by Jon R. Welker

"For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse...." Romans 1:20

With that Scripture as a back-drop, I would like to share an interesting piece of information that may relate as to how God has established within the various cultures of the earth a key as to the destiny of mankind, and the general time allotted mankind before cataclysmic changes take place.

Some of our readers may be aware of the fact that the imagery and symbols attached to heavenly constellations are fairly consistent throughout the various cultures of the earth. This is in keeping with Psalm 19:1-3:

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard."

We can also find similar parallels in various mythologies and legends concerning a worldwide deluge of water (Gen. 6:17-9:28; The Gilgamesh Epic, etc.), as well as those found within the texts of sacred writings of different cultures and religions. This is because all such accounts through succeeding generations, if they are based in truth, have a similar origin. Although the retelling of such basic truths may have suffered alterations, depending on the education, embellishments, geographic area and references, or the leadership of various peoples, still, as the Scripture previously quoted from Romans 1 declares, "…they are without excuse…" in understanding the basic attributes and plan of God. And, as Psalm 19 declares, "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard."

At other times we have discussed the mythology related to the constellations and the intrigues of the so-called "gods" which usually form the basis of such stories. In Western cultures, these "gods" were often more closely identified with the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods. However, our history has also been heavily influenced by the Egyptian and Babylonian stories of deities. But for this article I would like to share some intriguing information which we can distill from the original cultures of the Americas, and especially that of the Mayans.

Archeologists and historians have quizzically noted the fact that the Mayans didn't possess the use of the wheel, or seem to have certain measurements for grain, etc., Yet they were otherwise mathematically advanced and developed an amazingly accurate calendar which calculated extensive dates into both the past and the future. As a result of such observations of the Mayan culture, and that of the Americas in general, some people have proposed elaborate concepts of what is revealed through the history, legends and mythologies of such peoples. Those interested in UFOs have proclaimed that the Mayan calendar declares the time when aliens will return to earth to transport people to other planets before a cataclysmic end to earth. To this they add the claim that the various large symbols atop mountains in the Americas, which can only be seen from above the earth, are in reality "landing pads" to direct the aliens on their return trip back to our planet, etc.

All such claims become an elaborate and/or determined attempt to avoid the basic understanding God has given mankind, per Romans 1, Psalm 19, etc., which reveal God's divinity and eternal plan. The source of all the basic truths embedded in the cultures of mankind go back to the time of Adam and his offspring who were contemporary with Noah. After the Great Deluge, Noah and his sons conveyed this information to their offspring who then carried it into all the earth.

Now then, the point I wish to share is that according to the Mayan calendar, time ends, or is no longer computed, after the year 2012 A.D.

Historians have pondered as to how the Mayan calendar came into existence. Some have proposed the possibility that they inherited it from the Olmecs. But who were the Olmecs, and where did they come from? Others wonder if they were actually Egyptians, or were they Atlanteans? What I believe is that God entrusted basic truths to the descendents of Adam, and through his descendents on down through all the cultures of earth. Adam and his descendants had an understanding of the earth itself, of architecture and so forth. And, that knowledge was dispersed into all parts of the world. No individual culture can take credit for it, though God did reveal important aspects of His Plan to the Hebrews through their Prophets and finally through the Revelation of Jesus Christ, often called the Apocalypse - or the unveiling! Aliens from outer space didn't give us such knowledge, unless, of course, we would agree that such "aliens" were in reality angelic messengers in service to God.

So, let us consider the Mayan calendar and "the end of time," while considering verses from the book of Revelation which states that there will be "time no longer":

"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, Who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer...." Revelation 10:5-6

The Mayans divided time into segments, called Baktun, Katun, and so forth.

"...The much discussed 13-baktun cycle is completed in 1,872,000 days (13 baktuns) after 0.0.0.0.0. The period of time is the so-called Mayan "Great Cycle" of the Long Count and equals 5125.36 years."

But how are we to relate this to a time-frame we can understand? How does this Long Count relate to our Gregorian calendar? This problem of correlating Mayan time with "western" time has occupied Mayan scholars since the beginning. The standard question to answer became: what does 0.0.0.0.0 (the Long Count "beginning" point) equal in the Gregorian calendar? When this question is answered, archeological inscriptions can be put into their proper historical context and the end date of the 13-baktun cycle can be calculated. After years of considering data from varied fields, such as astronomy, ethnography, archeology and iconography, J. Erik S. Thompson determined that 0.0.0.0.0 corresponded to the Julian date of 584283, which equals August 11, 3114 B.C. in our Gregorian calendar. This means that the end date of 13.0.0.0.0, some 5125 years later, is December 21, 2012 A.D.!

"...The point of interest for these early astronomers seems to have been the projected end-date in 2012 A.D., rather than the beginning date in 3114 B.C. Having determined the end-date in 2012 (for reasons we will come to shortly), and calling it 13.0.0.0.0, they thus proclaim themselves to be living in the 6^th baktun of the Great Cycle. The later Maya certainly attributed much mythological significance to the beginning date, relating it to the birth of their deities, but it now seems certain that the placement of the Long Count hinges upon its calculated end-point. Why did early Mesoamerican sky-watchers pick a date some 2300 years into the future and, in fact, how did they pinpoint an accurate winter solstice? With all these considerations one begins to suspect that, for some reason, the ancient New World astronomers were tracking precession."
[From: "The How and Why of the Mayan End Date in 2012 A.D." by John Major Jenkins
(originally published in the December/January 1995 issue of Mountain Astrologer).]

Or, the precession of the equinox.

I want to quote a couple of things from E.W. Bullinger's book: Number in Scripture. (Some of you are aware of his book entitled Witness of the Stars.) But first, let us consider the number 13 as mentioned in the previous quote.

In Genesis 14, verse 4 we read:

"Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled."

Now, Bullinger stated:

"As to the significance of thirteen, all are aware that it has come down to us as a number of ill-omen. Many superstitions cluster around it, and various explanations are current concerning them.
Unfortunately, those who go backwards to find a reason, seldom go back far enough. The popular explanations do not, so far as we are aware, go further back than the Apostles. But we must go back to the first occurrence of the number thirteen in order to discover the key to its significance. It occurs first in Gen. xi. :4, where we read 'Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and the thirteenth year they REBELLED.'
Hence every occurrence of the number thirteen, and likewise of every multiple of it, stamps that with which it stands in connection with rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, revolution, or some kindred idea."

Does anybody happen to know what subject is dealt with in the 13^th chapter of the Book of Revelation? The Beast, and the number of the Beast! Interesting….

"The second mention of thirteen is in connection with Ishmael, Gen. xvii. 25. He was thirteen years old when Abraham circumcised him and admitted him into the covenant to which he was a stranger in heart, which ended in his rebellion and rejection.
We see it stamped upon the very forefront of Revelation. For while the opening statement of Genesis i. 1 is composed of seven words and twenty-eight letters [4 x 7], the second verse consists of fourteen words, but fifty-two letters; fifty-two being 4 x 13 tells of some apostasy or rebellion which caused the ruin of which that verse speaks."

As with Greek, the Hebrew language attributes a numerical value for each letter of the alphabet. Therefore, the following calculation is noted in Dr. Bullinger's book:

"...The Cain line collectively is a multiple of 13."
"...The sentence pronounced on Cain in v. 10-13 is 10283 (13 x 791)."

In the book The Divine Order: Scripture Numerics and Bible Prophecy by Michael Hoggard, he states:

"The number 13 is the number for depravity and rebellion. ...The word rebel is found 14 times in the Scripture, but is contained in 13 verses.
The very 1^st man to rebel against God was Adam. He rebelled against the sure word of the Lord and ate of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The number 13 is stamped upon Adam for this sin. The 13^th time Adam's name is mentioned is in this verse. `And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew' (Gen. 4:25).
It does not appear that this has any particular significance or relation, until you look in the very next chapter. `And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years (13 x 10), and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth' (Gen. 5:3).
It was mentioned in the previous section that it is in Revelation chapter 13 that we find the number of the Beast. Notice that it was in verse 13 of Ezra 2 that we find [a] name associated with that number! The only other mention of the number 666 in the Scriptures is a reference to the gold that Solomon received in a year's time: `Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold' (2 Chron. 9:13).
Three times in the Scripture we have the number 666 associated with the number 13. According to the rules of biblical interpretation, only two witnesses are required to establish something as being true. `This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established' (2 Cor. 13:1).
As mentioned earlier, the number 13 is the number for rebellion and depravity...."

Nimrod, the first king of Babylon, was the 13th descendent of Adam. Nimrod was a type of the Anti-Christ.

"...In Revelation 13, John sees this Beast and describes him this way: `And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority' (Rev. 13:2).
The beast receives his power from the dragon. This dragon is Satan. This dragon is mentioned 13 times in the New Testament, all of them in the book of Revelation...."
"...The phrase `dead body' is found 13 times in the Scriptures. It is only found in the Old Testament. As you will see, it too carries the idea of depravity and rebellion.
The first instance comes in the form of an ordinance to the priest of the sanctuary: `Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother' (Lev. 21:11)."

In I Corinthians 3:16 reference is made to the temple of God as being one's physical body: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And a person may also be "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). Therefore the Body of Christ is told that if one who is called a believer is involved in certain trespasses and sins, do not eat with them or fellowship with them.

So, the number 13 is also associated with dead bodies. In the Nazarite vow,

"...Those who understand the transition between the Old Testament and the New Testament understand that things that defiled in the Old Testament are symbolic of sin that defiles in the New Testament. The `dead body' represents those that are dead in their sins. `And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins' (Eph. 2:1)."

Now, let us return to the consideration of the Mayan calendar and the cycle of 13.0.0.0.0.0 and their 5125 years ending December 21^st, the winter solstice, in the year 2012. As already referenced, the Book of Revelation tells us that there would be "time no longer." So, the Mayans also saw that there was a point in time coming when one could not compute beyond that period. Even though they had computed 2300 years into the future, and millions of years into the past, they came to this point of time ending.

So, what is this? Such information entrusted to a people who were able, almost like computers, to mathematically compute time, and yet unable to grasp the basic understanding of the wheel! And, somehow they inherited an understanding of this concept of time ending. ("There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard"!) Other cultures, such as the Hopi Indians, etc., also have prophecy concerning an end time.

So, let us fit this information into the Biblical understanding of various things that have to happen before the "end" (of this age). No, we don't have another 8 years until things begin to radically change. Even if we were to consider the 31/2 years of the Great Tribulation previous to the Lord's return, then that places us within but a few short years before such events occur. And, other Scriptures speak of various signs which we should watch for, conveyed through the Hebrew Prophets as to the end of our age. Again, I would like you to be stirred to continue "watching"!

The Jenkins article continues:

"We are still trying to answer these questions: What is so important about the winter solstice of 2012 and, exactly how were calculations made so accurately, considering that precession should make them exceedingly difficult?
"If we make a standard horoscope chart for December 21, 2012 A.D., nothing very unusual appears. In this way I was led astray in my search until [I was] provided a clue in the recent book Maya Cosmos. Probably the most exciting breakthrough in this book is [the] identification of the astronomical meaning of the Mayan sacred tree. Drawing from an impressive amount of iconographic evidence, and generously sharing the process by which [the author] arrived at her discovery, the sacred tree is found to be none other than the crossing point of the ecliptic with the band of the Milky Way. Indeed, the Milky Way seems to have played an important role in Mayan imagery. For example, an incised bone from 8^th century Tikal depicts a long sinking canoe containing various deities. This is a picture of the night sky and the canoe is the Milky Way, sinking below the horizon as the night progresses, and carrying with it deities representing the nearby constellations. The incredible modern site of Palenque is filled with sacred tree motifs and references to astronomical events. In their book, Forest of the Kings [the authors] suggested that the sacred tree referred to the ecliptic. Apparently that was only part of the picture, for the sacred tree that Pacal ascends in death, is more than just the ecliptic, it is the sacred doorway to the underworld. The crossing point of Milky Way and ecliptic is this doorway and represents the sacred source and origin. In the following diagram of the well-known sarcophagus carving, notice that the Milky Way tree serves as an extension of Pacal's umbilicus. The umbilicus is a human being's entrance into life, and entrance into death as well...."
"For early Mesoamerican sky-watchers, the slow approach of the winter solstice sun to the sacred tree was seen as a critical process, the culmination of which was surely worthy of being called 13.0.0.0.0, the end of a world age. The channel would then be open through the winter solstice doorway up to the sacred tree to the center of the churning heavens, the heart of Sky."

"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, Who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets." Revelation 10:5-7

Keep Watching!