If not on May 21, when will the world end? December 21, 2012 is the most likely candidate for the next Doomsday, if not the last one.

Among scientists, it is said that a rare galactic alignment of the earth, sun, and the center of the Milky Way galaxy will occur around 2012, the tipping point of the earth. According to the National Academy of Sciences' report in 2009, radiation from the sun will produce lethal eruptions of solar flares, burning satellites and turning up the heat on earthlings in the next solar maximum that starts in 2012.

December 21 is also said to be the end date of the largest grand cycle in the Mayan calendar. Mayan Long Count Calendar ends after its cycle of 872,000 days or 5,125.37 years, and a new and enormous cycle begins from Day Zero.

In some 2012 doomsday prophecies, the earth becomes a deathtrap as it undergoes a pole shift, according to National Geographic. There will be a sudden shift of the planet's crust and mantle causing it to spin around Earth's liquid-iron outer core.

However, the whole prediction of the end on December 21, 2012 actually started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth, NASA's Ask an Astrobiologist clarified. Fiction writer Zecharia Sitchinclaimed based several books written about the planet Nibiru on translated Sumerian documents. The planet orbits the sun every 3600 years, according to NAI Senior Scientist David Morrison. The inhabitants of the fictional planet sent warnings of the earth's danger initially predicted for May 2003. Just as other failed Doomsday predictions, the Doomsday date has moved forward to December 2012. Only recently were these fables linked to the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012, giving birth to a most unforeseen doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Numerous eschatological beliefs support that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012. Throughout history, countless people have claimed the imminent return of Christ. If tomorrow is just one of these, will you then believe the prediction of the empire that peaked between A.D. 250 and 90? If you have a prediction to make, get in line. After all, 2012 can be just another hoax. That's probably what we should repent for.