Many people these days believe that Dec. 21, 2012 is Doomsday. That’s when the current cycle in the Long Count in the Mayan calendar comes to an end, meaning either that the world itself will end, or according to New Agers, enter a new and enlightened age.

Here you will find how 2012 is debunked. In his movie, “2012,” Director Roland Emmerich gives viewers an intense portrayal of the kind of cataclysmic destruction that so many fear that the End of the World will bring. Be aware, however, that a Doomsday scenario is not supported by the leading Maya experts and scholars—who, of all people, ought to know what the Mayas meant. The Wikipedia article on “2012 Phenomenon” states:

The idea of a global event occurring in 2012 based on any interpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is rejected as pseudoscience by the scientific community, and as misrepresentative of Maya history by Mayanist scholars.
So what are people so excited about? Well, in brief, Maya myths say that the world was created August 11, 3114 B.C. and the Long Count calendar finishes a “great cycle” of thirteen b’ak’tuns (periods of 144,000 days) in a little more than 5,125 solar years, coming to an end on December 21, 2012. The Maya themselves made no predictions about what would happen on this date, and Maya scholars are becoming weary of all this Doomsday talk, but that doesn’t stop many modern people from drawing the “obvious” conclusion: if the present world began when the Maya calendar started, it will end when the calendar ends.

One line on Tortuguero Monument 6 reads that “black will occur” at the end of the cycle and John M. Jenkins states that Maya astrologers were aware of the existence of a band of black dust clouds in the Milky Way and called it the Black Road. In 2012 the sun aligns somewhat imperfectly with the Black Road (as it does every 36 years, mind you), and New Agers believe this heralds a dramatic consciousness shift—the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, which apparently had some trouble getting started back in the hippy era.

But if the world does end on this date instead, what causes all the destruction? According to people who claim to be in contact with aliens, that’s where Planet X (aka Nibiru or Niburu, named after a Babylonian god) comes in. The aliens have discovered that Planet X, a rogue orb that escaped its own sun, is on a collision course with the Earth. The aliens are convinced that this will bring Doomsday, not a new and enlightened age—and out of the goodness of their hearts, have decided to warn us. Sort of like the movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” with a twist.

A collision, of course, would obliterate all life on Earth—even knock it out of its present orbit. A near-miss will be bad enough, Planet Xers insist, causing Earth to go through a “pole shift.” The Earth’s crust will somehow come loose, shift over the mantle, disrupting continents, destroying cities and causing the deaths of untold millions. Many Nibiru-watchers believe that this cataclysm will happen in 2012 because after all, that’s when the Mayas said the end of the world will happen.

Even some Christians believe in planet Nibiru and say that the following passage from the book of Revelation describes the effects of the planet’s close passage:

“And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found” (Rev. 16:18–19).
A near-miss by another planet might definitely have the effect that Revelation describes, but the problem is that if such a planet existed and was en route to earth, arriving here in 2012, astronomers would surely have seen it by now. But they haven’t. Several Nibiru conspiracy theorists have then resorted to accusing the scientific community of a massive cover-up to avoid panic over a doomsday scenario.

The world will eventually experience the cataclysms that Rev. 16:17–19 describes, but it’s futile to attempt to predict dates for the return of Christ or the End of the World. Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Mat. 24:36).