Thursday, April 28, 2011

THE END IS NIGH...OR NOT

It’s happening again, as we draw closer to the year 2012 people are preparing for the end of the World as we know it. Let’s take a closer look at apocalyptic predictions and ask is it just media hype or is this really the en........
If you were one of the one million people standing in Time Square at one minute to midnight on December 31st 1999, you were probably very quiet. You were waiting for the inevitable stroke of midnight to either change the World forever or announce the beginning of the greatest celebration since V.E day. You were holding your breath; you might even have had a little tickle at the back of your neck. The folk surrounding you were wondering what the future held for their families. The older citizens, were reminiscing, some had prepared for the end, even welcomed it and were at peace. Young lovers, not daring to watch the clock, looked into each other’s eyes. They would face the end together: but it was not the end, it was the new millennium. As those one million Americans erupted into a sea of cheering and dancing, the sense of relief was palpable. Billions of people from every corner of the World also breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that the predicted Y2K time bomb had not eventuated.
Half the World population were brain washed with the fear that a monumental computer crash would knock out every computerised system in every town. Power, water, traffic control, emergency services, sewerage systems and computer controlled dams, all would terminate. Anarchy and confusion would follow. Entrepreneurs with their money making panic books, written for a gullible public, had pulled off the greatest practical joke since Orson Wells ‘Alien invasion’ scare. When the clock in Time Square clicked into the new millennium, machines still worked, computers still functioned and planes did not fall out of the sky.
The Y2K debacle has been described as ‘the greatest display of mass silliness ever experienced on Earth.’ Now we are told to look out for 2012. The Mayan calendar comes to a shuddering stop on December 21st next year. It is said to be the end-date of a five/ 125 year long cycle. Some scholars have disputed the significance others have embraced it. Even our old friend Nostradamus has been bought into the mix. He seems to concur that Earth will be hit by another planet around the same time. Meanwhile the prophets of doom are once again having a field day. The Russians are building shelter pods for America’s elite, Hollywood is cashing in with scary movies and the wordsmiths are celebrating unprecedented book sales.
This time they may be right, or they may be wrong. Either way It could be prudent to dust off the Good book that languishes somewhere on your bookshelf. It’s a best seller that has never been out of print (although some will think that this is also mass silliness) Who really knows? Certainly no one can deny, things are changing on our planet. There are earthquakes in diverse places, the love of most is growing cold and the World has never seen so many wars and rumours of wars. Take a close look at Matthew 24. In the New Testament. There you will find some answers; if you read the whole book you may find all the answers.