An article in The Kansas City Star (Judgment Day on an apocalyptic seer) by Donald Bradley, as well as other newspapers across the nation, tell us that according to Harold Camping, who is 89 years old, the world, as we know it now, will end tomorrow, May 21, 2011. It will be the date of the Rapture as well as the Day of Judgment. Also, billboards all across America, confirm Camping's prediction. So the skeptic is wondering, if you are still here after tomorrow, does that mean you were not raptured? Does that mean we should all lose faith?
In the book, This World we live in, we get an interesting perspective on what happens when the moon is thrown off its axis and how difficult it is to cope with the dire consequences. The Bible speaks of a "star" that falls from heaven in Revelation and calls the star Wormwood.
But setting a date for the end has been taboo for many Christians because of the scripture in Matthew 24: 36-37 that says no man will know the day or the hour. Still, God warns his people when something of great importance or magnitude is coming about. Certainly he warned Noah and instructed him to build the Ark. God warned Joseph (in Egypt) of the great famine and because Joseph listened to God, Egypt was prepared. God never changes, that much we do know according to scripture, so He will continue to warn us. There have been examples of this throughout the Bible and history.
Skeptics are by nature cautious, but a good skeptic tries to sift out the lies to discover the facts. It is not always a bad thing to be a skeptic. It just means you are alert to false alarms. Malachi 4:5, 6 tells us to contend FOR the faith. He knew the wolves in sheep's clothing would be among us and we (Christians) would have to know the word in order to be strong and weed out all the false teachings that inevitably creep in.
So, even the angels do not know the day or the hour of His coming, but Jesus still warns us to be prepared. He will come quickly. Will we be ready for the wedding, or will we be left out in the cold because we did not have oil in our lamps (or in other words, we did not know His Word)? In this skeptic's mind it is still day when we can work and prepare, but that window can close at any time. That is what it means when Jesus said the time is at hand.
What would it hurt for us to be prepared whenever we think the time is at hand? Isn't that the point of all this fuss over when the world will end? We just have one life to live and we should live it to the fullest and be the best we can be, regardless. Christians should search the scriptures and follow their shepherd. AND, Christians should look for signs of His coming. Jesus said that no man knows the exact time, but when we start seeing certain signs we will know that the end is near. Noah could have ignored God's warning about the flood and saved himself from ridicule. After all, an Ark in the middle of the desert?
People will shake off this latest attempt to warn people of impending dangers and the end of the world by saying that these things have been forecast for centuries. While this is true, we should take a step back and realize that all the dots are connecting - in the sky and on the earth. And, we need to recognize the fact that the signs Jesus warned about are in sync now more than ever before.
The danger of all these predictions with exact dates is that when they don't happen, many people's faith is weakened. Read again the parable of the foolish virgins in Matthew 25: 1-10. Live your life in accordance to His commandments and prepare yourself to meet your maker whenever the time comes. He IS coming, and soon.
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