End Of The World Predictions

GUEST BLOGGER...

The following blog is by our guest blogger, Rob Holding.  Rob has been in national radio for over 20 years and has interviewed a host of people on world events.  He has been looking at the big picture for quite a while so we think his opinion is one worth listening to.

Here's the Blog from Rob.

One of the most annoying things with the world ending on December 21st next year is that I’m probably going to miss out on seeing The Hobbit.  The release date is the 14th of December and, what with the world ending one week later and absolutely no chance of ever seeing the second part I can imagine hawkers will have ticket prices up in the unattainable range.

It’s not that I actually believe the world is going to end on December 21st 2012 it’s just that there seem to be a lot of people who think it may and I’m well aware of what a panicked humanity can do. Anyone remember what happened?  

Back in June 1941 during a Japanese air raid on Chungking in China 4,000 people were trampled or suffocated to death trying to return to air raid shelters.

On the 21st of May 1985, 56 people died and 265 were injured after fire engulfed the Bradford City football stadium. Most of the dead were children or elderly people crushed in the rush to escape the inferno.

Just over a week later, about an hour before the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus, a large group of Liverpool fans breached a fence separating them from rival Juventus fans. The Juventus fans ran back on the terraces and away from the threat into a concrete retaining wall. Fans already seated near the wall were crushed; eventually the wall collapsed. 39 people died and over 600 were injured.

I actually got up to watch that game (New Zealand time) and stood there unable to move as I watched the carnage before me on TV.

Early 2011 four people were arrested in East China's Jiangsu province for allegedly spreading rumours about an impending explosion that triggered panic and led to the deaths of four and the injury of three others. Residents thought poisonous gas was leaking from a chemical plant in the Chenjiagang Chemical Industry Park. The plant's neighbors believed the leaking gas was about to explode. More than 10,000 people from four townships in the county started to flee the area at 2 am, leaving the streets in chaos.

Oh yes, I am going to be very careful on December 21st 2012.

My mate Mike’s been going through a few problems in the last couple of month, everything from losing his job and having to go into arbitration with his employer to moving home and worst of all, not being able to afford to get his bike on the road.

In one of his texts to me he said “I’m packing my bags and getting ready for December 2012”. Now Mike’s a Christian, and he believes that the world is going to end this year about as much as I believe that The United States of America is going to win the next Rugby World Cup (in other words, it’s not going to happen), but for some reason, everyone is talking about it.  

If the world was going to end in December 2012 then I think Mike’s got the right idea. As a Christian he knows that the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with The Lord. So no matter what happens to him, he’s going ‘home’

I wonder if all the panic about December 21 is because most people don’t have that same assurance of faith about what they say they believe in.

If you believe in reincarnation, what happens to your soul if there’s no planet to be reincarnated on (remember there are no life supporting planets anywhere else - and we’ve looked hard enough). Do you get instant Nirvana? Everybody passes GO, everybody gets $200?

It would take a little rearranging of the belief systems to fit that scenario in.

Atheists shouldn’t be worried except that they won’t get to fulfil all their plans for their lives but, hey, you only had 80 odd years to do it in anyway so the chances were that you weren’t going to achieve, what would you call it, Immortality? (A rather ironic word for an atheist)

No, I think the problem really is that very few people have actually seriously questioned or researched what it is they believe in and this whole 2012 thing has put them on edge because it forces us to look for the cracks in our belief-system armour. (You don’t want to step out of the space craft unless you KNOW that your space suit is airtight).

So what do you believe? Are you 100% sure?

I have a mate from Gisborne, NZ, who has this wonderful little saying. He says “Eternity is the wrong thing to be wrong about”. Do you like that? Eternity is the wrong thing to be wrong about.

We could all be wrong about December 21st 2012. I could be wrong about December 21st 2012. I don’t think I am, but I could be. But in the end, as someone once said; no one gets off the planet alive.

Death pushes our buttons like nothing else does because we all die. If you are reading this it simply means that you haven’t died yet. But you will. And so will.  However, as a Christian, I don’t have a fear of death.  In fact, like Paul, I look forward to it.  

Talking to the church in Philippi, St Paul (not McCartney, that’s Sir Paul) said he was tired of the world and just wanted to go home to Jesus and was only sticking around because it was more beneficial for them that he stayed alive. And he was only in his mid 50s.   

That’s faith you can take to the bank.

Where are you going when your number’s up? 12-21-12 or whenever (maybe next week).  150,000 die every day, what’s going to happen to you when it’s your turn? Remember, eternity is the WRONG thing to be wrong about.

Me? Well, let me leave you with the immortal words of Larry Norman, a man that I never got round to interviewing during my radio career but look forward to doing so in the future.

“I hope I'll see you in heaven.”

John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. No one comes to the Father except by Me”

CLICK HERE to find out if you'll go to heaven when you die, whenever that may be.