Uncommon Commentary #240: The Only Date to Dread Is 15 April

I'll probably have to re-run this posting when we near the Winter Solstice, but, since there's already been plenty of irresponsible eschatological ballyhoo about the "Mayan apocalypse," doubtless motivated by the knowledge that there is money to be made in scaring people:
Unlike the Hebrews, who had an uniquely linear concept of history (viz., they believed that history has both a beginning and an end), the Maya and other ancient peoples held that history unfolds in cycles, one of which, according to the Maya calendar, will end on 21 December of this year.  What will end on the 2012 Winter Solstice according to the Maya is not, therefore, the world (which they thought would never come to an end), but merely a cycle of history (to be followed by another).  Furthermore, Christ (who, in my opinion, has far more credibility than anyone associated with the Mayan religion) informed us that no one will know precisely when His Second Coming, and by extension the other events of the real apocalypse foretold in the Book of Revelation, will take place.
2012 ought not, therefore, to be feared more than any other year.  We ought to live always as if the End Times were upon us, especially because they may well be; we ought to do so, however, because we fear God instead of alarmist assertions.