by Dr. Peter Jones on December 11, 2012

12.21.12… THE END OF THE WORLD?

After the recent elections, someone wrote: "The world ended on Nov 6, 2012." America will survive an election, but people the world over are panicking because they believe the ancient Mayan calendar which apparently predicted that 12/22/12 would be history for the entire planet. Recently, thousands of letters, some threatening suicide, have poured into government agencies like NASA.But there is a brighter side. According to many experts, the Mayan calendar does not predict the absolute end of the world, but only the end of a cycle, thus offering a hopeful new beginning. Indeed many "spiritual" northerners every year go down to celebrate the rebirth of nature in those Mayan temples. This optimistic view is gaining influence worldwide in "spiritual" One-ist movements like Deep Shift, Harmonic Convergence, Earth Change, the feminist/Wiccan Sophianic Millennium and belief in the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.Barbara Marx Hubbard, influential authoress of Birth 2012, breathlessly announces that humanity is on the precipice of a new birthing process of peace, sustainability, health, and prosperity….the end of war, democracy for all, eradication of hunger, and education for everyone. Freedom. Opportunity. Global friendship…These dreams are at our fingertips now…December 22, 2012 is "Day One" for a new epoch of human possibility."Catalyst" events this December are being held throughout the world to make this happen, optimistically accompanied by an interfaith "Christmas" favorite, "Joy from the World."Note carefully. Such an upbeat vision is predicated upon the end of the Christian world. This new birth must eliminate from human society the first line of the ancient Christian creed: "I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth." This is the great obstacle holding back the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.For example, the influential progressive, Andrew Cohen, recent gave lecture is entitled: "There is Only One, Not Two." Cohen states: "…all problems stem from the ignorance arising from Twoness," that is, the belief that God is the Creator, separate from us. Hence all is Two. Many Christians, unaware of this apocalyptic thinking, play into its hands by marginalizing respect for the Creator. Two examples:

1. Yoga

In my last Inside/Out, our office manager, Mary Eady, related how Ashtanga yoga is now taught in her district's public schools and how many Christians practice this or other forms of yoga, unaware of the worldview stakes involved. Here is how Manju Jois, of the Hindu Jois Foundation, which gave $500K to the local school district, describes the essence of Yoga:Yoga is to unite. You can unite with yourself whenever you want…That's what so-ham means: I am God, I am the Creator. I am the Vishnu, the Preserver; I am the Shiva, the destroyer; and I am the Creator, the Brahma. I am all three, the three is you…God is not over there, he is inside of you…(Click here for more information)

2. Homosexuality

Certain Christians are capitulating to the powerful homosexual lobby and declaring same sex activity acceptable in God's sight. Others are calling on the Church to be silent on the sinfulness of homosexuality and the distortion of gay marriage in order to avoid offending the culture or being charged with hatred and bigotry-so that the culture can hear our message of love. However, leading homosexuals understand the worldview implications and call their sexuality "a sacrament of monism," that is, as a physical embodiment of the spiritual rejection of a created Two-ist universe.In both these areas (and there are many others), God the Creator is sidelined or denied. Alas, this means that the new spiritual era is dawning-with Christian collusion! Do not be fooled. The first goal of pagan One-ism is to wipe out from cultural consciousness of any memory of God the Creator. This constitutes the very organizing principle of the coming pagan world.Christians must realize that you cannot preach the Gospel without the first statement of the creed, as the apostle Paul shows. Christ the Savior is the Creator. Christ is "the image of the invisible God,…by [whom] all things were created,… the firstborn from the dead, [who] made peace by the blood of his cross"(Col 1:15-20). Of his world, as the angel Gabriel declared, there will be no end (Luke 1:33). May Christmas 2012 remind us of that unique birth, the proof that God, not the Mayan calendar, is in control of history.However the present cultural stakes are enormous. We must not worry that the Gospel will offend the culture-God has told us that it most definitely will! Our concern should rather be the threat of a One-ist utopian world that will try to silence the worship of the Creator and render the Gospel of the Creator's love illegal and meaningless. Dear Christian believer, this is no time to be ashamed of the full implications of the Gospel. Soli Deo gloria.About the author: Dr. Peter Jones is Director of truthXchange, and Adjunct Professor of New Testament, as well as Scholar in Residence, at Westminster Seminary California. He has written The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back (1992), Spirit Wars (1997), Gospel Truth/Pagan Lies (1999), Capturing the Pagan Mind (2003), Cracking DaVinci's Code (2004, co-author, James Garlow), Stolen Identity (2006) and The God of Sex (2006). Peter Jones is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and is married to Rebecca Clowney Jones. They have seven children and twelve grandchildren. For recreation, Dr. Jones enjoys playing jazz piano and golf.