Another of God’s miracles Photo by Justin Ryan

 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  Matthew 24:36

A whole industry has risen on the subject of “The End Times”.  As I watch what is going on around me in this Nation and the world I can’t help but believe that we are winding down to the end.  Being a Christian I am of a belief that yes; God will bring the matter of good versus evil to a head and life will never be the same for anybody.  Am I anxious about it?  Not really.  One thing I have learned is that time is far different for man that it is for God.  When compared to eternity our existence doesn’t even constitute a blink.  Only God knows and when I see people and groups that exclaim that the world is going to end on January 19 or May 25 or wait a minute, it’s August 21 and if not then it will be November 11; I get amused.  I often wonder where the initiators of the dates are the following day.  I figure they are on a warm beach sipping a drink from a glass with a little umbrella in it looking at a calendar.

Do not think that it is only crazy Christians that believe this stuff; remember the Mayan prophecy and 2012?  What a craze that was and I know a few people who were completely taken in by that and were actually disappointed after they sobered up.  There was even a movie “2012” which is fairly entertaining and is now one of the movies my grandson Justin and I like to watch to everyone’s discountenance.  All because many years ago a Mayan calendar maker retired.  If he only knew how much money he would be making for others in the future I wonder if he would have retired?  Or did he have an understanding of human nature and just had a sense of humor?  Well, the Mayan calendar maker, like the Mayan race and culture vanished and their world ended.  What happened to them has been a curiosity for many people from anthropologists to doomsayers and many theories have been put forward concerning the disappearance of this great culture.  My own theory, which I have not seen promoted as yet is that they were a victim of their own “open” immigration policies.  Residing in the beautiful and bountiful area of the Yucatan and Central America they became the pre-eminent culture in the hemisphere.  With this success guys like the Mayan calendar maker expanded and found that the cost of the labor was eating into their profits.  So like any good Mayan businessman they lobbied their ruling council of wise chiefs (comprised of old copper toned men) and with enough maize and gold donated to the chiefs were able to open their borders to allow their neighbors from the north to flood the labor market and drive the wages down.  At first these immigrants injected some needed energy but as time went on another group called the Aztecs started coming and brought with them the desire to be the employers rather than the employed.  Some even brought their belief of sacrificing Mayans for their own purification.  So over a period of time the Mayans and all the good calendars that they were known for producing just disappeared.  The Mayans understood the science of economics but not the Law of Unintended Consequences. History does repeat itself.

Other major religions also have an end of days belief.  Jewish tradition is more of a end of cycle belief and they measure their cycles by the times which they are kicked out of a country or killed in a mass way.  They are waiting for the appearance of The Messiah, who will bring peace to the world.  They blinked the first time around and now have to wait for His return.  I do not think they will miss Him this time.  I do not understand the continued hatred of the Jews.  To be fair, many just dislike them for various reasons but it is only a small jump from dislike to hatred.  I have boiled it down to two reasons; envy and Satanic hatred of God and man.  The two are intertwined  with the latter making full use of the former.

To nobodies surprise Islam has an end of the world vision also and they are more than happy to share it with you, especially if you are Jewish, Christian or just a plain old infidel and if you are homosexual they hold a special hatred for you.  As they are derived from the same genes as the Jewish and Christian faith (one man is the father of the three – his name was Abraham) their end of days belief is similar to Christianity.  The main difference seems to be that other than the homicidal Christians (very few in number) we are willing to wait for God’s time whereas Islamist seem to believe that they are Gods timekeepers.  This “religion” is more of an economic and political system that uses “religion” to sell itself to the world.  Their enemies in the West have allowed the atheist/humanist leaders to get all tangled up with how to combat the evil that is in Islam and consequently Islam will contribute mightily to the end times.

Even Buddha and his followers have an end of the world vision.  In some ways it is more disturbing than the other more violent religions but it does seem to connect with a large number of people of today.  Their end of the world comes from global warming at it’s extreme.  Massive drought as all water is evaporated and the Earth will just explode from the heat.  Who knew that Buddha is really Al Gore?  Before all you goofy envior-nuts get excited with I told you so finger wagging there is more.  Sorry Al, the Buddha say’s that there is going to be 7 suns that will appear and each one will heat the planet and dry everything up before it heats the earths core to the point of explosion.  Not unlike how many stars are destroyed.  The fat man, Buddha not Al, does not mention man’s penchant for barbeque and wood burning stoves as a cause to earth’s demise.  All those carbon credits will go up in smoke because of nature.  Buddha’s scenario is more disturbing than the others because there is no promise of a time of peace.  Just a lot of sweat then poof; we’re gone.  Absolutely no chance of redemption for man.  You can rub the fat mans belly until he is skinny and it will not matter.  I would rather take my chances with a crazy Islamist or start conducting Seder where there is at least some hope for mankind.

There are two other groups that are now dominating American culture – atheist and pagans.  They are not the same though many see them as one.  Atheism has no belief in God so it is not hard to discern that they have no specific end times.  I guess their end times are either brought about only by mans desire or everyday when we die.  I can not fathom what it would be like to be an atheist.  They seem only to be faithful to the logic of man and that is scary; in fact if you look at the history of man it is very illogical to trust in mans logic.  There is no basis for the emotions like love or the desire for the sanctity of life. The atheist humanist has presented itself as the dominant religion in America and the rest of the western world.  Whether they actually are is another question but there is no question as to their dominance in Government, Media, Education and the Corporate World.   The Atheist belief is an easy trap to fall into and easy to see if you watch.  Political correctness is their catechism and they are as brutal as the old church when it comes to correcting anyone they see as deviating from their doctrine.  If any one group is to bring about the end of the world my money is on them to do it.  Their arrogance blinds them to what their disbelief truly is and as they stumble around in the dark so self assuredly they lead the unwitting to their inevitable demise.

Pagans come in many sects much like other religions.  They have several gods they serve or believe in and also have end time scenarios.  In the early days of what is now called the Roman Church pagan holidays were rolled into Christian beliefs in order to make conversion easier for the pagans.  It worked as the Church greatly increased it’s membership and grew dominant but it came at a high cost; the soul of the Church was lost and the message of Jesus corrupted.   While there are people who believe in pagan deities still; their numbers are very small.  Most pagans of today worship Mother Nature.   Environmentalism is their dogma preached and used as their control mechanism.  Their end time consists of man dirtying the planet making it uninhabitable.   Man is their enemy and while they will not bring about a cataclysmic end to man they will destroy mankind through poverty and disease.  It isn’t a far stretch to say that at the core of their beliefs is sadomasochism.

Admittedly the above descriptions of the various religions and their view of the end time are not in depth.  As Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit”.  Some will claim me soulless, others witless but I am neither.  These brief observations are meant to be a starting point for further study by others.  Like the thread sticking out of a sweater; keep pulling and you unravel the well put together garment.  I am confident that people who compare the different scriptures will understand the one Truth of the Bible.  There are detractors to be sure but opened eyes and mind will see and understand their folly.

When it comes to the end times there is one thing that is certain – there will be an end of this world.  The world, like a human started on the path to death the moment it was born.  Unknown to us is the end.   That is known only to God but there are warning signs that should be heeded with both the individual and the world.  There is a man I know of, I believe his name is Steve.  A friend of a friend who I do not know personally but I know of his plight.  He was told in December of 2014 he had but two weeks to live.  He has cancer and it took a turn for the worse.   He is still walking the earth today.  He is not cured but he lives still with his wife and children, chopping wood in August to prepare for the winter.  His doctor is bewildered at his longevity and she can’t understand it.  Like the prognosticators of the end times she looked at the signs and understood the what and the why but she, like them fail to understand that only God knows the time.  All that is needed is for us to accept that simple fact and prepare ourselves.  Does that mean we should just surrender to the inevitable?  An emphatic NO!  Acceptance and surrendering are two different things and while there will be a point of surrendering it is not in the beginning or the middle.  Respect the knowledgeable opinions of doctors and Pastors, Rabbis and Imams who foretell the end of days but always know that your time is in His hands.