If I hear one word about “Y2K,” I think I’ll go right out of my mind. This is not to presume that those of my acquaintances who would have you believe that event has already occurred are wrong – but really! These people have WAY too much time on their hands.
GUEST COMMENT
This movement, even in the Christian community, is almost cultic in its effort to get us to believe that in the year 2000 – or, depending on who you listen to, 1998 or 1999 – the whole planet is going to come to a screeching halt. There will be no more money, no more banks, no more businesses, no more stock market, no more government (OK, at least one of the items on that list is not all bad). And all of this is going to happen, according to their philosophy, because of something called the “Millennium Bug.” To explain:
The Millennium Bug is not some arachnoid creeping insidiously into your bed covers. This “bug” is a clock. You see, at the dawning of the computer/information age, automatic clocks were built into the large and confusing machines of the day replete with their artificial intelligences and a language called DOS. All of it was indecipherable to all but the most erudite of the computer illuminati.
Some would have you believe that the birth of the little automatic clocks featuring the year, month, day and time are all going to stop in their tracks at the stroke of midnight, Jan. 1, 2000. Others would have you believe that this event will also be the worldwide institution of the “Mark of the Beast.” I find it interesting, albeit meaningless, that those searching with ferret-like tenacity for the “Mark” point to the fact that 666 multiplied by 3 equals 1998. The only response I can muster to that one is “So what?”
What amazes me most about these people and what they would have us believe is that they, like so many others, look to the attributes of man to help them understand the activities of God. These people will soon join the ranks of other prognosticators such as Nostradomus (or at least those who thought they could interpret his quatrains). They told us that the world was going to end in 1964. More recently, a well meaning group calling themselves devote Christians in Washington and Oregon were predicting that the rapture was going to occur five years ago. Alas, my brothers and sisters, we are still here and they are still there, and (to the best of my knowledge) the Mother Ship is still circling awaiting for the local Heaven’s Gate folk to beam up or something equally silly.
What the Millennium Bug proponents seem to miss is that there are two MAJOR pieces missing in their philosophy. The first is that all of the “brain trusts” that created, implemented and operate the great computers in their concrete pagodas in major cities the world over are either stupid, naive, or in league with the devil. It assumes that either the New World Order, the Rapture, or the end of the world are about to happen. If it be the latter, there is no problem (and nothing you or I can do about it). If it’s the first or the second, then they deserve it!
The other MAJOR problem with their thinking is that Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) would never let the world get away from him (just kidding) or that the Bible is wrong. The Bible would have to be wrong, you see, if these Y2K folks really have a handle on just when this tired old planet of ours is going to stop turning because the clock on the wall (provided it’s run by a computer) is going to stop in its tracks with the rest of the entire world. That, in my thinking could indeed portend the last days.
But, that’s not going to happen. At least it’s not going to happen when the Y2K folks indicate that it might. You see, we, as Christians, while of necessity bound to look into the problems and spend a dollar or two to find out what’s going on (along with the billions being spent by those in whose best interest it is to get it fixed), should look first to the Bible for the answer.
Neither you, nor I, nor Bill Gates, nor the programmers working desperately to re-set the clocks can do anything but bow their heads to the statements of the Lord. “…I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Rev 3:3) and, “…But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” (Matt 24:36)
While there are some people, reacting to the perceived dilemma, who will run to the hills and live like a survivalist, surrounded by guns and dried food, there are those who will turn their faces to the sky and pray. They will pray that the Lord give those with the answers to this technical problem of their own creating, the wisdom to solve it. Our futures are in His hands – as they have been since the dawning of time.
Just something to think about.
Paul McShane of Carlsbad writes book reviews for the newspaper and has recently had a book published, That They Might Live, Slaying the Demon of Drugs.
