2012 is Yet Another Y2K

I’d like to get a jump on the current end of world fad. For anyone who has the blessing of not being in front of a TV set, or has missed movie previews of late, here’s the scoop…the Mayan Calendar has some kind of end predicted within it that points to December 21, 2012. Actually, some have a tick of the clock attached to this…11:11a.m.

I feel fairly confident to announce that I will likely be here, tapping words into my computer at precisely 11:12a.m. December 21, 2012 and beyond. In fact, I plan to be publishing another book…or writing a blog at that precise moment calling on everyone who profited from this fraud to donate all their ill-gotten gains to local food pantries and homeless shelters. I have experience in this kind of behavior. Allow me a moment to elucidate.

When a herd of noisy Christians were advocating that we should be storing food and water for the coming Y2K cataclysm (late in the year 1999), I was busy being a pastor. I told my flock that if they were storing food when their neighbor might be potentially hungry, repentance was the only option. I told people to empty their cupboards, basements, bomb shelters and every secret storage facility they had and give this bounty to the poor. Most people joined me in my good cheer. A few people quietly disagreed and shook their heads in disdain at my ignorance of prophecy.

Our church actually planned a fireworks display on News Year’s Eve 1999. We thought it was a nice touch to illustrate our disgust for this kind of sadness. When the clock turned 2000 without incident it was as if the world breathed a sigh of relief that yet another thief of hope had been exposed.

I am personally committed to the notion that Christianity must completely separate itself from every thief of hope. One of the most common examples of this is the “end of the world” predictions that make a run at us every so often. I hate it when, at best, too many Christian leaders take a stance sounding like, “Well, no one knows for sure” and, at worst, some high profile hucksters seize the moment for raising funds for their ministries and scaring people into faith or church. Yuck!

Let me recommend some enlightening reading for your spiritual edification: “Surprised by Hope; Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church” by N.T. Wright. “The Rapture Exposed; the Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” by Barbara Rossing. And, “Victorious Eschatology” by Harold Eberle and Martin Trench.

We have ignored the incalculable damage done to the Name of Christ by this junk for too long. We have allowed ourselves to be guilty by association, at best, and guilty by outright manipulation, at worst. I will not stand by, I will not be silent, I can not let innocent hearts be soiled and I decline to accept the end of man (see William Faulkner’s speech in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950). There is a far more soul enriching manner in which to read and enjoy the scriptures than to be force fed with the notion that God is focused on His stop-watch.

For the record, the popular TV preachers, Jack Van Impe and John Hagee are promoting an interpretation of scriptures I find completely and egregiously flawed in this regard. It is based on a school of theology that slices and dices the scriptures in so many directions you can hardly trust any verse to mean what it really says. Note, I am not saying these gentlemen are evil or false prophets….I don’t personally know them. I just know that their interpretation of the Bible requires a catastrophic vision of the future. In my opinion, that interpretation is unacceptably damaging to the character of Christ which is the heart and love of God for the world.

Catastrophic events come and go, but they are, by and large, the result of our sowing and reaping and not God’s sadistic thirst for misery just to “get our attention”. The Bible actually promises the complete healing of all of nature. It speaks of every nation being healed and streaming to the people of God for visionary answers. Scriptures predict that all weapons will one day be converted to agricultural purposes and military academies will no longer be required to train for war. God actually set in motion a momentum for the reversal of the food chain mentality, in humans and the animal kingdom. (Isaiah 11, 60, 61, Micah 4)

I happen to believe that our participation in the scriptures has always been required for any promise of God to be activated. From the salvation of an individual to the salvation of the nations, we are co-laborers with Christ. Our will and consent has always mattered!

So, while I am sure that the Mayans were lovely people and ahead of their time in art and culture, I am equally certain that their calendar is predictive of nothing in particular. Some scholars suggest that the 2012 reference in the Mayan calendar is simply a point at which the dates are a “do-over” and not at all a cataclysm. Unfortunately, that interpretation won’t sell movies or promote a ministry.