12-3-12<\/p>\n
Surveys tell us that an awful (and I do mean awful) lot of people are buying into this Doomsday Scenario. You know, the 12-21-12 Farewell Party supposedly devised by the lost civilization of infant-sacrifice folks, the Mayans. The prophesy is found in pictograms carved into a stone, a very small fragment of which was rescued from a gravel quarry. How coincidental, or not, that someone writing a book salvaged this message from centuries past, just in time for a book he was writing. And what a coincidence, or not, that the due-date for the evaporation of the universe, after all these centuries, is right about now.<\/p>\n
There are, supposedly, many other dire predictions from many other cultures, all with the same date circled on their calendars. Or virtually so, because many of these fortune-tellers had no conception of the Christian calendar, or months and years. Ah, skeptics like me are told, it is not about dates, but how the celestial bodies line up. OK, I get it. Folks could divine future events, even to precise moments \u2013 the same folks who were incapable of surviving as societies, much less inventing doorknobs. I might be straying from the fine points of documentary evidence, but you get my point.<\/p>\n
Scientists today could be busier enumerating new varieties of nitwits infesting our society, than tracking the veracity of such theories. There are many adherents indeed, and among them are, perhaps not surprisingly, scientists, who are no less immune than others in subscribing to crackpot nostrums. Among them, also, are many Christians, who should know better.<\/p>\n
Near the top of many reasons why Bible-believers should not pay attention to a word of this nonsense is God\u2019s familiar injunction that \u201cNo one shall know the day or the hour\u201d of the end of things. Not angels, not even the Son, will know. It is God\u2019s prerogative.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t it odd that so many people caught up in this mania are also worried about the future of the economy, and the Middle East, and, oh, the football season, so fervently? The \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d? Hey, forget about it!<\/p>\n
The Doomsday Scenario is nonsense — just a diversion like news about celebrity infidelities, and tabloid stories about dogs who play chess. <\/p>\n
To step even further back, however, there is an extra reason to put the \u201cFiscal Cliff\u201d in a more proper perspective. I reckon that America\u2019s economy went off a cliff a long time ago. Policies, corruption, irresponsibility\u2026 we can see now that there were no exit ramps. It was inevitable. The only question is how hard the crash will be. But there are even more serious cliffs we are headed toward at 80 miles an hour, chatting on our cell phones, and scarfing down fast food. Driving at night. With our lights out. And with bad brakes.<\/p>\n
Christians: what about the moral cliff? How rotten have we let society become on our watch?<\/p>\n
Parents: what about the \u201cnuclear-family\u201d cliff? Do we honor the family unit, do we keep our households intact, do we set good examples, do we teach discipline and exhibit leadership?<\/p>\n
Businessmen: are we good stewards of the resources we manage, and the welfare of our employees?<\/p>\n
Civic leaders: does the government help or hinder average citizens? Are you continuing the Founders\u2019 visions of letting free people make free decisions? Are you penalizing success in today\u2019s economy?<\/p>\n
Celebrities: are you good role models for your audiences? Do you promote moral values and decent behavior? Do you realize the impact you have when you traffic in sex and drugs and self-indulgence? IS it all about money?<\/p>\n
Clergy: is it more important to dilute your message in order to attract and keep church members; or, rather, to hold high the gospel message \u2013 sometimes hard, always uncompromising \u2013 and trust the Holy Spirit, that Truth will draw all unto it? Do you really think that watering down the Word will inspire youth to trust it\u2026 or trust you, in the essential matters of life?<\/p>\n
We have been driving toward, and over, many \u201ccliffs\u201d in America for quite some time. If you remember thinking you had a smooth ride back in the day, maybe it was because we have been, for some time, sailing through clear air, where there are no bumps in the road. But there will be a hard fall. A dead end.<\/p>\n
Oh. Back to \u201cknowing the day and the hour.\u201d If you read carefully, the Bible DOES teach that we can know when the Lord signals the End of Time.<\/p>\n
Here it is: When we least expect it. <\/p>\n
So forget the Mayan Calendar, and think “larger” about Fiscal Cliffs. Let the Bible be your calendar, let the Bible be your roadmap.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
Often you will hear, in apocalyptic movies and even TV commercials, the music of Carl Orff. So we shall not disappoint here. \u201cCarmina Burana\u201d was composed in Germany in 1935-36, a cantata based on the poems found in medieval works by Benedictine monks from roughly the 14th and 15th centuries. The first movement is titled “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi” or \u201cO Fortuna,\u201d lamenting the hopes and disappointments of worldly desires. The performance in Maastricht, the Netherlands, is by Andre Rieu and his typical, and typically impressive, cast of thousands. <\/p>\n