Will this World End or not?

Richard J. Hooper in his book, "End of Days: Predictions of the End from Ancient Sources:" describes a typical scenario predicted by some religions involving an:

"... apocalyptic drama -- destruction, cosmic warfare, the comming of a messiah, the judgment of humanity, and the ushering in of a new world."

He writes that this:

"... sounds like the drama that takes place in the New Testament's book of Revelation. But an almost identical story can be found in the sacred texts of Zoroastrians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists."

One problem can arise when futurists from a Christian or other monotheistic tradition anticipate the end of time and search through ancient information from a Pagan or Neopagan religion -- the Maya for example -- for a date on which to hang a prediction. This appears to have been responsible for the increasing concern over events predicted for the date 2012-DEC-21. That date marks the end of the Mayan calendar's current cycle and the beginning of the next. Dozens of authors have coupled that event with Jewish/Christian/Muslim apocalyptic concepts, and have predicted chaos and destruction on that date. Those predictions are generating increased stress and fear in the lives of tens of millions of people. They will probably cause some individuals to have an emotional breakdown and drive others to commit suicide. We predict that bookstores and online booksellers will have major sales of books in late 2012 about apolyptic events on 2012-DEC-21. They will want to unload their inventory because these books will suddenly lose their value on 2012-DEC-22.