Grrrr… How’s that for a starting place? 
People through out history have tried to ‘plan’ out the ‘end of the world’ either through Biblical prophecy, Mayan calendars, scientific studies or pure random guesses. It seems that we NEED to know when the world is going to end so that we plan out our lives and make sure we accomplish our goals.
But do we really need to do that?
If one is a believer and a follower of the Lord Almighty, then why do you have to know when the world ends? Why do we spend hours upon hours, life times upon life times outlining Bible passages and creating end time timelines?
Shouldn’t we be focused on proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom of God as modeled by our Lord Jesus?
Yeah – I know the arguments. “Jesus said to be watchful.” “We need to be like the ‘men of Issachar, who understood the times…’”
I have a two word answer, if I may be so bold: Bull Crap (that should get the comment field working overtime…)[@more@]
Seriously though, let us stop and look at these arguments used to plan out an end time calendar.
Matthew 24:42 – Jesus told his followers to “therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Ok. Seems pretty straight forward…yet if you look at the context of the statement, Jesus is telling his disciples not to be deceived when folks come to them saying that the end is near (vs4). Instead, the disciples are to be faithful in doing the things He commanded them to do (ie. preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, etc).
Yes – Jesus lists some “events” that will happen before the “end”. However, all these “events” have been going on since the time of Jesus! There has never been a time in history where there haven’t been wars, famines, earthquakes, and the like. Maybe these things happening with greater frequency – then again, how do we really know that? We only have records for the past hundred or two hundred years….
Besides, Jesus pretty clearly said that he could come back at ANY MOMENT!! (Matt 24:27, 36, 44). Meaning that he could have returned anytime in the last 2000 years. Again, the context of these verse as well as those of Paul in 1 Thessalonians, show the main point of the passage is not to create a timeline, but to encourage and strengthen the Church to do the work of the Lord while keeping them from being led astray by people claiming to know when the Second Coming is coming. That’s it. That’s the point.
Instead of listening to Jesus and Paul, we are doing the exact same thing the Pharisees did in the 1st Century. They looked at the Torah and they planned out when and how God was going to rescue them. What did God do? He showed up outside their paradigm and they missed him.
We, as the Church, need to learn from their mistakes and remember that God has everything under control and we do not need to have a timeline planned out and ready. ‘Cause if we do, we will miss Him as He does not follow anyone’s timeline but His own.
Wow! Talk about jumping into the viper’s den!
Yet, I had to write. Feel free to leave comments or drop me an email – shoot, I’ll even post your emails if you have a counter argument! I mean, why not? Lord knows I’m discussing this issue in my Bible Study – might as well talk about it here as well. 
Oh – before I sign off – note that I will we follow this post with some about “men of Issachar” (1 Chronicles 12:32) and Revelations. Just a fyi. 