>Many people believe that, according to the Mayan calendar, the world will end on December 21, 2012.

An article published in Newsday.com, quotes Ann Martin, from Cornell University, who said that many people are scared about the possible end of the world in 2012. She said:

It’s too bad that we’re getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they’re too young to die. We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn’t live to see them grow up.

According to the article in Newsday, a series of astronomical alignments will occur in 2012, an event that occurs once every 25,800 years. The article says that according to Mayan belief,

The Earth’s axis wobbles, slightly changing the alignment of the stars every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun’s lowest point in the horizon. That will happen on Dec. 21, 2012, when the sun appears to rise in the same spot where the bright center of galaxy sets.

You can read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

So, the question remains: will the world end in 2012?

If you believe Hollywood’s version of the events of the final day, as portrayed in the movie “2012,” which features earthquakes, meteor showers, and a huge tsunami that dumps an aircraft carrier on the White House, and if you believe Internet doomsday rumors, or the special program on the History Channel which mixed the predictions of Nostradamus with the Mayan calendar, then, it is for sure: the world will end on December 21, 2012.

If you believe what the Bible teaches about the last days, you have nothing to worry about.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: 2012, Mayan Calendar, Second Coming

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