End of the world at hand?

LAWRENCE OOKEDITSE
Correspondent | Friday April 8, 2011 00:00

It is also unusual for most so-called professionals to concern themselves with things like the end of the world. It is common discourse though in church (though with a different angle and possibly for a different reason) and within certain elements of the scientific community to discuss the possibilities of the end of the world-serious scientists who figure things out I mean, not those who simply implement other's inventions and innovations like most in the Southern hemisphere. Real scientists like those at NASA. Enough with those descriptions, they could bruise one or two souls.

A kilometre or two driving from the BBS mall and just by Tsholofelo Park is a billboard. A few kilometres further down the road by Falcon Crest is another billboard. At the Gaborone taxi rank is the same billboard. All are at prime spots. In my last check, each worth between P9,000 and P14,000 depending on which company owns the billboard. The message though is the same. And it all is from the same source: Family Radio.

The message is 'warn the People' as the 'Awesome News,' is that Judgement Day is coming on May 21. It is not until I rummage through loads of information that I figure out what it is. Most have been wondering what the billboard is about. Many more like me thought it could be one of those billboard commercials that are meant to be teasers. But these ones are no teasers; they are serious announcements if not warnings to the people of the impending doom on May 21 as according to the Family Radio. A great earthquake shall end your world; save for just about 3 percent of the really saved. Those who believe in Jesus Christ of Nazareth will be carried into heaven, while the rest of humanity will endure 153 days of death and horror before the world ends on October 21.This is not a joke. May 21, 2011 shall be the beginning of the end of the world, again, that's according to Family Radio.

And these guys are serious, in the United States of America (US) for example, those who belong to the movement have left everything they had behind. Family, designer clothes, vehicles, houses, money and other such worldly possessions to travel around warning the people of the impending doom to occur in less than two months. Now I turn to you and ask: If you thought you had less than three perfectly healthy months to live, what would you do?

Would you travel? Spend time with loved ones? Appreciate the joy life has given you? Or would you ditch your kids and grandkids, join strangers in a caravan of RVs and travel the country warning people about the end of the world?

That's the question CNN's Jessica Ravitz also posed and the answer is that 'If you're Sheila Jonas, that's exactly what you'd do'. Sheila Jonas belongs to this movement and she, with nine others, left everything behind to join Family Radio's 'Project Caravan' team to warn the people.

If you like, you may say they are the disciples of Harold Camping, host of the programme 'Open Forum' and the force behind Family Stations Inc., home to Family Radio. Not that he has never made predictions before.

He happens to be the man who once said September 6,1994, would be the end of the world. He got it wrong, of course, but he is now at it again and this time he is not alone. I will tell you who else is with him in a little while.

This time around, Jessica Ravitz says, he has no doubts. He argues that he knows, 'It's absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true,' he says. 'If I were not faithful that would mean that I'm a hypocrite.' And they have a formula to calculate this and it is freely available on the Family Radio website. According to this site, there are two 'proofs' that May 21, 2011 is the Judgement Day?

First, Noah's Great Flood occurred in the year 4990 BC - that is exactly 7,000 years ago. God said to Noah he had seven days before the flood would begin. Taking a passage from 2 Peter 3:8, in which it is said a day for God is like a thousand human years, the church reasoned that seven 'days' equals 7,000 human years from the time of the flood, making 2011 the year of the apocalypse.

The second proof is in calculating the date from the day of the crucifixion, which is April 1, 33 AD. According to their reasoning, there are exactly 722,500 days from April 1, 33 AD. until May 21, 2011 - the alleged day of judgement.

This number can be represented as follows: 5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17 = 722,500. The church then argues that numbers in the Bible have special meanings, with five signifying atonement or redemption, the number 10 signifying 'completeness' and 17 equalling heaven.

Not everyone agrees though. Perhaps you do not either. A confessed New York atheist, Michael Rosch, has this to say:  'There's nothing fundamentalist Christians love more than to arbitrarily decide on a date in the not very distant future to foretell as the end of the world, and then once that date passes uneventfully, to throw out a bunch of excuses why the world didn't end yet and then just start the process over again. The Jehovah's Witnesses do this just about every Tuesday and Harold Camping (who once foretold that the world would end in 1994) of Family Radio comes up with new dates for the apocalypse almost as often'.

He then continues with his tirade against the Family Radio people: 'Now a while back I was sitting in Union Square Park when one of the Family Radio's drones handed me a pamphlet informing me that the world will end on May 21, 2011...presumably because Jesus loves Star Wars. I guess they never read that part of the Bible where it clearly says that no one will be able to predict the day or the hour of Jesus' return, right?'

The 'end of the world' doom predictions though are not without reason to start speculating. Look at the 300,000 dead in an earthquake in Haiti, nearly 20,000 dead in Japan earthquake, massive earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, a near nuclear disaster in Japan, war in Libya, war in the Ivory Coast, And in Arkansas, an estimated 100,000 fish went belly-up the day before 5,000 blackbirds slammed into roofs, mailboxes and the ground at full speed. Starting just before the turn of the New Year, 500 red-wing blackbirds died together in Louisiana. Some 100 jackdaws turned up dead on a street in Sweden. Such massive, dramatic and high profile events have fuelled concerns that nature is coming to an end, or at least that something weird and disturbing is going on in the animal kingdom.

But again, writer, Emily Sohn posits that in one of the most extreme examples, 'an estimated 1.5 million Lapland Longspurs died during a March 1904 storm in Minnesota and Iowa'. The world did not end with that, or did it? Fish, too, do die in the thousands for other reasons -'it's not just birds that can die en masse. Tens of thousands of salmon died in Northern California's Klamath River in 2002 when the water temperature got too high for them,' the argument goes.

The problem though is that many people spoke of the troubled last days: the Maya, Egyptians, Qero elders of Peru, Navajo, Apache, and Christian prophets among others. Astrologists say that we are entering a new age with 2010 said to be the first year when we spend more days in Aquarius than in Pisces. Let's move further.

The year is 604 BC. Great King Nebuchadnezzar awakens after a disturbing dream. Witty and daring man as he was, he calls all his astrologers to interpret the dream. But wait...he does not tell them what the dream was, so they have to tell him what the dream was then interpret it. If they get it wrong they are to be slain. So, they have to prove their prowess while at the same time unravelling a great mystery that kept the Chaldean King of Babylon awake all night.

The mission is said to be humanely impossible but a certain Daniel, very consummate with God, offers to interpret the dream. And Lord behold he does. And as they say, God on that day authenticated his deity by revealing the future accurately hundreds of years before it unravels.  The dream was of a great statue; a metal man if you like.

'You, O king, were looking and then, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendour, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome', Daniel declared according to the Book of Daniel 2:31-35. He continued, 'the head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay'.

Brimming with knowledge he added, 'you continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 'Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.'

The head of gold represented Babylon (609-539 BC), which we now know fell.  According to the site Teaching Hearts, 'Babylon, under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar captured Israel and first took the upper class into slavery. It was during this first phase that the prophet Daniel was captured. Twelve years later, the rest of the Israelis were taken to Babylon after they rebelled against foreign occupation. Their king was removed and their sanctuary destroyed.'

The chest and arms of silver represent Medo-Persia (539-331 BC), which we know for a fact, also fell. 'After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth', the prophecy at Daniel 2: 39 also foretold. The Medes and Persians next conquered Babylon and Cyrus allowed the Jews to go home. He made arrangements to have the temple rebuilt. But the nation was still ruled by foreigners. Cyrus II, the Great and Darius the Mede are among the kings of this era.

From the loins of war and destruction rose perhaps the kingdom most adulated in history. One presided over by a young general who ruled young, attained fame and died young and has since acquired immortality in folklore and history - Alexander the Great of Macedonia. Belly and Thighs (Hips) of Brass - Greece (331-168 BC). The Greeks under the leadership of Alexander the Great were the third conquerors. But they, too, fell and the next great empire was that of the roman.

The legs of Iron represents Rome (168 BC - 476 AD) which was predicted in Daniel 2: 40 as 'a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; just as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. (Daniel 2: 40). Rome was known as the 'Iron Monarchy'.  It too fell and in came Europe as a major global power.

As such, the feet of Iron and Clay represent Europe (476 to the end).' In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, just as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. 'As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. (Daniel 2: 41-42). The Bible predicts that Europe will never unite again as one nation. They will try, but they will not stick together. The futility of these efforts is described in these words. 'And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery. (Daniel 2: 43).

Towards the end, therefore, a beast they say shall rise, and this beast is America.  This fifth and final gentile kingdom they said Jesus will destroy at the Battle of Armageddon when he comes to earth. America as the fifth and final kingdom of man will try to have the world run by one government; enforce a global religion and have a single world economy. But these will not happen and so shall be our end. Now, compare this to nations armed to the teeth with all kinds of weapons, the unpredictability of global events and current natural disasters ravaging the earth and you too might think indeed this is the end.  I can almost tell you did not breathe most of the time you went through this. But wait, in enters yet another Armageddon doom and conspiracy story - and we are moving to science each time so do not rubbish this as yet 'another churchy blackmail' to frighten you into worship.

Those are the Christians. Ever heard of the Maya? The Maya are probably the best known of the classical civilisations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 BC, they rose to prominence around AD 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.  They are known for their prophecies, which include the end of the world, as we know it on December 21, 2012.

The idea is that we have been in a long era dominated by the linear, rational mind split off from the body and the heart, entranced by linear time, reductionist scientific paradigms, blind materialism, egoistic competition, the dualistic mentality of right and wrong, and a fear-based sense of separation and greed resulting from a deep, societally-entrenched disconnection from the sacred oneness of life. To them therefore, on December 21, 2012, the world will cease to exist, as we know it. Not that there will be complete destruction but that a lot will change.

End of the world in their case refers to a cycle; 2012 is signalling the completion of one World Age Cycle, transiting into an emerging New World Age to come. In the Mayan calendar as such, the world will cease to exist, as we know it. One of the things popularly said is that it is possible that the polarity of the earth will change. The resultant change in the earth's magnetic field would bring about lots of changes. Scientists believe such change in the magnetic field of planet earth could disrupt the entire electricity grid and other things that we so much take for granted. Our lives then would be as our ancestors lived: simple lives without the aid of a lot of computer-based functions and systems.

The real catastrophe could come from related events. For example, Patrick Geryl, has been warning for years that all nuclear reactors and stored nuclear fuel will melt down in 2012 due to the earthquakes or the electromagnetic pulse that destroys the electric grid system. Geryl demands a worldwide shutdown of all nuclear reactors before 2012...or the world faces a total Armageddon. The precedent set in Japan as such shows that human civilisation could come to an end as a result of our having mastered self-destruction. If the electric grid system were destroyed as predicted, we would all go belly up not because of our own creations. Future generations of intelligent specie will talk of us as we do dinosaurs; will study our remains as we do fossilised material and the universe will move on as if we never existed. Just like it moves on now without many other species that used to exist.

Geryl, author of the book How to survive 2012 explains this in further detail. Once electricity is lost, the irradiated nuclear fuel could begin to melt down. If the containment systems fail, a catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment could occur'.

'In addition to the reactor cores, the storage pool for highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel is also at risk. The pool cooling water must be continuously circulated. Without circulation, the still thermally hot irradiated nuclear fuel in the storage pools will begin to boil off the cooling water. Within a day or two, the pool's water could completely boil away.

Without cooling water, the irradiated nuclear fuel could spontaneously combust in an exothermic reaction. Since the storage pools are not located within containment, a catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment could occur. Up to 100 percent of the volatile radioactive Cesium-137 content of the pools could go up in flames and smoke, to blow downwind over large distances. Given the large quantity of irradiated nuclear fuel in the pool, the radioactivity release could be worse than the Chernobyl nuclear reactor catastrophe of 25 years ago.'

However, Carlos Barrios, who was born in Guatemala and trained as a Mayan interpreter wrote the book The Book of Destiny says it won't all end. 'Just as the world did not end in the year 2000, at the start of the millennium, it won't end with the advent of Job Ajaw in 2012. An unfounded fear was created before the new millennium by religious leaders who based their theories on misguided interpretations of ancient religious texts and predictions made by famous prophets. The same fear is rising again. The true guardians of this tradition have never been consulted about this date, but we are here to say: December 21, 2012 will not be the end of the world or the end of humanity. In fact, it will be the start of a period in which harmony, understanding, peace, and wisdom can reign.

The prophecy says that during Job Ajaw we will move to a harmonious Natural Order so that both the Earth and humanity can attain the next stage of evolution'. Lay your fears aside and embrace 2012 with positive energy he says.

All said and done though, the doomsday thinkers are at it again. And some of those like the Family Radio mission have literally shed off everything they had to go around the world warning the people of Armageddon. The recent natural disasters and human catastrophe such as war has only made them believe that it's all over. And God, what of the swathes of dead fish and birds.

The animals are trying to tell us something, so is nature through quakes they say. And that something is that our world is coming to an end. Is it? Mark two dates; if you are able to reflect on this article on May 22 then you must know something is wrong with Family Radio and their ministry. But hey that's not it all; you still have to survive December 21, 2012. If you come out unscathed then those who wrote ancient texts might just have been wrong. Or rather, those who claim to interpret them were simply wrong in their interpretation.