[ Bob Rusbasan, 1998/05/02 ]
Millennium Madness seems to affecting almost everybody these days. I certainly find the prospect of a new millennium exciting. For decades, the year 2000 (or 2001) has been used as shorthand for "in the distant future, when everything will be very different". Movies and books played on the idea that technology would radically alter everyday life by 2000. Doomsayers predicted earth would be overpopulated, out of oil and coal, and have air too noxious to breath by then (causing us to don futuristic oxygen masks). Companies that wished to indicate that their product was especially advanced slapped a "2000" on the end of its name.
Meanwhile, the world's geeks tried to impress everybody by continuously pointing out that the 21st century and the third millennium actually start on January 1, 2001. You see, the first year was year 1, so the first century was 1-100 and the second 201-300, and so on. The same thing went for the millenniums. Nobody was impressed. At least not yet. They may start to get impressed when it gets close to January 1, 2001. At that point it will be clear that their year 2000 celebrations were a horrible mistake that must be corrected by restarting the festivities.
Or maybe not. You see, nobody's going to regret anything in 2001. Why? Because the world is going to end in 2000. At least that's what many people say. I personally know at least one person who believes that saving for retirement at this stage is a waste of time.
This is one belief that really puzzles me. Where do people get this idea? Are three zeroes at the end of the year just so intimidating that it is impossible to think we could make it through?
Many Christians believe that the Second Coming of Jesus will be in the year 2000. This will lead to, well, something. It's not quite clear what. Some believe the earth will simply be destroyed. Other add that true Christians will be raptured into heaven before that happens. Still others believe the events depicted in the book of Revelation will unfold, with a battle between heaven and hell, and then Jesus (the predetermined winner) will rule earth for a golden age 1000 years. Others have different opinions about what the Bible "clearly" says will happen.
That's all well and good, but where do people get the idea that whatever is going to happen is going to happen in 2000? Does the Bible say so? Well, no, it doesn't.
Still, everybody seems to know that is it going to happen, so maybe God is telling us something. Does the Bible support this view that Jesus will return when many people intuitively expect him to? No. Unfortunately, the Bible says that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night", when it is least expected. Jesus himself says, "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32)
Jesus said that he himself did not know when this was going to happen. For the sake of argument, let us entertain a blasphemous thought: Maybe God the Father was working according to some predefined scheme, and even though Jesus couldn't figure it out, the current "the end is coming" crowd has been able to do so. What could this scheme be?
The common view is that we are coming up on the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus. Perhaps God thinks that 2000 is a really groovy number (just assume we somehow know that) and he is really into birthdays (assume we know that as well). He is also quite fond of his Son (we can take that as a given). It is then quite obvious that he would choose to celebrate the 2000th birthday of Jesus with a wild party during which he would either blow up the earth or fight Satan on it, right?
No, not really. But imagine that it obvious. We are in big trouble then, right?
Again, no. The Gospel of Matthew says that Jesus was born in the reign of King Herod. We have fairly accurate records from that time, and we know that Herod died in 4 B.C. Therefore, Jesus could not possibly have been born before that year. (The monk who originally calculated our calendar with year 1 as the year of the birth of Jesus made a mistake.) If God held a big party on his Son's 2000th birthday, it took place in 1996 or earlier, and it apparently did not involve destroying all his creation.
So now what? Well, maybe I am trying too hard to tie this to the birthday of Jesus. Maybe God is just up there in heaven thinking, "Wow! Look at all the zeroes that are going to be at the end of this year coming up, according to one of the more popular calendars used on earth! Huh! Wouldn't that be a cool time to bring about the end of the world? It sure would be! I think I'll go ahead and do it!" Probably not though.
It comes down to this: Those who think the year 2000 is the End believe that Jesus was having a joke at our expense when he said that no one knows when he will come in glory. They believe that have themselves figured out what Jesus said he did not know when he was walking the earth. They believe that God is confused about the actual 2000th anniversary of his Son's birthday or that he just has some weird, unrelated fixation on our year 2000.
I guess I really can't argue with people who, by their own implicit admission, are smarter than God himself, can I?
Actually, yes, I can. I can argue that they are merely projecting their own fixation with the year 2000 onto God. Maybe God will find all of this amusing, or maybe he has a special, extra-hot section of hell set aside for those that think they are smarter than he is. Unlike our apocalyptic friends, I wouldn't presume to say I know what God's plans are.
A lot of people probably think this is all harmless and perhaps even beneficial. So what if people think Jesus is coming in two years? If anything, that will just cause them to lead better lives to prepare themselves for his arrival.
That may be so, but what is going to happen if he doesn't arrive on schedule? Many Christian groups are all but promising the Second Coming in 2000, and people are incorporating that into their belief system. What is going to happen if 2000 comes and goes without the return of Jesus on earth? Some people are going to be very disappointed, some so disappointed that they will begin to question many of their other religious beliefs.
A minority will decide that the date of the Crucifixion is what they really should have been been looking at, so they be patient for another thirty years. Most people will not go along with that. After all, no year in the range 2029-2033 ends with three zeroes.
Meanwhile, the approaching millennium has not exactly been a boon for Christian belief. New Age-type groups have grown at phenomenal rates, and many of them have also latched onto the idea that something big is going to happen in 2000. Among the non-Christians fearing the End, apparently they believe that something incredible is bound to happen approximately 2004 years after the birth of someone to whom they attach no particular importance. Or something like that. I fully expect to see more Heaven's Gate-type suicide cults as the year 2000 draws closer.
So why do so many people fear the End is near? The sad truth is probably simply that 2000 is big, dramatic number, so people expect something big and dramatic to happen. It apparently does not occur to them that the cosmic powers-that-be may attach no significance to the fact that in one earth method of numbering years we are about to roll three of the digits back to zero. It does not occur to them that no rollover year is occurring in other year-numbering methods (Chinese, Hebrew, and Muslim calendars, for example).
Europe went through all of this during the transition from year 999 to 1000. It is said that fields went unplowed and public documents referred to "this, our last year". Of course, the world went on as before, with the exception of a sudden increase in the number of embarrassed and disappointed people. I would have hoped that western civilization would have advanced beyond such nonsense during the last thousand years. I guess not.
Anyway, the true believers will learn the truth soon enough. So forget about them, relax, and join the celebration. Just don't dip into your retirement fund to pay for the big party. And pray that some lunatic doesn't get a hold of a nuclear bomb or some poisonous gas and decide to help "God's Plan" along.
Copyright 1998 Bob Rusbasan. All rights reserved.