The end of the world
There is a current discussion over in the Gentlemen Atheists groups centered around the predictions of the Mayan calendar and the date of 2012 as the possible end of the world. I put in my $.02 worth as follows:
"Biblically speaking, it will not be the Mayans that determine the end of the world, it will be Christ. My understanding of the Bible is that Christ may come to remove his Church from off the earth at any moment (I Thes. 4). That event will precipitate a 7 year, world-wide, period of "tribulation" (Matt. 24 ... especially verse 21 and all of Rev. 6-18) at the end of which Christ himself will physically return to earth, setting his feet once again on the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14) and then stay here to rule the world for a 1000 years (the Millennial Reign of Christ ... Rev. 20). After that, he will "disolve" this present world and its universe and create completely new ones (Rev. 21, II Pet. 3:7,10).
So, if the Rapture of the Church occurs today, this present world and its universe will have 1007 years left until the end."
Anybody else have any thoughts to add or debate about this recurring subject of "The End of the World?"
"Biblically speaking, it will not be the Mayans that determine the end of the world, it will be Christ. My understanding of the Bible is that Christ may come to remove his Church from off the earth at any moment (I Thes. 4). That event will precipitate a 7 year, world-wide, period of "tribulation" (Matt. 24 ... especially verse 21 and all of Rev. 6-18) at the end of which Christ himself will physically return to earth, setting his feet once again on the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14) and then stay here to rule the world for a 1000 years (the Millennial Reign of Christ ... Rev. 20). After that, he will "disolve" this present world and its universe and create completely new ones (Rev. 21, II Pet. 3:7,10).
So, if the Rapture of the Church occurs today, this present world and its universe will have 1007 years left until the end."
Anybody else have any thoughts to add or debate about this recurring subject of "The End of the World?"
Tags: 1000, 2012, calandar, christ, end, mayan, millennial, rapture, reign, tribulation
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jim on -
The end of world. I only beleive 1 knows exactly when and what that really means.
I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it though I do find it entertaining. I will likely see the movie 2012 when it comes out.
I think the more important question is are we ready today?? Have we done what we need to do (or working towards it) and are we right in our faith/beliefs? Most of us do not know when we are leaving this world. It may be today, 10 years....? That is what I focus on, doing the best I can right now.
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Mark Devore on -
I tend to take the side of science here and predict that the physical earth has several billion years left, however the current species of humans may be significantly less long lived. 2012, not worried about it.
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Permalink Reply by Herb Munson on -
If that is the case, the first and second laws of thermodynamics would indicate that it will have long long ago become a pretty useless place, would they not?
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Permalink Reply by John Schaefer on -
Only if you ignore E=MC2 and it's relationship to the conservation of energy. Much to complex to delve into here, but heat can niether be lost or gained and is related to matter and Newtonian motion, gravity and electromagnetism. The universe is not cooling of, it is stable.
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Permalink Reply by Herb Munson on
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I was not implying that the energies found on earth would have been "lost" ... only that they would have long ago been converted into less and less available and usable forms per the Second Law of Thermodynamics. For example, if all the oil and coal reserves were burned (which would most likely be the case over millions and billions of years), they would no longer be available for easy access and use but would have long ago been disapated into light and heat at various points in time. In that sense, then ... the universe is in fact "running down" is it not (if you will pardon a layman's term)?
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Permalink Reply by John Schaefer on
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far to complex to explain here, but if your viewpoint is valid, how do you explain a worn out star exploding with thousands of times the energy it theoreticaly had left in it? Shouldn't it have just fizzled out and cooled off into dust? Lots of other factors work into the laws of thermodynamics. You as a human should have cooled off and worn out soon after birth if we only looked at your thermodynamic signature, but you are more than just heat. You are made of other things as well. It would be wrong to look at you and say you are only X or Y and therefore cannot ever do Z. The universe is more that just one form of energy.
But you have answered your own logic argument. Since the energies of the universe have not dissipated into less usable things, and the matter and energies that make up your molecules are just as vibrant as those of eons ago, you exist and therefore are clearly here to argue the point. You have become a self evident proof that the universe is self sustaining and stable.
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Permalink Reply by Will on -
Entropy always increases in a *closed* system. Anything that happens on earth can involve decreased entropy, since the sun's increasing entropy from burning hydrogen vastly outweighs whatever decreased entropy processes on earth might have (since the sun is way, way bigger) -- as long as what happens here uses that solar energy to do it. As it usually does.
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Permalink Reply by Gryphon MacThoy on -
Simplistic application of simple scientific rules will not answer this Big Question. Also, note that the jury is still out on how the universe itself will end. It might recollapse on itself or it might continue to dissipate forever until there's nothing but a haze of subatomic particles, forever moving away from each other. Or, because our knowledge of the universe is incomplete and we know that there is much we do not know, the universe may be in perfect balance somehow. Or it might turn into lime jell-o. Mmmmmmmm. The Law of Universal Jell-O!
We won't get meaningful solutions out of small bits of scientific rules applied (often incorrectly) to a small portion of the observable 'world'. The answer is much bigger than this stuff, because the question itself is much bigger than "what's the end of the world going to be like and when will it happen." For example, define 'world'.
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Permalink Reply by John Schaefer on
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Since historicaly speaking every prophecy concerning the exact date of the end of the world has been completely wrong, I put no faith whatsoever into the 2012 nonsense. Wasn't epic disaster going to happen in Y2K? Wasn't civilization susposed to come to a grinding halt and millions would die and water would flow uphill etc etc? Y2K was the non issue I expected it to be, and I am more confident of my prediction that come Jan 1, 2013 everything will be as much as it was on Dec 31, 2011 than I am on any body else's that it wont.
I believe also due to factual science that the universe will be here for a very long time and nothing in the pysical universe indicates a cosmic calamity is brewing. Biblical Revelation has nothing to do with physical science, when God decides enough is enough then it will end and physical laws will be suspended at that point in time, and the Bible is clear that nobody knows the time of this ending. Please don't confuse the two issues as one has no bearing on the other. In the interim it is our duty as humans to improve our lives and the lives of those around us until the last possible moment, be it from a Biblical ending or an asteroid the size of Texas.
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Permalink Reply by Peter O'Reilly on -
Screw all this noise. We all know the end of the world is going to come with the zombie apocalypse.
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Permalink Reply by John Schaefer on
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Negative there ghost rider. I've got my bolt action rifle and a plan, my team is trained and we are ready for the living dead. We will survive, therefore the world will not end but only be held on pause until my teamates and I can reconstruct society after the outbreak has subsided. Bring 'em on.....
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Permalink Reply by Topher White on -
The presumption is that the Mayan calandar ending in 2012 is related to the end of the world. What if it was just the end of the publishing contract? Seriously, it's like:
Mayan: Boss, I've got the calendar out to 2012 so far. How much further do you think I need to take it?
Boss: What?!?! You idiot! We haven't been paid past 853! I'll never get hazimetzumachudalibaba to pay for all the extra work. And in the meantime, we've got muziwuzifarahmia's wedding invitations backorder by three years! That's it, you've just been moved to "special projects" division.
Mayan: But everybody from "special projects" division ends up getting sacraficed to the fire gods.
Boss: Wow, really? I never would have guessed.
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