The End is - Yet - Nigh (#2): Time Setting, Date Fixing & All That Sort of Thing

(Hoping you'll overlook the time delay in continuing this series - certainly no Freudian or other slip intended! But (just, more than) occasionally, copyright concerns necessarily grab and engross the attention. And as a would-be writer myself, I assure you I can fully relate, but even if I didn't care to, of necessity I need to. So the following - or rather/at least that in subsequent, soon to follow postings - must needs be viewed as employing the standard copyright provisos of 'fair use', due and proper acknowledgment, lack of citing others' creations as in any way my own, and least of all seeking to profit financially out of use of said info. And though I cannot but see myself as ever scrupulously applying the first two criteria, and equally as fastidiously refraining from the latter two, transgressions of such rules are as often, indeed arguably much
more commonly, the result of negligence, forgetfulness and other inadvertent error than they are due to deliberate, intentional plagiarism or other intention to mislead. At least that's been my own experience.)

As mentioned last time around, this whole business of date-setting (for Jesus' Second Coming in particular, and thus 'the end of all things as we know them) is obviously a bit of a worry, to seriously understate matters. Obviously all the more so when(ever) said date comes and goes and the end of the world simply doesn't transpire/fails to materialize (on this earthly plane, anyhow). So yes, date-setting and time-fixing is a decidedly tricky, even somewhat dangerous business, especially in two major respects: the actual interpretation applied/attached to said event specified by the particular date concerned; the fact that marking out the specific time/date of Jesus Christ's physical, literal, visible return to Planet Earth is expressly forbidden by none other than JC Himself in the various gospels. So upon that basis we tend to then encounter the following: said individuals and/or groups - upon getting the[ir] dates patently, unequivocally, indisputably wrong, no doubts about it - instantly/immediately and frantically scrambling for self-justification, seeking to instantly regroup, without any due reflection, reconsideration, or pause. That is, rather than carefully, prayerfully reassessing 'where we got it wrong' in the first place, we find such (patently unreflective sorts) simply re-setting (future) dates ad nauseum, and moreover claiming these actually signify the second coming, rather than look into/investigate alternative scenarios perhaps actually suggested by said 'failure' of prediction/'prophecy'.

So let's apply the aforementioned to the last great 'advent' furore/hullabaloo (i.e. applying to the long-prophesied Second Coming of Jesus the Christ, or the Jewish Messiah's First Coming, or the Muslims' view of JC's Third Coming, interestingly enough a pivotal belief wholeheartedly embraced -and in strikingly similar terminology, if in terms of differing divine 'trajectories' and/or identities - by *all three major monotheistic world religions. As renowned long-time Australian evangelist Geoffrey Youlden reveals in his fascinating series entitled 'Fulfilling Revelation 13' & 'Crisis of the Ages, parts 1 & 2, delivered in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2006.) In particular to the first 'modern-day' cluster of advent end-time fascination/obsession gripping the entire world in the 1830s and 1840s. And let me here uncategorically, unequivocally advance the following hypothesis, one you will - eventually - uncover, I respectfully suggest, if you carefully investigate the full historical record - and not just from the oft-quoted perspective of the opponents, even died-in-the-wool enemies of these 'adventists': those deadly serious in that 'great advent awakening', as one leading historian of the period, Ellen Gould White, has termed it, 'failed' to do what I describe in the second half of the preceding paragraph as the flawed 'technique' of the unreflective; to the absolute contrary, and to their everlasting credit, they literally 'went back to/returned to/revisited the drawing board', as it were, re-examining all aspects of where they'd gone wrong (both in terms of event/s specified and time delineated), and - eventually, after much prayerful, painstaking (but divinely assisted and enlightened) effort - through a thoroughgoing reassessment and re-evaluation of all points in dispute and/or nonfulfilment, came to an understanding which was coherent, self-consistent and harmonious - and also biblically sound.

Noting that these 'adventists' as both their opponents and they themselves described themselves, caught up in what was quite literally a global upsurge, nay avalanche of interest, moreover fascination and even obsession with this matter, are seen by many today as the precursors of a modern-day Christian denomination - namely, the Seventh-Day Adventists (including by said SDAs themselves) - it is, if self-evident, worthy of note: that though from this worldwide groundswell of prophetic interest the SDA Church did indeed eventually spring/come into being, these (then) predecessors/ancestors/spiritual forefathers and mothers were none of them SDAs, nor remotely so - in most important respects, they were rather a spontaneous 'outcalling' of spiritually devout folk from all the major Christian denominations of the day, be they Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, Church of England, Episcopalian etc. And indeed, ultimately a numerically insignificant and distinctly small remnant of these adventists eventually came together in any grouping remotely resembling a modern-day 'church' or denomination. At the time, i.e. in the immediate and short-medium-term aftermath of what was known as 'The Great Disappointment', i.e. Jesus Christ patently failed to show up upon Planet Earth at the expected, anticipated time - or rather failed to do so in the guise expected by His ardent, expectant followers and devotees. But note this fact - once you've carefully corroborated the foregoing, and checked it out for yourself - no, I hardly expect you to simply take my word for it, real cults are indeed made of such stuff - these folk didn't simply 'keep on keeping on' re-setting end-time deadline/dateline scenarios on and on into the wild uncharted future. Nuh-no, they carefully, prayerfully searched and studied and re-examined where they might've gone wrong. Leading to and resulting in a re-formulation of what actually transpired, if anything, at that particular time in (salvific) world history, ultimately leading to a harmonious chain of doctrinal, experiential truth: chiefly, the re-setting of God's Eternal Moral Code in their rightful heavenly setting, metaphorically in their divinely royal diadem of beauty.

The End Is - Yet - Nigh (#1: Time Setting, Date Fixing & All That Sort of Thing

For the easily bored and/or those with a short attention span, I guarantee you - no ifs, buts or maybes - this second posting will bore you to smithereens. But certain ground rules need establishing, and establishing at the very get-go, so here's the[my] game plan folks...and if ya don't like or approve of it, you know - exactly - what to do, okay? Understood? Perfectly. I hope/wish! So here goes.

This initial instalment - in my first mini-series vis-a-vis end-time predictions/prophecies and all that kind of thing - will address and focus upon (supposed) time setting and date fixing in relation to certain events' actual fulfilment or otherwise, using an obvious, perfectly understandable starting-point, i.e. the very recent concern/interest/obsession with the end of all things as we know it, otherwise referred to as an earthly *cataclysm/catastrophe/Apocalypse/Armageddon taking place upon December the 21st, 2012. We will do so utilizing two rather intriguing, and now no doubt popularly and understandably debunked, resources: A & E Television Networks' two History (Channel's) dvd sets: Nostradamus: 2012 and Nostradamus Effect.
(*Likewise leaving for the present, if you will, a precise definition of any let alone all of said terms, which naturally we will get to in due course.) Okay? You're with me? Good.

While previous end-time dates (and the like) will be of general, i.e. more than passing interest, two ('groups' of) periods will especially concentrate my (and thus hopefully also your) attention: ' 'December 21st, 2012' and those time periods 'nearabouts' and/or closely associated with it, which for me embraces the entire decade plus extending right back to 1999/2000/2001, such have been the foreseen or actual significance of said years numerically/in world impact, whether potential or actual; and the previous period of great prophetic interest and even frenzy, i.e. the 1830s and 1840s. Yep, you're entitled to question, dispute, even get upset with what might appear to you a pure arbitrary determination upon my part, and that's your perfect right. But that's the plan, folks, and all the whys and wherefores thereof I promise, I assure you will be laid out and expounded upon in due course. Patience herein is an essential prerequisite, and not one unspecified in some of the serious literature therabouts if you'll, say, check out Revelation 14: 12. But no, we won't be only visiting the Christian Scriptures, as important, even pivotal as these are in our entire examination.

So get on the life raft, if you'd rather not be left behind, this Planet's best (and worst) moments are just ahead. And who'd want to miss these, much less be unprepared to meet them confidently when they arrive?