21 May 2011

Judgment Day...before the time


Is this really the end of the world? Is the rapture upon us? What in the world are those things anyway? And...what's wrong with Harold Camping? What's right with Harold Camping? Quick, there are only a few hours left before his prophecy is to come to pass. And the internet is abuzz, my goodness, even Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon mentioned the end of the world in their PTI program earlier. So let's unpack it for now, and then tomorrow or the next day I'll write further about this.

"In the last week, variations of “End of the World May 21st” and “Harold Camping” have remained among the top search terms on Google. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control released a mock guide to the “Zombie Apocalypse” on its web site that quickly went viral.

But "it’s no laughing matter," Camping told The Huffington Post. “It is not something where it's a tiny, tiny, tiny chance it may happen. It is going to happen.”

He and his fringe group of churchless followers believe that at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, a massive earthquake will make its way around the earth, beginning in Fiji and New Zealand. Graves will open and two hundred million 'saved' individuals will float up to heaven. The doomed remainder will live on an unruly earth for five months before God annihilates it five months later." Huffington Post article

Is that the way the world will end? And what did Y'shua say about that day? Recorded in the Bible, in the biography written by Luke, a physician, we read, “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”(chapter 18, verse 8) Wow, the thing, the #1 thing the Messiah Y'shua will be hunting when he does return, whether on 21 May or any other date, is faith. Not faith in Harold Camping. Not faith in the church, not faith in one's own religion and religious observances. But faith in Y'shua. Believe in Jesus; that's what He wants.

Another time Jesus was teaching about the last days, about His return, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." (recorded in Matthew 24, verse 36) That's fantastic. The Messiah then didn't know when he was scheduled to return. How then would Camping know if Jesus didn't know?

It's late here in Sydney. Almost midnight. Almost 22 May. I know, it's only 941 a.m. in the East Coast of the USA. So you might have a few more hours to ponder your life and get yourself right with God if this prophecy is true. Or you might have days or weeks or months or decades. I don't know.

But what I do know is that Jesus will return.
And when he returns, he will establish his kingdom. Kings do that, you know?
So humble yourself before Y'shua, the real Jesus, the one who died for you and who was raised from the dead on your behalf. OK?

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