will dwarf 9-11 and...you know. The global economy will crash. Israel will attack Iran and trigger World War III. Iran will attack Israel and trigger World War III. Planet X (Nibiru) will smash into us, or at least come close enough to cause Earth's magnetic poles to reverse. An alien civilization (friendly or hostile—take your pick) will pay us a visit. All our electronics will be fried by a giant solar flare or an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon. Wars. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Volcanoes. Pandemics. Famine. Freak weather.

It's an apocalyptic potpourri that's enough to scare the pants off any sane person.

That's the bad news. The good news ("good" compared to the end of the world, that is) according to New Agers is that mankind is about to evolve spiritually—at least when enough of us take the trouble to tune into our cosmic consciousness, whatever that means. Ommm...

You can't blame people for being a little tense—some of these things are happening or seem to be on the brink of happening. Sometimes it really does seem as if the world is spiraling out of control, filling people with a vague sense of dread and anxiety. The word "apocalyptic" has become a disturbingly common word, and whenever people talk about things apocalyptic, the talk eventually turns to the Bible.

Most people who know me know that I am a Christian and have a deep interest in the Bible, and one area that I'm especially interested in is end-time prophecy. So, it was inevitable that I've had people ask me what the Bible says about the year 2012. Unlike most questions about Bible prophecy, however, the answer to this one is a no-brainer:

Nothing.

Despite tons of whacked-out websites and lunatic YouTube videos that might lead one to believe otherwise, there is nothing in the Bible that suggests there's anything special about the year 2012. Not a word. It is true, however, that the Bible has plenty to say about end-time events.

Let's get a few things straight...

One quick clarification: When the Bible talks about the "end times" or "last days," it does not mean the end of the world. It's a reference to the turbulent period of time immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, or in some cases the general time frame leading up to that final period. The Bible says He is coming back to establish a millennium of peace following a period of worldwide disasters and global warfare (focused primarily on unsuccessful attempts to destroy Israel). In other words, if you're worried that the world is going to end, relax. It's not.

Oh, and one other clarification: When people say they are Christians, it means they believe and have faith in the fact that Jesus, God's only Son—God in the flesh—came into the world to pay the penalty for man's sin that God's justice requires, which is death. They have realized that their sin has separated them from a loving but holy God, and this has led them to repent, or have a change of heart about their sin and their need for a Savior. They have asked God to forgive them and received in faith the free gift of salvation that God graciously offers to all who ask in repentance and in faith. God forgives all their sins (past, present and future) and from that moment on, the Holy Spirit dwells within them and God is forever able to accept them as being as holy as His Son, despite their flaws and imperfections in this life. Ultimately, the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead will enable them to live forever in God's presence in heaven, and there is no other way that one can do so because Jesus alone did it all.

At least that's what it's supposed to mean, according to the Bible. I feel compelled to explain this because the word "Christian" has become so trivialized and watered down that a lot of people honestly don't know what it means (sadly, even many who claim to be Christians).

So why believe the Bible?

Experts estimate that between 25 to 30 percent of the Bible is prophetic in nature, and when you consider how much of it has already been precisely fulfilled, you begin to understand why so many people (this writer included) fully expect the rest to be fulfilled with equal precision. For example, according to various Old Testament prophecies written many centuries before His birth, Jesus would...

• be born of a virgin, and in the town of Bethlehem
• come from the tribe of Judah and be a descendant of King David
• be preceded by a messenger/forerunner (John the Baptist)
• perform miracles (He healed the sick, walked on water, etc.)
• enter Jerusalem on a donkey (presenting Himself as the Messiah)
• be rejected by Israel (due to ignorance of their own Scripture)
• be betrayed by a friend (Judas, one of His disciples)
• be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (the compensation for a slain servant)
• be mocked, beaten, and spat on by His accusers
• be deserted by His friends (they fled when He was arrested)
• be crucified with sinners (between two thieves)
• have none of His bones broken (unlike many who were crucified)
• be buried in a rich man's tomb (owned by Joseph of Arimathea)
• be resurrected (He was seen by 500-plus people over 40 days)

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. These and scores of other prophecies were literally and precisely fulfilled by the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and most are a matter of documented historical record. And that's just about Jesus.

The Bible also has many prophecies about the conditions that would characterize the last days. Some of these are rather general: famines, pandemics, earthquakes in various places, wars and rumors of wars, people loving themselves and their own pleasure more than God, people falsely claiming to speak for God, people claiming to be some kind of messiah figure or to have some sort of "Christ consciousness" and deceiving many, and so on.

Naturally, these things have always been true to some extent. After all, there have always been earthquakes, famines, wars, etc. And has there ever been a time when people have not loved themselves more than they love God? Of course not. But even though it does seem as if all the general signs are being fulfilled in concert and to an alarming, ever intensifying degree in this generation, hang on to your hats.

It's gonna get worse.

The clincher

There is, however, one end-time prophecy in the Bible that stands alone above all the rest: a very specific, unmistakable event that sets the stage for all other end-time prophecies. It is an event that would mark with stunning clarity the "official" beginning of the last days, and an event that few dreamed would ever occur before it actually came to pass.

• Israel would become a nation again

Four legions of the Roman army laid siege to Jerusalem and sacked the city in AD 70, slaughtering up to 1.1 million Jews (according to Jewish historian Josephus who was at the scene) and utterly demolishing their temple. This effectively snuffed out what remained of Israel's existence as a nation and the Jewish people were subsequently scattered all over the world, while the land God had given them withered away into a desert wasteland.

Yet Old Testament prophecies said God would bring them back into their land and restore Israel as a nation in the last days. This from the prophet Amos:

Prophets Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Zechariah all concur:

Although decimated and dispersed, Israel will once again be regathered as a nation in the last days.

For centuries, the vast majority of people discounted this last prophecy or interpreted it in vague, spiritualized terms because almost nobody thought it would ever actually happen.

Some Christians even fell into the error of believing that God had abandoned the Jewish people and that the promises He made to Israel had somehow been nullified and/or transferred to the Church (an error that persists to this day and has unfortunately helped fuel anti-Semitic feelings within certain groups).

The idea that God has abandoned Israel is just fine and dandy as long as we can find Scripture that supports the idea that God is either (a) a liar, or (b) in the habit of making promises He either cannot or will not keep.

Not sure about you, but I can't find that in my Bible.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, Jewish people possessed of the dream of a land they could call their own began streaming back to their biblical homeland. After the horrifying cruelties of the Holocaust during World War II and with the help and support of the United States and a fledgling United Nations, on May 14, 1948 the nation of Israel was reborn.

God kept His word. He always does.

The point is that God doesn't expect us to believe the Bible is really His Word without a shred of proof. He uses fulfilled prophecy to confirm the fact that the Bible isn't just a bunch of Jewish fairy tales and noble-sounding philosophy written by men. We know that it's God speaking to us through those men for one simple reason:

Only God knows all events for
all time with absolute accuracy.
Men? Mmm...not so much.

With that thought in mind, it's worth noting that the geopolitical scenario the Bible says will precede the return of Christ is rapidly taking shape before our eyes, precisely as predicted thousands of years ago—and you can watch it on the evening news.

For many years, Bible prophecy buffs have enjoyed speculating about the details of how the end-time scenario might come together and play out, based on different interpretations of Scripture. But as the final pieces of the prophetic puzzle materialize and move into position, these speculations are rapidly solidifying into a sobering reality.

It's finally here.

Greg Lauer — FEB '12

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