The Apocalypse of 2012 pt. I

Have you ever been at a family gathering and heard this?  

"THE WORLD IS GOING TO END IN 2012 YALL!"

"How do you know?"

"The ancient Mayan predicted it!"

"Oh really?"

"Yes!  And also, a huge volcano is going to erupt in Yellowstone and kill millions of people in the United States!"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and the sun is going to start producing massive solar flares that will send huge amounts of radiation to earth and eat up our magnetic fields!"

"You don't say?"

"I do, and also, Jesus is going to come back and lead all the Jews and Christians into battle in the Middle East against the forces of Satan!"

"Well, now you've got me, if Jesus is involved it must be true."

I hope none of your have ever had a conversation like this, but I guarantee at least one of you has.  And an interesting conversation it was too.  He was very serious for a fourteen year old and I don't blame him.  The apocalypse is no laughing matter.  

Chef Boy R D is the only thing that I will put in my apocalypse shelter.  Before I digress into another long story of what I want to put in my apocalypse pantry, let's discuss the whole issue of the looming date of December 21, 2012.  

First a brief history of apocalyptic predictions...

1. Joanna Southcott: (pictured above)  Self-Proclaimed Woman from the Bible with Prophetic Powers.  Born in 1750 Britain, Joanna thought that she was the woman from Revelations 12:1-6 (King James version) and that she was going to give birth to the Messiah and herald the end of the world.  The end date would be October 19, 1814.  When this date came and went her followers did not faulter but only assumed there was some kind of cosmic 'mix-up.'  Ironically Joanna would die two months later.  In a strange twist, her loyal followers kept her body around for a while in hopes she may raise herself from the dead but when it started to rot, they handed it over to authorities.
2. Millerites:  These were the followers of an upstate New York baptist preacher named William Miller who taught that Jesus would be coming back roughly around the year 1843.  Miller drew a lot of his teaching based on a very literal reading of the book of Daniel combined with a smattering of things out of Revelations.  Interestingly, Miller's movement became widely circulated in the newspaper media of the time starting mostly in Boston in the paper, "Signs of the Times."  Overall there would go on to be some 48 newspapers and periodicals that published Millerite literature until "The Great Dissapointment" happened in 1843, which, as you probably guessed, was when Miller was proven wrong.  For several more times throughout their lives Miller and other followers went on to make predictions about armageddon but each failed.  Soon most left the organization and what was left split into several loosely connected organizations, some of them being foundations for modern protestant groups of today.
   
3. Jehovah's Witness:  Daniel must have said some interesting stuff in the bible because he has inspired a number of people, for whatever reason, to believe that the end of the world was coming sooner, rather than later.  The modern Jehovah's Witness organization does not believe in making the end of the world predictions like it used to, now they adhere to a belief that the end is coming soon and it's best just to be ready.  Some famous predictions dates include 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994.  

Gathered here is just a short collection of stories of people hoping to predict the end of the world.  In understanding the predictions of 2012 and whether or not you should sell everything and move to the mountains and live in a cave, we'll continue understanding this history of apocalyptic prediction and prophesy.  Who knows, maybe we'll learn something!  More is coming.  That is, if the world doesn't end tomorrow.  

To Be Continued...