The Mayan Myth of 2012

From the book The Wind and the Spirit © 2011 by William Kevin Stoos “All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you…They cannot even save themselves…” Isaiah 47:13-14 (NIV) The End Times hysteria promoted by a media seemingly enthralled with the notion that the world is going to end soon, authors who have written half a dozen books on the subject during the past couple of years, and internet sites which advise folks how to avoid the impending cataclysm, has generated a new pet theory. After two thousand years of false prophets, including soothsayers, con artists, religious nut cases, priests, bishops, kings, popes, politicians, astrologists and others who have told generations of human beings that the world end in their respective lifetimes, the latest fad in the End Times lunacy is the Mayans.

This ancient culture that died out centuries ago, is said to have predicted that the world will end in December of 2012. The Mayan Myth is the theory de jour when it comes to predicting the end of the world. The Mayan Myth begs the age-old question and one that these false prophets, scientists and astrologers seem never to ask or answer: “Who can know the mind of God?” For if we assume that the Mayans--this ancient culture long since vanished from the face of the earth--knew exactly when the world would end, then we must therefore assume that they, above all peoples who ever inhabited the earth, were privileged in ways that no man and no generation ever was: they knew the day and the hour when even the Son of God stated that he did not. (See Matthew 24:36.)

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The Mayans must have been a special culture indeed, to know the mind of God and be privy to His secrets. And what is the evidence that they--above all peoples and times--could predict the end of the world and knew it to be on December 21, 2012?  Well, based on a centuries-old Mayan calendar and the projected alignment of the solar system, it is said that the world will end on that date.  Apparently, the jig is up; this ancient civilization has solved the cosmic riddle that God devised at the beginning of time and now we all know when the world will end. Simple as that.  How like Mankind to think that we could understand the mind of God by looking at the alignment of the planets a thousand years in advance and know that the world will end on a date certain! To ascribe such an ability to any society or generation is to give us more credit than we deserve, make us godlike in ways that we are not, and to reduce God to the finite and the predictable. Of course, we are told variously that the Mayans died out due to starvation, or wars between themselves, or disease, or who knows what other reasons, so while they were civilized to a degree and perhaps even advanced in some respects, their ability to foresee their own end was apparently suspect. Presumably, any society able to foresee the end of the world over a thousand years hence must certainly have been able to foresee its own demise and therefore prevent it.  Yet we know that they could neither foresee their own demise nor prevent it; therefore one must wonder why so many people and so many writers are so captivated by the Mayan Myth or their alleged ability to predict the end of mankind--to the day. Could it be that this sells books, provides grist for science fiction writers, modern soothsayers, and a sensationalist press hungry for any apocalyptic story?   If one takes any stock in the Bible then one understands that even Jesus, the Son of God, said He could not predict the end and only the Father knew it. Regardless, the basic premise of the Mayan Myth is fatally flawed--for to know the end of the world is to know the mind of God, know the Divine Game Plan in advance, and to let the proverbial cat out of the bag. Why would God possibly want to reveal His plan for the end of the world (if indeed He intends to end it) to a civilization long since dead centuries ago? And why would He possibly want to telegraph His moves to begin with?   What are we to do with this information--assuming arguendo that the Mayan soothsayers are correct? If we really believed the Mayan Myth of 2012--which is flawed beyond belief, and just as phony as the last two thousand years of soothsaying--then we should all conclude our affairs, forget about the future, stop having babies and raising families, and cease all hope in the future. Imagine, if we really believed this, how depressing life would be, how useless it would be to plan things, to invest time in our homes, families and businesses; how pointless to raise a garden, plant a tree, cultivate the land or look forward. Why do anything since we know to the day when it all will end? What is the use, after all? It takes all of the fun, the joy, and hope that springs eternal in the human heart out of us all. It would be an abysmally sad world indeed if we knew the end was coming in exactly two years.  No, the Mayan Myth is a fraud and those who promote it charlatans. If you read history, then you know that we have heard it all before. Where are the Mayans, now and why were they so powerless to change their own destiny?  If they were God’s chosen people, entrusted with the Ultimate Secret, why were they not also blessed with the ability and the foresight to prevent those events which led to their own demise and thereby preserve their own culture? They could not, in the words of Isaiah, even save themselves. Where are they now? Committed to the dust bin of history--as the Mayan Myth of 2012 will be decades from now. The Wind and the Spirit