Analysis of different cultural and religious beliefs regarding the end times.

I thought that I would write up this thread because there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the many different beliefs about what is going to happen in the end times. To start off I will provide information from different ancient cultures and religions involving what they expect to happen in the end times and I will briefly touch on what science has to say regarding some of the issues. I will also give my summary and opinions on the matter based on all the evidence and links I have compiled, look at any similarity's and then ask everyone here to add their opinions and beliefs as long as everything stays civil. Culture, religion and ideology can be touchy subjects and the end times isn't the most glamorous subject to talk about

Edit- I have embedded some videos at the bottom of the post for anyone who'd prefer it.

Ok lets start off with what the Christians believe;

Nearly all Christians are taught that Jesus Christ will return in glory and reign eternally.
But beliefs differ about how this will happen. Many Catholics, liberal Protestants, and Orthodox Christians in the U.S. do not emphasize the end of the world. Though their denominations have end-times theologies, these Christians would rarely hear preaching on it. These denominations focus on Jesus' words that people cannot "know the day or the hour" (Matthew 25) of the end and tend not to speculate on the details.

A majority of evangelical Protestants, however, stress specific ideas about the end of the world. They believe that certain events must happen prior to Jesus' return, and that many of these events are happening now. Drawing from Matthew 24, Paul's epistles, and the Book of Revelation, evangelicals look for signs of the end of the world.

Many Christians cite Matthew 24, in which Jesus tells his disciples that certain events will herald the end of the world:

Wars and rumors of war
Famine
Earthquakes
Persecution
False prophets
Lawlessness

According to Matthew 24, Jesus will come in glory and will send out his angels to gather his chosen ones from the four corners of the world.

According to some evangelicals, the Rapture is an End Times event when born-again Christians will be "caught up" into the air and meet Christ in the clouds, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Many believe that this will happen unexpectedly, and people will suddenly rise from their cars or kitchen tables into the sky. According to Revelation 20:4 and 20:6, at some point after the Rapture Christ will begin a thousand-year reign.

The above information was found here: www.beliefnet.com...
More information about the rapture here: en.wikipedia.org...


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Now lets see what the Muslim people believe about the end times;

When reading the Quran, or the Hadith(s), the reader cannot help but understand the end is firmly in view by the Muslim. Muslims do not view this life as the end, but only as the start of the next life. The role of the current life is to determine the next life. The result of the Muslim’s restoration and relationship with Allah through Mohammad.

The subject of the end times is known as eschatology and covers both what happens after death and the events at the end of time. Christianity and Islam share some similar beliefs, with much different outcomes. For one, in Christianity and Islam, Jesus Christ plays a central role in the timing of end; Islam believes the return of Jesus will occur at the end, like Christians. Muslims also believe in the resurrection of both the wicked and the righteous and the final judgment. Islam and Christianity both proclaim an eternal dwelling of the lost and saved, in either Hell or Heaven (Paradise). Therefore, in many ways, the structure of the end (eschatology) is similar to Christianity.

However, Christians and Muslims have two different views of what the final matter is. Both views of the end, however, cannot be true since they are diametrically opposed to each other. The Muslim Jesus descends and converts the world to Islam, kills the Jews, breaks crosses, declares himself a Muslim and gets married. He dies after 40-years.
Therefore, in the Muslim view, the end has a much different outcome compared to the Christian or the Jewish view. All Muslims do not agree on every aspect of Muslim eschatology. Sunnis and Shiites have a different view on the role of Muslim end time figure, known as the Mahdi, who will arrive before the return of Jesus. The Shiites view this person as someone who will establish order in the world and turn people to Islam before the return of Jesus. Even the particular events of the end are not completely spelled out in the Quran. The Hadith supplements what the Quran does not say.

All the info above was from this site: www.truthnet.org...
More information about Islamic end times here: en.wikipedia.org...

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Now lets look at what Jewish people believe will happen in the end times;

The term “End of Days” is taken from Numbers 24:4. This has always been taken as a reference to the messianic era. Here we shall explore – albeit briefly – the Jewish belief in the coming of Mashiach.

What is the belief in Mashiach?

One of the principles of Jewish faith enumerated by Maimonides is that one day there will arise a dynamic Jewish leader, a direct descendant of the Davidic dynasty, who will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and gather Jews from all over the world and bring them back to the Land of Israel.

All the nations of the world will recognise Mashiach to be a world leader and will accept his dominion. In the messianic era there will be world peace, no more wars nor famine and, in general, a high standard of living.

All mankind will worship one G–d and live a more spiritual and moral way of life. The Jewish nation will be preoccupied with learning Torah and fathoming its secrets.

The coming of Mashiach will complete G–d’s purpose in creation: for man to make an abode for G–d in the lower worlds; to reveal the inherent spirituality in the material world.

Information above found here: www.chabad.org...
More information regarding the Jewish peoples beliefs regarding the end times here: en.wikipedia.org...

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Now lets see what the Mayan civilisation believed about the end times;

Contrary to popular belief (we can blame the doomsday media for that), the Mayan Prophecy does not predict "the end of the world" on December 21, 2012. It predicts the end of an era as our modern civilization enters a new kind of spiritual and collective conscious.

The Mayans believed that starting from the year 1999 (a notable date also picked out by Nostradamus for its numerical significance - at least, significant in our eyes), mankind would have 13 years to recognize our own patterns of self destruction. So it's now our responsibility to get our act together and understand the importance of living a more spiritual (and less destructive) existence.

What will happen in 2012 that is so major to the collective conscious of mankind? According to the Mayan calendar, our entire solar system will come into alignment while cycling through our galaxy every 5,125 years. Since the dawn of the Mayan civilization in 3113 BC, a whopping 5,125 years will have passed, making the Winter Solstice of 2012 so special. It marks the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar. It does not mark the end of time.

Massive Solar Storms
In the last few years, the sun has been getting a bit hot and bothered. Despite being in the stable part of it's natural cycle, the sun has been going through large solar storms which have been destroying satellites and knocking out power grids with its radiation. Notably, these solar flares may also be responsible for the current bout of climate change. Check out the hit movie Knowing starring Nicholas Cage for a depiction of the damage a massive solar storm would cause.

Magnetic Field Reversal
Our planet is surrounded by a magnetic field that protects us from a lot of the sun's radiation. It undergoes a massive reversal - north switching poles with south - on average every 250,000 years. Right now we're about 30,000 years over that average. The poles are drifting apart by 30kms each year, pointing to an imminent reversal. But fear not: "imminent" on this scale means sometime between the years 3000 and 4000 AD.

Of course, the doomsday Mayan enthusiasts reckon it may be sooner than we think. And the magnetic field would disappear entirely for up to a hundred years during the transition. This would directly expose all life on Earth to the sun's UV light, turning us to crisp in a matter of seconds. Not to mention the effects it would have on artificial pacemakers and satellite navigation, as depicted in the sci-fi movie, The Core, starring Aaron Eckhart. I guess if you're already a pile of ash, you don't care much for SatNav.

Information above found here: www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com...
More information regarding the Mayans view on the end times and 2012: www.adishakti.org...

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Now lets see what science has to say on some of these issues;

This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.
That was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn't tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn't exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies.

Like most experts in the field, Hathaway has confidence in the conveyor belt model and agrees with Dikpati that the next solar maximum should be a doozy. But he disagrees with one point. Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.
"History shows that big sunspot cycles 'ramp up' faster than small ones," he says. "I expect to see the first sunspots of the next cycle appear in late 2006 or 2007—and Solar Max to be underway by 2010 or 2011."
Who's right? Time will tell. Either way, a storm is coming.

The above information was found here: science.nasa.gov...

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Now that I have compiled some information we can see that there are a lot of similarities in these religions and civilisations beliefs about the end times. But also a lot of differences. We can see that Christians/Mayans/Muslims/Jews all believe in some form of after life or new era. Although mainstream science does not. You can see that Christians, Muslims and Jews all believe that the chosen people (People of god) will be rescued in the end times. We can see that there is a lot of similarity's in the idea that there will be an increase in natural disasters in the end-times, such as increased volcanic activity, extreme weather such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tidal waves etc.

Mayans and science does seem to agree on there being a major increase in solar activity around the time of 2012. This in itself could cause a lot more natural disasters and wipe out all satellite and electrical grids, which could be seen as the end times as it would have dire effects on the planet.

I have found some more information regarding what some Mayans believe will happen around 2012;

What usually happens is that when we approach this point in the precession where this change takes place, everything begins to break down - all the social structures,etc begin to dissolve and break down. The key that does it is the magnetic field of the Earth. Which as present-day science realizes may also be the key that enables the axis to shift in the first place through magneto- hydrodynamics, where the magnetic field supports a connection where liquid aspects of the earth's composition become solid. When the field collapses, some solids become liquid and become slippery. They have demonstrated this in laboratories. The magnetic field and the electromagnetic field are the key. The magnetic field is what we use to interpret who and what we think we are, and also to store our memory with. We need an exterior magnetic field to retain memory. We cannot live without some form of magnetic field. If you look at major cities all over the world, you will notice that the day before, after and during the full moon there is more rape and murder going on. The reason is that the full moon tends to cause a ripple in the magnetic field of the earth, and this change is enough to take people that are emotionally near the edge over the edge. The magnetic field affects the emotional body.

The Collapse of the Magnetic Field
Imagine a planet where you are at a point on the precession where things are starting to get out of balance. Suddenly the magnetic field of the Earth, over a very short period of time (usually three to six months) starts fluctuating a lot and undulating. What happens is that people start losing it. They go crazy. That is what breaks down all the structures of the planet. Without their balance, everything falls apart. The magnetic field will go away entirely for at least three and one half days. Usually you will see a buildup of chaos.

Morphological Grid Interactions
Every time one person plugs into the consciousness grid, they increase the signal from the grid. There will come a point where people will just start remembering and start breathing this way. Children will have the least problem. The older you are the harder it is.

The Final Time of Axis Shift and Dimensional Interface
Hopefully it won't really get crazy out there - if it does, that is where the idea of Armageddon comes in. If you look back through the records, you will see that when the axis shifted in 1400 A.D., in South America, they all started fighting and warring with each other, because their emotions got so strong. Hopefully, that won't happen.

About five to six hours before the dimensional shift in consciousness, the process (which is usually tied to an axis shift) begins. Axis shifts and shifts in consciousness are usually tied together. In this case, the consciousness shift may happen before or after the axis shift. Usually they are simultaneous, and usually what happens in this period five or six hours before a dimensional shift is a visual phenomenon. This almost for certain will happen as 3rd and 4th dimension begin to interface, and our consciousness begins to move into 4th dimensional consciousness and 3rd dimensional consciousness begins to recede away. When that happens, synthetic manufactured objects which consist of materials which do not occur naturally on the Earth, begin to disappear over a wide gradient, depending what the materials are. They do not disappear all at once. When the grid of 3rd dimensional consciousness begins to break down along with the collapse of the magnetic field, these synthetic objects begin to disappear over this five or six hour period. Since axis/conscious/grid changes have happened continously for millions of years, this is why there are few manufactured objects from previous civilizations (some of which have been more advanced than ours) which remain to tell the tale.

The above information was found here: dedroidify.blogspot.com...

So it appears that Muslims/Christians/Jews/Mayans all believe in some sort of spiritual path in the end times to reach the heavens, paradise or new era. There also seems to be a lot of correlation between some scientists and Mayan theory on increased sun activity around the time of 2012, possibly having dire effects on our planet.

I don't know for definite what is going to happen and when but I do get the feeling that we as a human race are going to be seeing spectacular things in our lifetimes.

Any thoughts?

Here are some videos regarding the matter;

reply to post by TechUnique
TechUnique,

No one needs to be a prophet to see trouble and disaster coming at us here in America and trouble and diaster for the whole world. The leadership knows but they care not to let the people know. An angel came to George Washington and let him know the three perils this country will go thru. The vision is in the library of congress I think but you can get it and read it on the net. George Washingtons Vision on the search line. Take your pick there is thousands. many want to give you an interpretation and that isn't needed. The earth is now 5995 yrs. old very cloae and our calendar starts a yr in Jan. but Yah. about the middle of March on our calendar so it looks like about 2016 mid March this earth has been visible and inhabited by man and angels for 6,000 yrs. So what do you think, it looks like it is wrapping up fast to me..

Truthiron