Pastor Thoughts

Good afternoon! Welcome to Pastor Thoughts...I was thinking the other day about that Mayan Calendar thing that has been going around lately...if you are not familiar with it, it basically boils down to this: The Mayan calenadr ends in 2012 (4 years from now) and so the world will end...The following article is from Jack kinsella of the Omega Letter. You will need to read through carefully:

2012 - Again? Prophecy - Signs Friday, June 27, 2008 Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor As one reads through the Bible, one notes that the story of humanity is told using both words and numbers. Indeed, it is this use of numbers in the text to tell the story that give the Word of God its unique character and consistency.In a sense, God is the Author of two Great Books -- the Bible, and the Book of Creation in which we are all characters. It is in the reading of these two Books that one sees that continuity of character and style unique to God.
God's creation is 'by the numbers' and those numbers are as precise and necessary to the Big Picture as are the words used to describe it. The universe operates according to precise mathematical rules.
Look at the sublime precision of chemistry, for example.. All the elements combine in very precise mathematical ways to produce their various compounds. Each of the elements are recorded on a valance chart -- the precise number and weight of each atom can be counted and measured.
Every plant has a precise number of leaves or petals, arranged in a precise order. Every living thing has a certain number of chromosomes in its cellular structure according to its design. Man has twenty-three paired chromosomes. A dog has thirty-nine. An ape has twenty-four.
God uses numbers to illustrate truths -- and just as often to conceal them until the appointed time. Take the number One. "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is One God."
For God, the number one signifies completion, whereas for man, it takes two to make man complete; "Two are better than one because they have a good reward for the labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow." (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)
The number Three is the simplest compound unity -- it is the first and simplest compound unit of mathematical science.
God is one God in Three Persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three is the number of the Godhead.
Four signifies the number of this created world. There are four seasons, winter, summer, spring and fall. There are four points on a compass, north, south, east and west.
The living creatures (cherubim) of Ezekiel chapter 1 are four in number. They each have four faces, four sides, four wings and move on four wheels, representative of God's creation and providence.
Five and ten also have Scriptural significance. Man has five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot. We have five senses. Added together we have ten fingers and ten toes. The decimal system is based on this system of tens.
We think in tenths. A tithe is ten percent. No man could be consecrated as a priest under Jewish law unless he had all ten fingers and toes. Five, doubled to ten, stands for human completion.
The number six is the number of man. As we'll see in a moment, the number seven is the sacred number of spiritual perfection, so six falls just short of it. Man was created on the sixth day. The Divinely-appointed work week is six days, with the seventh set aside for God.
Hebrew slaves were appointed to serve for six years before manumission. Goliath had six fingers and six toes. His spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. Goliath's height is recorded as six cubits and a span.
Nebuchadnezzar's golden image was sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. Jesus Christ was crucified on the sixth hour of the sixth day of the week.
And of course, there is the most famous six of all as recorded in Revelation 13:18: "Here is wisdom. Let him that understandeth count the number of the best, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six." (666)
Six units six tens, six hundreds. Three sixes, each successively higher on the decimal scale. The number 666 represents the antichrist -- the number of imperfect, spiritually incomplete man, multiplied 100 times over.
Then we come to the number seven. The number seven is representative in Scripture of spiritual perfection. For example, four is representative of the world, three representative of the Trinity.
Together, they equal seven. Seven days make up one of the four quarters of the moon. There are but seven basic notes in music.
On the seventh day, God rested.
The Book of the Revelation is addressed to the seven Churches of Asia Minor. There are seven star representing the seven angels who represent the seven churches. In Revelation 3:1, Jesus is identified as having the 'Seven Spirits of God' -- or the whole and complete Spirit of God.
In Revelation 5:6, the Lamb is pictured as having seven eyes (representing omniscience) and seven horns ('horns are representative of power, symbolizing the Lamb as all-powerful (omnipotence).
There are seven seals, seven thunders, seven vials; the dragon has seven heads and seven crowns upon his heads. There are seven mountains, seven kings, etc.
The Bible specifically says there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David; fourteen generations from David to the Babylonian captivity, and fourteen generations from the Babylonian exile to Christ. (Matthew 1:17) Fourteen is seven doubled. The Passover is on the fourteenth of Nisan, and fourteen lambs are offered on each of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Pentecost is on the fiftieth day, after the passage of the full 49 (7x7) days from Passover. The Jubilee Year is the fiftieth year after the passage of seven 'weeks' of seven years each.
Under OT Law, an animal must be at least seven days old before it can be sacrificed. The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasts seven days. A male child could not be circumcised until after seven full days had passed. The rules of cleansing (as in cleansing a leper) involved seven sprinklings of war. The Day of Atonement demands seven sprinklings of blood.
The menorah has seven branches and seven lights. Noah entered the ark on the seventh day. (Genesis 7:4,10) Noah's ark came to rest on Mt Ararat on the seventh month. (Genesis 8:4) Jacob worked for seven years for Rachel.
Joshua sent seven priests who marched around Jericho for seven days blowing seven trumpets. On the seventh day, the circled the city seven times before the 'walls came tumbling down.'
Samson's marriage feast lasted seven days. Samson had seven locks of hair (Judges 16:9) It took Solomon seven years to build the Temple. Job had seven sons. His friends grieved in silence with him for seven days and seven nights. Job offered seven bullocks and seven rams for a burnt offering.
Jesus told the Pharisees to forgive trespasses seventy times seven. He imposed seven 'woes' on the Pharisees. Romans 8:35 lists seven afflictions; 12:6-8 enumerates the seven gifts. James 7:17 lists the seven qualities of heavenly wisdom. 2nd Peter 1:5-8 outlines the seven virtues imparted by faith.
The seventieth week of Daniel lasts for seven years. The disciples took up seven baskets of fragments after the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes.
The Bible, therefore, speaks in the two different languages of sentience; the spoken word and the universal language of mathematics.
A few months back, the OL published a column entitled "2012 TEOTWAWKI". (TEOTWAWKI is an acronym for "The End of The World As We Know It.")
The column was focused on secular prophecy's confluence on the year 2012. The Mayan calendar ends on December 24, 2012 with the destruction of mankind on the earth.
Nostradamus pictures the end of the world sometime in the first part of the 21st century, as does the Catholic seer, St Malachy.
The Great Pyramid of Cheops contains a staircase that is said to be equal to the number of years before the end of the world. It runs out of steps at the year 2012.
I don't give extra-Biblical prophecy much credibility -- but I don't totally discount it, either. Here is why. God is omniscient, (all-knowing) whereas Satan is just a really smart created being with a plan.
Satan knows what he has planned, so it seems likely he is capable of communicating that plan. And Paul says that Satan can appear as an angel of light. But Satan's 'prophecies' are merely an outline of plans in the works, whereas Bible prophecy is 100% accurate, 100% of the time.
The Bible does not give us an 'end date' for the last generation -- at least, not in so many words. But what about the other universal language with which it is written? Can we find a clue there?
Perhaps. We've seen how God uses numbers to communicate certain truths. And Proverbs 25:2 tells us; "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."
As Christians, each of us are kings and priests with Him, so while we cannot know for certain, (since God has drawn a veil around the exact date and time,) we ARE permitted to search out those things God has concealed.
Are you still with me? I don't know the date and time of the Rapture, and I am not about to pretend that I do. But the Bible does provide us with clues -- that is, after all, the purpose of Bible prophecy. To let us know when "it is near, even at the door," Jesus said.
The population of Planet Earth on the day Noah exited the Ark was eight - Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives. Noah is a type of 'redeemer' the other seven were the redeemed.
Abraham was the eponymous father of the Jewish race, from which the Redeemer Christ was born. Matthew 1:17 tells us there were fourteen generations (7x2) from Abraham to David, fourteen more to the Babylonian captivity, and fourteen more generations to the Birth of Christ.
Three epochs of fourteen generations each. Three is the number of the Trinity, fourteen is twice the number of God, so fourteen times three is equal to seven (the perfection of God) times six (the imperfect number of man.)
The population of the earth at the time of Christ was roughly 100 million. It took 1800 years for the population to reach one billion.
It took only 130 years to reach two billion -- around 1930. It took only thirty years to reach three billion (1960) and only another fifteen years to top four billion (1975). We passed the five billion mark in the late 1980's.
And, in 1999, as the sixth millennium of man drew to a close, the population topped six billion. Six, you will recall, is the full number of man, one short of the spiritual completeness of God represented by the number seven.
According to the United Nations census estimates, the population of man will reach seven billion -- in 2012.
Coincidence? Maybe. I'll let you know for sure, sometime in 2013.
Additional Resources: 2012: TEOTWAWKI