The ancient Mayans, based on star charting, prophesied that December 21, 2012 would be the end of the world (or at least some form of universal catastrophe). Meso-American star charting started around 680 B.C. by the Olmec civilization who were recording astrological patterns in the sky and eventually shared this information with the Mayans. The Mayans had a long history of tracking the winter solstice (probably for planting crops) and creating calendars (at least 17 that we know of). At some point, they developed the belief that our sun is a god and that the Milky Way, called the “Sacred Tree,” was a gateway to the afterlife. After learning from the Olmecs, they began keeping records of the stars’ patterns of movement and continued to do so for the next 200-300 years. The Mayans then developed their own calendar (The Long Count) ca. 355 B.C. They were able to use their observations and mathematical prowess to calculate the future movements of stars across the sky. The result was that the Mayans discovered the effect of the earth’s wobbling as it spins on its axis. This wobbling rotation causes the stars’ patterns of movement to drift gradually in the sky (called “precession”) in a 5,125-year cycle. The Mayans also discovered that once every cycle the dark band at the center of the Milky Way (called the Galactic Equator) intersects with the Elliptical (the plane of the sun’s movement across the sky).
During that year, the sun reaches its solstice (a brief moment when the sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer) on December 21 for the Northern Hemisphere and June 21 for the Southern Hemisphere. That year, the solstice occurs at the moment of the conjunction of the Galactic Equator with the Milky Way. The year this occurs (in relation to our Gregorian calendar) is A.D. 2012, and happened last on August 11, 3114 B.C. With Mayan mythology teaching that our sun is a god and the Milky Way is the gateway to life and death, the Mayans concluded that this intersection in the past must have been the moment of creation. Mayan hieroglyphs seem to indicate that they believed the next intersection in 2012 would be some sort of end and a new beginning of a cycle. The Mayans also believed that the blood of human sacrifices was what powered the sun and gave it life.
All the so-called “Mayan prophecies of 2012” are nothing more than wildly speculative extrapolations, which are based on the yet uncertain interpretations by scholars of Mayan hieroglyphs. However, the truth is that apart from the astrological convergence, there is little indication that the Mayans prophesied anything specific regarding the events of this distant future. The Mayans were not prophets; they were not even able to predict their own cultural extinction. They were great mathematicians and accomplished sky watchers, but they were also a brutally violent tribal people with a primitive understanding of natural phenomena, subscribing to archaic beliefs and the barbaric practices of blood-letting and human sacrifice.
There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that would present December 21, 2012, as the end of the world. While that date is no less valid for an end-times event than any other future date, the Bible nowhere presents the astronomical phenomena the Mayans pointed to as a sign of the end times. It would seem very inconsistent of God to allow the Mayans to discover such an amazing truth while keeping the many Old Testament prophets ignorant of the timing of the events. In summary, there is absolutely no biblical evidence that the 2012 Mayan prophecy / prediction of doomsday is in any sense valid or probable.
Accepting the Mayan 2012 prophecy logically requires acceptance of the following theories: our sun is a god; the sun is powered by the blood of human sacrifice; the creation moment occurred at 3114 B.C. (despite all evidence that it happened much earlier); and the visual alignment of stars has some significance for everyday human life. Like every other false religion, the Mayan religion sought to elevate to the point of worship that which was created in place of the Creator Himself. The Bible tells us about such false worshipers: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25), and “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). To accept the Mayan 2012 prophecy also denies the clear biblical teaching about the end of the world, because Jesus told us “…of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32).
Gender: Male Location: Southern Oregon,
Looking at you.
Really? I don't think we can see into the past. We can remember something, but we are just replaying stored patterns in our brain. We can also look at evidence that is existing now, but seeing into the past is completely different.
Gender: Male Location: Living my life, fighting my war.
You can scientificly see into the past. For example, if you went X lightyears away from earth (I don't know the exact math) and looked back with a massively powerful microscope you would see me sitting here typing this very thing even though it is truly years after I typed this.
Gender: Male Location: Southern Oregon,
Looking at you.
When you look into space you see light that left it's star millions of years ago, but you are seeing that ancient light now. You are not really seeing into the past.
What is this thread supposed to prove? That christians shouldn't believe in 2012? Because it certainly offers no real contradiction other than "the bible doesn't say so".
True. But an unreasonable assumption can still turn out to be true, it should just happen with less regularity. A prophecy isn't automatically untrue but most are vague enough to be meaningless anyway.
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Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
Gender: Male Location: Living my life, fighting my war.
What? I can't argue with that. I'm not going to say that prophecies absolutely can't exist, but I also can't prove that they aboslutely do. Personal belief is irrelevent in such arguments.
It's a thread stating a belief as absolute fact using a book that may or may not be the absolute truth as the only evidence for his belief. Whether he is right or wrong in what he says is irrelevent, he has given no undenyable proof for his belief as to why 2012 will not be the end of the world... Infact the only proof is given is the easiest to deny since he is using a book that, once again, may or may not be the absolute truth.
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Last edited by Mandrag Ganon on Sep 24th, 2009 at 08:16 PM
Well, sure, we'd need to qualify it. A prophecy might come true, but it's by chance, not because of some prophetic foresight. But prophecies aren't true in that they aren't actual prophecy, they're blind guesses.
Gender: Male Location: Living my life, fighting my war.
Which is why events Nostradamus prophecied continue to happen time and time again.
I'd say educated guesses. Most prophecies are worded in ways that they will happen eventually, and probably several times afterward. Not because of any kind of devine insite, but because odds favored an event like that happening in the infinite span of the future.
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Last edited by Mandrag Ganon on Sep 24th, 2009 at 08:20 PM
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