[Lee N. Field]

The Tribulation is a seven-year period that is divided into two halves, each 3.5 years long. If you add 3.5 years to the Summer Solstice of 2008, you arrive at the Winter Solstice of 2012. That day "just happens" to be the last day of the Mayan calendar.

Solstices? Mayan calandar?

Ohhhh-kay.

[sarcasm]midtrib heretic[/sarcasm]

The idea that The Rapture — the sudden, bodily "snatching away" of Christians up into Heaven — will occur prior to The Tribulation is a prophetic equivalent of a "prosperity gospel" that gives people a false sense of hope and security.

Well, he's got that right.

[Betty Jane]

The Tribulation is a seven-year period that is divided into two halves, each 3.5 years long. If you add 3.5 years to the Summer Solstice of 2008, you arrive at the Winter Solstice of 2012. That day "just happens" to be the last day of the Mayan calendar. His math isn't so good. 3.5 years from Summer Solstice 2008 is winter Solstice 2011. But that's not as terrifying as the last day of the Mayan calendar and wouldn't sell as many books.