Understanding the Mayan Calendar,
its origin, meaning, and any possible "threat."
Dr. Marc S. Blackwell, Snr.
During the process of Judie and I planting our first new congregation - in the late 1960s, a couple, Rick and Jodi Dougherty, who were attending the new "church plant," encouraged me to work on my Spanish 'language skills' as "preparation for making some combined missionary and exploration trips" ... to the Yucatan. All of this was the result of a Castilian Christian missionary, Brother Enrique, who was ministering in Campeche, Mexico. Enrique had visited Sarasota looking for assistance for his efforts to build a Christian Camp near Muna, Yucatan. 
We agreed to take an initial 10 day trip to Merida, Muna and to investigate the possibilities of ministering in the Yucatan through the Christian Camp, Evangelism and Church Planting. Other ministry and exploration trips followed during the early 70s. Our wives also joined us on one of our trips in 1971 and all of this led to a growing interest in the Maya as a people group, their history and the archaeology surrounding that history. I was especially interested in the Mayan Calendars that we "discovered" and studied - as a sort of 'side-hobby.'
Now in 2012 an interest in those Calendars has been especially revived by the “New Agers,” looking for astrological phenomena and signs. These "New Agers" and self-proclaimed “wild-eyed doomsday” spiritualists messengers claim that (for whatever fanatical reason) that according to them ... the Mayan Calendar could be a warning that the earth is somehow “running out of time” or that when the long count cycle of the Mayan Calendar ends (21 December 2012) the world will either end or possibly enter an astrological new age some have called the “Age of Aquarius.” 
The Maya Calendar originates from the Central American region of Mexico. My own knowledge is limited to those discoveries in the Mexican state of Yucatán, and, of course the Calendar was also found in some of Mexico’s other States, such as Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas, the Maya people - approximating one million* people still speak their historic language. * In the 1860’s this figure was reported by Stephens as only around 600,000 Yucateks. This low figure was due to the 16th Century Spanish Invasion, the introduction of European diseases and the ultimate enslavement of the Mayan Nation. The pre-Spanish invasion numbers may have been as many as three million Mayans. drMSBsr ¿Puede hablar la lengua Maya? Spanish = ¿Qué dijo usted? Maya = Ba'ax ka wa'alik? English = What did you say?Spanish = ¿Cómo estás? Maya = B'ix a bè-el? English = How are you? Spanish = Muy bien, muchas gracias. Maya = Jach ma'alob'. English = Very good.
As far as I understand the matter: The Mayan calendar consists of interrelated cycles or “counts” of different lengths. The larger count is a lunar based 260 day cycle called the Tzol-kin and this, when combined with a 365 day solar year cycle is called the Ha-ab that together form a cycle called the Maya calendar round. Then, smaller cycles of 13 days and 20 days completed the Mayan Calendar. The oldest known Mayan Calendar was developed back in the 5th century BC. Many aspects of the calendar are still in use in some areas of Central America, especially in Guatemala. The earliest reference to time by a Maya Calendar refers to date of their calendar’s "point of a beginning" - 3114 BC .
According to the deciphered hieroglyphics of La Corona's history references to the year 2012 commemorates a royal visit to La Corona (which the ancient Maya called Saknikte’) by the ruler Yuknoom Yich’aak K’ahk’ from the great Maya capital of Calakmul on Jan. 29, 696 A.D. In the text, he calls himself the "13 K’atun lord" -- the king who presided over and celebrated and important Mayan calendar ending, 13 K’atun calendar cycle, in the year 692. In order to vaunt himself even further and place his reign into an eternal setting, Yuknoom Yich’aak K’ahk, the Maya king of Calakmul, projected himself forward in time to when the next higher period of the Maya calendar would reach the same 13 number on 21 December 2012. (References and further details available by request.) 
Even though the fanatics claim the world ends when the Mayan calendar finishes its 13th Bak-tun ( or 13th cycle)"... one must ask if the end of a Bak’tun" ever predicting to be the end the world? No. These "prophecies" and "warnings" are nothing more than today’s “New Agers" and other fear mongers and naive’ end-of-the-world “prophets”getting carried away with their fanatical imaginary beliefs. Qualified Archaeologists assure us that the Mayan Calendar's "end" or the "end" of this 13th cycle simply flows into the next Bak'tun - which “resets” and the Calendar restarts. More importantly, these "New Ager" beliefs deny the truth of God’s Word.
1 Thessalonians 5:1 (Amplified Bible) “BUT AS to the suitable times and the precise seasons and dates, brethren, you have no necessity for anything being written to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the [return of the] Lord will come [as unexpectedly and suddenly] as a thief in the night. 3 When people are saying, All is well and secure, and, There is peace and safety, then in a moment unforeseen destruction (ruin and death) will come upon them as suddenly as labor pains come upon a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape, for there will be no escape. 4 But you are not in [given up to the power of] darkness, brethren, for that day to overtake you by surprise like a thief. 5 For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we do not belong either to the night or to darkness. 6 Accordingly then, let us not sleep, as the rest do, but let us keep wide awake (alert, watchful, cautious, and on our guard) and let us be sober (calm, collected, and circumspect). 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But we belong to the day; therefore, let us be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not appointed us to [incur His] wrath [He did not select us to condemn us], but [that we might] obtain [His] salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) 10 Who died for us so that whether we are still alive or are dead [at Christ’s appearing], we might live together with Him and share His life."
Generally speaking, the cyclical view of the aeons (or ages) was accepted in popular pantheistic cultures and is the basis of their many imaginative mythical conceptions of history. For example: The Greeks, especially the Pythagoreans and Stoics (Acts 17) followed these ideas of ‘eternal returns.’ China was one of the oldest of these societies and they used this to establish their cyclical dynasties. In Ancient Egyptian and Modern Indian Hindu philosophies; history, itself, has no ultimate meaning but only allows some ‘existential value’ for a limited time - as in the single life span of the individual. In the Islamic mind, their emirates were to be governed around these patterns and processes. The cyclical concept is nothing more than a speculative theory of history and holds to a so-called “hope” of endlessness or eternal repetition. Such cyclical theories give no meaning to history or to the life of individuals - according to these theories life has no meaning beyond self-expression, itself. (Also consider the realities of Romans 1:18-26)
In the time of the Apostles and Early Church Fathers the Gnostics’ looked to their “Aeons” for hope to break free and somehow ascend through these forces of fatalism that they feared so much. All of these people hoped to achieve (somehow) a “higher level” of mystical consciousness. Some believe that they can transcend this cyclical reality by various mystical means, possibly via a “realignment” through some sort of “mystical connect” or “mystical harmony” with what they call the “natural order of the universe.”
Many others try to ‘transcend,’ their inner self in a desperate effort to break free from this life of illogic and mundane repetition. Nonetheless, this cyclical concept of history consistently removes all of the individual’s personal responsibility and there is now way to achieve any real value in one’s own decisions. In the cyclical theory of life, reality simply disappears into a fatalistic inner emotional “dream world” of emptiness and meaninglessness! All real and personal significance is lost in this eternal “rat race” of so-called cyclical history.
Only a"linear" plan is revealed in Biblical Scriptures - as God's plan for mankind.
To take this subject a bit further allow me to suggest a question or two that we need to be answering ...  First, Is God even in control of the unexpected or the unforeseen moments in history and in our lives? Allow me to reply by asking a second question .... another one of life’s most common questions - a question being asked by so many today: Is life just chance, chaos and confusion? or is it more? Another way to ask this question would be: “Is life really little more than random chance experiences, unsustainable chaotic events or senseless social confusion?”
As a student of the History of Christian theology, there is yet another way for me to ask this same question: “Does the history of man kind really go anywhere specific or is it just a series of random and repetitious and thus, meaningless events?” Some people attempt a reply by optimistically looking to a “hope against hope,” or in other words, that somehow our modern intellectual and scientific advancements will yield results that will bring life to a more useful and successful level. But, many others remain fearful and their doubt about life or history leads them to a emotionally emptiness and feelings of hopelessness. Berkoff, Hendriquez, Christ, the Meaning of History, "Our generation is strangled by fear, fear for man, for his future and for the direction in which we are driven against our will and desire. And out of this comes a cry of illumination concerning the meaning of the existence of mankind and concerning the goal to which we are directed. It is a cry for an answer to the old question of the meaning of history."
In further response let us look into ....
THE LINEAR CONCEPT OF HISTORY,
or rather: “The Providential Linear Revelation of History.”
Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (KJV)
Genesis 1 portrays time as linear and the events occur successively2 within it. “YỒWM” (Heb.) or “Day” is connected with the sovereignty of God, God existed before ‘eternity’ began (Psalm 90:4, Isaiah 43:13; Daniel 7:9), God created time (Genesis 1:1) and time is under His control - Psalm 74:16.. Note: Man must recognise the sovereignty of God over time by conforming. Exodus 20:11; 31:17.
God assured the regularity of Time - Genesis 8:22 and Col. 1:17; God will suspend time - oneday in the future. Zechariah 14:7. But, God has a personal interest in time and human events - Genesis 24:55; 26:33. “YỒWM” the Hebrew word for “Day” was not originally a time period divided by hours but by natural phenomena (Genesis 43:6; 15:12l 18:1; Exodus 18:13). The day sometimes begins in evening - Esther 4:16 and sometimes with morning: Deuteronomy 28:66-67. History, then, has meaning and history is not cyclical. Man is meant to prove the worth of his life in the time God gives us - a obviously linear period of time-life.
“The Day” introduces events with particular importance in the history of “the day” as a word related to his salvation (See: Numbers 15:23 and Deuteronomy 4:32). “The day” is a time of repentance - Psalm 95:7. “The day” is a time of salvation - Psalm 118:24. “The day” is the time of His Incarnation - Psalm 2:7 (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5). In these periods of time - “YỒWM” - we are given opportunity to repent of our sin, accept God’s Grace and submit to His inner sanctifying work by His Spirit and all of this unlocks our potential as His believers and His servants. The “day of the Lord” is used eschatologically, as well.
“YỒWM” is used 2,355 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. In Daniel 2:28 “YỒWM” refers to “the Latter Days.” I have referred to God’s revelation of eternal knowledge as a “Providential Linear Revelation of History.” The Eternal God, in a self-revelation of His Triunity, has sovereignly created and continues accomplishing (Colossians 1:16-20) His own purposes through (generally unseen or providential) acts4 of grace that are influencing the series of natural and human events. These events allow for human freedom and for many truly supernatural events, or Divine interventions, in carrying out the Divine plan in history.
Through the revelation of the Scriptures we are given a “window” into Providential history. We need to remember, God alone is truly autonomous! No one and no created thing, (other than the God revealed in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible) can be truly or totally autonomous!
Due to mankind’s sinfulness nothing short of faith or trust in God’s redemption in Christ Jesus could reinstitute the original relationship God had in mind for mankind.
Reconciliation to God is at the core of the Christian view of life. Though the Bible’s ‘true Truth’ is not “exhaustive truth” - it is the complete and unified truth that is necessary for us to understand our meaning or significance in life, in space and time or in other words in ‘linear” history. In the case of Biblical or “Providential Linear Revelation of History” God is both personal and infinite and is already (eternally) “there.”
The linear flow of Providential history is revealed in Scripture in a noncontradictory way. Dr. Francis Schaeffer once pointed out, that: “The gods of the East are infinite by definition, in the sense that they encompass all — the evil as well as the good — but they are not personal. The gods of the West were personal, but they were very limited. The Teutonic, the Roman and the Greek gods were all the same — personal but not infinite.”
The Christian God, the God of the Bible, is personal-infinite God.” Neither chance, not necessity, nor genetic engineering can explain the Christian God’s gift of salvation, of human worth and of future life eternal in the New Heaven and New Earth. No cycle here and no fatalism or determinism but a loving God redeeming a free and faithful remnant from a lost and rebellious society - and all of this amidst a line-of-time and space sovereignly overseen by a loving and just God. Efforts at “hijacking” the Linear Concept of History from the Judeo-Christian heritage has taken place any number of times.
The Nineteenth Century’s period of “Enlightenment” introduced the belief that idealistic progress or social evolution had led the world through “stages” of human history: From savagery, to slavery, to freedom, to education, to cultural progress, to scientific advance, to personal peace, and collective prosperity. Then the atheistic-existential view of history tried to “hijack” the Christian linear concept of history. They claimed that history was only “a meaningless line” (though not a series of cyclical repetitions,) yet just “a line of activities and personalities that was started by accident and without any end in mind.
Atheism became frustrated with rationalism’s efforts to explain life. In the name of so-called “science” atheists decided that all natural causes must be under the influence of a dominant and uniform force - in other words they just declared that “nature” must be “deterministic.” Such a non-rational view of “linear history” has left it pessimistic. Determinism’s only “hope” is in a non-rational man living for himself and fighting for his own territory either in or somewhere on this “line” of life (- i.e.on a continuum of the atheist’s own imaginary and “hi-jacked” view of linear history.
We should mention there is another grouping out there, as well. These just live in irrational hope, founded in their imaginary interpretations of their own experience. These folks just follow their own “mystical irrational ‘other’ sort of god.” Most of these people feel no guilt when they “hi-jack’ the language of Christianity (or really just any sort of spiritual and religious words) - “leaping into the dark” and hoping for some meaning to life, but this is simply not to be!
God has declared through His Word that Hope - all hope is in Christ Jesus, the Lord! 
