Edmond pastor challenges Mayan calendar-based date
BY CARLA HINTON - Religion Editor
Comments 
41
Published: October 24, 2009
Can people trust the Mayan calendar that points to a "galactic alignment” that will cause the end of the world?
The
Rev. Mark Hitchcock of
Edmond asked himself that question when he discovered numerous Web sites and books had been created to focus on a Mayan prediction that the world will end Dec. 21, 2012.
Illustration by Ben Bigler, The oklahoman; From Provided and AP photos
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Hitchcock, who has written several books on Bible prophecy, decided to do his own research. His new book, "2012: The Bible and the End of the World” (Harvest House Publishers, $12.99), resulted from that research. He said he wrote his book as a biblical response to 2012.
Hitchcock will be featured in an upcoming
Syfy cable TV special on the topic.
Here, Hitchcock, senior pastor of Faith Bible Church, 600 N Coltrane, discusses the book and the attention surrounding the 2012 prophecy, including a feature film "2012” set to premiere Nov. 13 in theaters nationwide:
Q: After your research on the subject, do you believe the end of the world will occur Dec. 21, 2012?
A: Anytime someone sets a day for the second coming of Jesus or the end of the world, you can be sure that it won’t happen on that day. History has proven that, time and time again. People make these prophecies and predications about the second coming and about the end of the world, and they always come and go, and the people never come back and apologize and admit they were wrong.
Q: How did you become interested in the Mayan 2012 prediction?
A: I’ve written a lot of books on end times prophecy or eschatology. About two years ago, I was reading on the Internet, and there was an entry about the end of the world. It was talking about the end of the world had been predicted for Dec. 21, 2012, on the Mayan calendar. Being a guy who is interested in the end times, I started looking into it, and there was stuff all over the Internet about it. I found out about the movie coming out on Nov. 13. And then the next "
X-Files” movie may have a 2012 theme. The Syfy Channel is supposed to be doing a series about it next spring. There have been all kinds of programs on
The History Channel on 2012. I wanted to just examine it from a Bible perspective to help people who know the Lord already understand what’s coming, according to the Bible, and also to help people who don’t know the Lord see their need for Christ.
Q: Why has Dec. 21, 2012, been chosen for the prediction of the end of the world?
A: The Mayan calendar ends on that day. The Mayan calendar is in cycles, and on Dec. 21, 2012, for the first time in 26,000 years, the sun and the Earth will be directly aligned with the center or the equator of our galaxy. So, the center of our galaxy and the sun and the Earth will be lined up, which means on that day, supposedly, the energy that comes from the center of our galaxy will be interrupted to the Earth because the sun will be in the way.
So, the question is: What happens on that day, and what does that mean? There are all these theories out there that ... the North and the South Poles are going to flip, and that’s going to cause earthquakes and tsunamis and everything. Some people think that that’s going to be a year of more active solar flares, so they think that’s what’s going to do us in. Some people think there’s this planet out there called Planet X which is going to come real close to the Earth or hit the Earth and do us in.
But then there’s a whole other group of people who say that it will not necessarily be a time of great disaster but a time of global transformation. They say we’re going to have a global transformation of consciousness. I’m still not sure what they mean. It’s this huge global change, like an advanced movement or stage of evolution that’s going to take place.
Q: Why have some people put so much stock in the Mayan calendar?
A: They had 20 different calendars, at least. They had incredible, uncanny knowledge of astronomy and of our universe. They were obsessed with time and calendars, so people believe they must have known what was coming. Their calendar is divided into these periods, and supposedly all the past ones of those times have all ended with disasters, and this time coming up on Dec. 21, 2012, is one of the ends of these periods of time. So, they say if all these other times ended in disaster, so will this one. The problem is we don’t really know that.
Q: What have you found in your research? Does the Bible say anything about 2012?
A: The Bible doesn’t contain any dates in it for events in the end times. There aren’t any. The bottom line is that when you look at the Mayans or
Nostradamus or any of these other past predictors, none of them have accurately predicted things that are to take place. Nostradamus is so vague that you can read it and apply it to 100 different scenarios. But the Bible has predicted hundreds of things in the past that have come to pass. In the Bible, Jesus says that no one knows the day or the hour of His coming, or, by implication, no one knows when the world is going to end. If Jesus said that, then we can assume that it’s true, and we shouldn’t be trying to figure it out.
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the Mayan were scientists and mathematicians. There is no science or math in the bible, no proof only fables, myths and edited versons of the original stories. We will all see in the end anyway!
Yeah, and the bridge is still for sale, too!
Philippians 2:10-11 says-
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
2. No one knows the hour, day, nor year of the end times. Matthew 24:36 tells us: 36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Exactly. Which is why I hold fast to the belief that NO ONE KNOWS what happens after you die and NO ONE KNOWS which religion, if ANY, is correct. Lots of people assume things, and lots of people THINK they know, but no one KNOWS.
See, you think that choosing one belief system makes you right and means you know more than the rest of us, but you don't know any more than anyone else. You just presume that you do.
So I'll stick with not knowing, and admitting that I don't know. I've found that it gives me far more peace than trying to figure out who is right and which set of rules to follow. I just keep it to the "golden rule" and treat people the way I'd want to be treated.
So it's supposed ending could be off by several decades.
No one knows for certain the beginning date of the Mayan calendar. The coincidence of 12/21/12 was just a result of a best guess by a scientist named Thompson last century.
Again, since no one knows the beginning date for certain, no one knows the end date for certain, so it could be hundreds of years off.
The Galactic Plane is something of no astronomical relevance. It is an arbitrary line drawn by scientists for reference purposes. It has no physical relevance (like, say, the North and South pole that we can measure with accuracy), so nothing will happen over the next several million years as the earth passes through this arbitrary plane.
The Mayans themselves deny that there is any significance to the 2012 date, and to be honest, they weren't great astronomers even if they did have a few clever insights for their time.
Most assertions made about the Mayans and their calendar are completely unsupported by science.
So go enjoy another End of the World movie, lots of fun, but sleep well on 12/21/12.
A thoughtful person who has their own best needs as central in their life would be foolish to pooh pooh the whole thing without careful examination of what is the truth.
God is willing to let you make any decision you wish. You have free will. So why are you willing to assume that the beliefs of the ages is foolishness without a complete investigation made by yourself. Obviously you have not thought it out very well if you just say it is all made up stuff.
All that is stake in this is your eternity with or without God. Do you really think we just die and that is it? Or maybe we come back as a bug. Or that the wisest of men have come to a conclusion that there is a GOD.
The older you get the more you will realize how little you do know. I urge you to look into your own best interests and learn what you are rejecting. Try reading the just John in the New Testament. You will be shocked at what it says. I challenge you to read that and then say this is all just made up.
IF you have the time, you might audit some courses at O.U. about Mayan art and architecture. Their pyramids put the ones in Egypt to shame. People who concentrate their efforts in Egypt would just kill themselves if they ever researched the ones in Mexico and Central America. I was overwhelmed and had to just contain myself when I visited the Field Museum in Chicago and found a considerable collection of Mayan artifacts. The colossal head outside was a sign I had hit nirvana.
I was lucky to take two Mayan classes taught by Dr. Mary Jo Watson at O.U. She is now the director of the O.U. School of Art and Art History. As a non-art student it was a pleasure to sit with graduate students and absorb the fascinating vast knowledge of the Mayan people.
The biggest testimony to their culture is how it is utilized today by so many entities. Going backwards just look at the movies and serial network animations. Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Skull, Apocalypto (totaly about the Mayan). The Emperors New Groove, The Road to El Dorado (Incan and Mayan), and many more. Then look at Disney who takes real and turns it into fantasy. Disney World features a reported Aztec Pyramid that contains a Mexican restaurant the famous "It's a Small World" water ride. There are Mayan and Incan inscriptions inside so Disney went for diversity.
I guess folks, what we should take out of what happened to the ancient Meso-Americans is that what did them in is what can do "us" in. They devastated their environment and they died. They deforested their land so much that they lost food and water for a growing population. Then all the waring ate up resources even more. Then the final blow was excessive government control. Their whole nations were one big welfare program. When people stopped being individually productive toward the betterment of their own kind they died and never returned. Their cities were covered in dirt forests only to be discovered thousands years later.
but in the end, it's irrelevant cuz the whole OT was just made up myths and legends. folklore told from generation to generation (not written but oral-these people were illiterate), sprinkled with some geographic accuracy by a people yearning to have a place in the world at the time. And it worked-unfortunately.
Darren...just believing an imaginary man in the sky controls your every movement does not make that true either.
I'm sorry that so many people write to mock and ridicule people of faith. Mocking and denying the truth does not diminish it.
So, he has spend what I assume must be years, taking people money in trade for his nonsensical blatherings about the end of the world. But now people have found a taste for a new flavor of the end of the world. His market share is threatened! So now he writes a book about 2012 too, and he's on the 2012 special on SyFy too.
Listen, "Pastor" you can't claim to be an objective expert in something that is completely made up, alright? (Though is seems you are doing it for a living.)
The world will/will not end in 2012, he's got a 50/50 chance of being right.
This is newsworthy? Oh wait, the DOK can publish a story like this instead of one about the dismal conditions this state is known for, I get it....