2014: When Faith and Science Coincide
On the eve of 2008, as he had done for many years, Ugo Ikpeazu prophesied the highlights of the New Year to come to his small congregation in Abuja Nigeria. That year, his prophesy sent a chill down the spines of his audience as he announced to his congregation that the world had entered into the first year of a season of global upheaval that would last seven years.
He went on to prophesy the pervasive crisis that is being witnessed in every nation and on every continent today. Pastor Ugo, as he is fondly called by his flock gave his congregation a list of instructions that He received from God, which would put those who heeded them in a vantage position to escape and even prosper during the global economic crisis. According to Ikpeazu, while it is a harbinger of a new world order, the crisis itself is the vehicle through which God intends to bring about an event that many Pentecostal Christians have heard of but few had known when to expect: the great wealth transfer. This refers to a divinely ordained occurrence that Christians believe would cause stupendous resources to be moved from the hands of the heathen to the hands of God’s children in order to ensure that the final proclamation of the good news of Salvation through Jesus Christ to every human on the planet would take place.
As is likely to happen, not many outside the Church would have paid any attention to the proclamations of a bible-thumping Pentecostal preacher. Now a Cambridge University Professor has predicted the same events – albeit in more scientific terms. Professor Nicholas Boyle a historian from UK’s leading University has announced to the world that a ‘Doomsday’ moment is on its way. According to Boyle, the event which will occur in 2014 will determine the fate of the 21st century. Through the study of historical trends over the course of the last five centuries, Boyle observed that there have been cataclysmic events with global ramifications that have taken place around this same space of time every century since the 16th century. Boyle took his bearings from the year 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of Wittenburg church, sparking the Reformation of the church and the rise of Protestantism; through European historical events that he claims had arguable global consequences in 1618, 1715 and 1815. Less prone to contention is his identification of the year 1914 when the First World War broke out as a significant turn in the 20th century.
How was it that Boyle read history, leading to a similar conclusion of the future as a Pentecostal Preacher half a world away? For while Ikpeazu takes his timeline from 2008 arriving seven years later at a period close to Boyle’s 2014, Boyle takes his from the future. Both men’s grasp of congruent events is reminiscent of the blind men and the elephant, yet the affinity of the conclusions could bear closer inspection. The questions arise: Does God reveal the future to humans? How and why? The Church has suffered much ignominy and attack in recent times to the end that many originally Christian nations including the UK and the US have significantly distanced themselves from mono-theism and their Christian roots, embracing liberalism and religious diversity. Yet, in the frenzy and confusion that accompanied the events of September 11 2001, Americans looked to the heavens for answers. Many were quick to believe references made to predictions of the event purportedly credited to Michel de Nostredame (1503 – 1566) aka Nostradamus, a 16th-century French seer.
In the City of God, there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures,
the great leader will succumb,
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning
Although these verses have been subsequently disclaimed by the Nostradamus organization, sales of Nostradamus’ books went through the roof and hit best-seller lists as the urban legend took on a persona of its own. Ostensibly, many would love the opportunity to glance into the future and the days following marked the beginning of a modern-day interest in end-time predictions and prophecies.
Since 9-11, there has been significant interest in the year 2012, which is said to be the date indicated as the end of a 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar. The Maya is an early American civilization noted as having the only known fully developed written language, art, architecture, mathematical and astronomical systems of the pre-Columbian Americas. The Mayans accurately predicted lunar and solar eclipse cycles and at its peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world. The 2012 school believe that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012. Astrologists have weighed in on the hypothesis, presenting various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae related to this date, while New Age followers interpret the Mayan prophecy to mean that the Earth may undergo a physical or spiritual transformation that will mark the beginning of a new era. Others interpret the prophecy to refer simply to an apocalypse or a similar catastrophe that will end the world. End-of-the-world scenarios include the Earth’s collision with a passing planet or black hole or the arrival of the next solar maximum. Solar maximum is the period when the sun’s magnetic field lines are the most distorted due to the magnetic field on the solar equator rotating at a slightly faster pace than at the solar poles. The last solar maximum was in 2001 and the next one predicted to occur in 2013, will be one of the weakest since 1928. Close to this Solar Maximum is the Pole reversal theory, which refers to an event in which the magnetic poles switch over causing north to become south and vice-versa. Studying magnetism in ancient rocks, scientists learned that pole reversals have occurred in the past on an average of once every 300,000 years; the last was about 780,000 years ago. Professor Gary Glatzmaier of the University of California has modelled the phenomenon with a supercomputer, showing that pole reversals are the result of the movement of molten iron in the Earth’s outer core, which can cause twists in the planet’s magnetic field. Some students of this scenario have pointed to magnetic field disturbances in an area known as the South Atlantic Anomaly as a possible sign of an upcoming pole reversal, which could occur in 2012. Pole reversals could cause the magnetic north pole to show up on the island of Tahiti in the Pacific.
Many of these theories are based on an assumption of inevitability, so they are of less interest in answering the questions posed above: Can man predict the future? Both the spiritual prophecies of Pastor Ugo Ikpeazu and Professor Nicholas Boyle’s scientific predictions make similar assertions: that mankind can decide his own fate, and that individuals can choose the outcome they experience in the midst of the current upheaval by making the right choices. Those choices will determine whether the 21st century is full of violence and poverty or will be peaceful and prosperous on individual and collective levels. Few people need a crystal ball to see that the fate of humanity hangs in a balance with conspicuous consumption and abuse of the earth’s resources resulting in pollution, disease and destruction, with global warming precipitating artificially induced earthquakes, tsunamis and an unprecedented number of natural disasters. Both men in their prophecy and prediction provide us with a clue as to why the future has been revealed to us, pointing at a reminder: the future is in our own hands. Perhaps both men are the voice of the Universe telling mankind that more than ever, our actions or inaction over the next couple of years will determine the fate of mankind. We get to decide whether 2012, 2013, 2014 or indeed any time in the foreseeable future will mark the end or a new beginning of our world. That choice is as much up to individuals as it is to governments.
Ugo Ikpeazu’s book on the seven-year global crisis is due to be published by Destiny Image Europe.
Ends of the earth scenarios: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ends-of-the-earth-2012
How the earth ends scenarios: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ends-of-the-earth-theories
Related stories: http://lnk.in/slowrecovery
