The following passages are from “Revelation part 39”, posted on this blog on 4/2/11.

This portion has been republished for those who are concerned about Doomsday on 12/21/12. It is likely that if anything were to happen it will be based on the date in Israel which will come a little earlier than in America, so keep that in mind if you are counting down.

Though a natural disaster can happen at any time, it is unlikely that anything of any real impact will happen on that day, it will just become another Doomsday date which will make people even more calloused about warnings of hell, the rapture, tribulation, Antichrist, or the return of Christ to reign. But these things are very real and as sure to happen as the sun’s rising tomorrow; do not be discouraged.

For those curious about the rapture, there are a number of books in Christian book stores; those by Tim LaHaye are especially good, and understandable. Or if you would like a short read on it, see “On the Rapture”, published here on 4/20/10.
The most important question for you is, have you ever accepted Christ as your savior? If not these things will take you by surprise and you will be swept away. It is important not to put things off, it is 12/20/12 now, if these events were to take place, your time is short.

The ungodly like to mock Christians because we say stuff like this; they accuse us of using fear tactics. But what are their fear tactics, well, they will mock you, they may threaten you, you will be considered a whack job, you will no longer fit in their crowd. Remember this, we will all spend more time dead than we ever did alive, the question becomes, where will we spend it? Choose wisely.

“For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5: 2-3.

Have a truly happy Christmas, embrace your family or friends, whether they be few or many, remember, even if we all live to a healthy 100, time is still short, take time to wonder at God’s creation. May you be blessed and grow in Christ this New Year.
If the rapture does happen before Christmas, those in Christ will see the Christ of Christmas face to face; and the New Year will become a New Eternity with Jesus.

“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12: 32.

Following excerpted from “Revelation part 39”.
The return of Christ is imminent, that is to say that it could happen before I type the next word. This is not a new concept, the early church fathers believed it, Peter spoke of it indirectly in a sermon,

“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3: 19-21.

This bears repeating, it has been nearly two thousand years since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The promise of His return has been in effect since then; do not be disappointed if He does not return in a year or ten. As He said to His disciples before His ascension into heaven, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” Acts 1: 7, the time of His return is entirely up to the Father.

Yet the Lord chastises the Pharisees and the Sadducees for not recognizing the time of His visitation, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.”  Matthew 16: 2-3. God has put His word in our hands and has given us His Spirit to interpret it, He expects us to use the tools He has given us to the best of our abilities.

Another important thing to recognize is that God does not go against His word. That is, He does not say to us, “you shall not steal”, and then say, “well it is okay to steal in this case”. This is a rule that applies in all of His word as well as prophecy.

This will happen to you sooner or later; you will want to have something which may have to be gotten by overextending your credit card, or in some underhanded manner, or something will seem just not right, and a Bible verse will back this up. Yet you will say to yourself, “God wants me to be happy, besides everything is falling into place, surely He is honoring it”. You can be sure that if it is something that God has made it plain that it is not right; He will not change His mind.

Another example of this is the Mayan calendar speculation that something earthshaking is going to happen on 12/21/12. The basic belief is that some sort of a holocaust will occur on that date, followed by the earth being returned to a more gardenlike condition and the few survivors of the holocaust entering into a state of peacefulness. Sounds a bit like the prophecies of Revelation.

Many however, prefer to see that the turbulence of the holocaust causes the remainder of mankind to turn to the eastern religions and find that peace and harmony are within and that man must not only see his potential, but see himself as part of all human consciousness. These eastern religions see man’s consciousness as being one of many drops that flow into the whole, thus losing their identity. I prefer to look on this concept and agree with the Zen Buddhists when they say, “Man enters the water and he leaves no ripple”. No thank you, God, not only lets us remain individuals; He also makes us His sons and daughters in Christ.

As for the Mayans, people look on them and all ancient civilizations and think that it is remarkable that they could do so much, not having become as highly evolved as this present culture. The truth is that they were not evolved at all but were created with just as good a mental capacity as any one of us has today. The only difference was that they were not dealing with as great a body of knowledge as we have today. Yet look what they have done, with only their eyes they were able to make observations that are as accurate as some of our own!

So, what is wrong with the date 12/21/12? The Mayans predicted that the earth, and the sun will line up with a hole in the milky way on that date, which is happening, they also said that creation occurred something like 5127 years ago, which is probably within a thousand years of being right. Those who are studying these phenomena are saying that the sun is having disruptions which could send some serious radiation pulses onto the earth.

There are a number of books concerning this and if you have Netflix or something like it, there are documentaries on the subject that you can order, or punch in 2012 on Google. As titillating as all of this is, it is probably safest to accept what Alonso Mendez of the Mayan Exploration Center says of it, to paraphrase his words, “It is more likely that the calendar concerns local events, rather than world events”.

Difficulties with 12/21/12, the Bible does not predict an abrupt end of the world, the destruction of the world by God cannot happen according to various Scriptures in anything less than 1007 years. That is seven years prophesied for the tribulation and one thousand years for the reign of Christ (the millennium). What will happen at any moment is the rapture of the church and then the world, as we know it will cease to exist.

The Lord says of the end, “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.” Mark 13: 32-33. If God the Father does not tell the Son when the day and hour is, why would He tell idolaters these things? Once again, most emphatically, God does not contradict Himself. Do not be discouraged if the year 2012 comes and goes it is not for the Mayans to know things that God will not even tell His own children.

Mayan Calendar 12/21/12 taken from blog.godisrevealed.com

Scripture taken from the New King James version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.