Whether you are a Christian, or a non-Christian, you may have asked yourself this question from time to time. Armageddon and 2012 may be looked at as two of a kind. With the Mayan prophecy of doom fast approaching, more and more people have the same burning question in mind: How to survive 2012?
There are so many prophecies in the Bible that have happened thus far. For example, when God had said that Babylon was going to be destroyed and never reconstructed on the same site, this is exactly what has happened. To this day, Babylon is a badlands and has never been rebuilt. Alexander the Great tried and was done in within a week of trying to rebuild it. Bringing it closer to present day, Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it but the bricks started to break down and they were unusable. Then because of the Gulf War, he put the rebuilding Babylon at the bottom of his list, and now as we all know, he is no longer with us.
So an early prophecy from God way back in 580 BC holds true still today. I know what your reaction might be. This has nothing to do with Armageddon or the Doomsday in 2012. Believe me, actually it does. The Bible tells us a lot of stuff about the end of the world. One of the major themes is in Matthew 24:43,44 which states that “no one knows the day or the hour” as to when Armageddon will happen. That kind of puts a damper on the whole “end of the world and surviving 2012” philosophy, since no one knows the time it will occur.
But let’s just say that 2012 is going to be the end of the world. How does one go about preparing for 2012, or Armageddon? Well again, the Bible tells us in John 17:3 when it clearly says “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”
Right there is the key to survival, the manual, the map, the arrow pointing which way we are to go. In order to survive 2012, if that is indeed the date that we are going by, we need to believe that Jesus died for our sins and ask Him to be Lord of our life.
The Bible tells us what signals to look for in the end days. Let us look at a few things in our time and compare them to what Jesus said. In Luke 21, they were questioning Jesus as to what the sign will be when these things are destined to take place. Jesus told them:
1. “Do not be misled, many will come on the basis of my name and try to mislead you”.
Consider Heavens Gate, one of the biggest mass suicides ever to take place. The cultists thought they were going to bigger & better places not of this world. Some of us may have thought this was obviously some insane man just misleading people. However, this could have been one of the things that Jesus was warning us about.
2. “Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom”.
Clearly this means conflicts between nations. If we look around the world today, we see nothing but war. Since 1914, the First World War was supposed to be “the war that ended all wars”, but it was in fact the war that seems to have incited more of them. Satan has certainly been instigating war after war ever since the beginning of time. But with every nation on earth being touched in some way by wars in the last several decades, things have definitely heated up. In World War One millions of lives were lost. World War 2, again, innumerable of people lost their lives. So when Jesus said that nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, this has clearly happened and still is going on.
3. “Earthquakes, pestilences and food shortages will happen in different places”.
Look around the world today; we see adversities everywhere we look. We hear about earthquakes, pestilence in third world countries, and food shortages almost every day on the news. Even here in our country, one of the richest nations on earth, poverty and starvation are more prevalent than we would like to admit. It’s not nice to think about but then again, it was prophesied by Jesus as future things to happen. He even told us there would be signs from the skies to watch for. In Matthew 24:29 it says that after the tribulation “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give off light, and the stars will fall from the heavens”. This could be symbolic, but if it was symbolic how would we know for sure that this is the beginning of the final chapter? It would make sense that the Lord would reveal something visual in order for people to know.
2012, or Armageddon, need not be about doom and gloom. In fact, going back to John where it says taking in the knowledge of God means living forever. We could get very fearful thinking that this world is going to be destroyed. How can it be that life as we know it could end? Again, returning our attention back to the Bible, in Psalm 104:5, it says that “He has founded the earth upon its established places; It will not be made to totter to time indefinite or forever”.
In Psalms 37: 11, it tells us that“The meek ones will possess the earth. And they will find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.” Although there does seem to be an end of the world according to the Bible, there is also a message of hope. That hope is found by believing in Jesus Christ. Then you will have the prospect of living forever with Jesus Christ. Our hope can only come from Him and in Christ alone. We must confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. When we are forgiven, the Holy Spirit of God will come and live in our hearts forever. This is the hope to survive 2012 and to live forever no matter what happens.