May 22, 2011...Back to Business As Usual

Hmmm, yesterday the world didn't stop quite like Mr. Harold Camping and his followers predicted..... The bad part is that he thinks he "miscalculated" and that it'll be sometime in October 2011.

He and his followers evidently missed some passages from Scriptures, especially Jesus' own words in the Gospels that said that no one on earth or in heaven knew the hour in which He will return, NOT EVEN JESUS HIMSELF, only the Father knew and knows. Last I checked, the only earthly being that had any divine powers was Jesus. If He didn't know, NONE OF US CAN KNOW.


That is not at all to say that He is NOT coming. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that He will indeed return. Scripture also makes it abundantly clear that a Rapture DOES take place. It just is not taking place according to mankind's schedule or blueprint. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as men count slackness." Jesus gave events and signs that need to be fulfilled before His return. Ancient prophets saw signs and visions they personally did not understand, but some our current generations can. Our greatest prophetic compass is to watch the events unfold for the nation of Israel.

While every day I keep wondering if we have yet to see the days like those of Noah, and of Sodom and Gomorrah, obviously we have not gotten "worse" just yet. Given time, we will. It may be before I'm finished typing this entry, or it may be another 2000 or more years before this takes place, but I believe in my heart of hearts that it WILL take place. It's something that has been in my heart even before I became a born-again Christian.

My greatest concern regards Mr. Camping's irresponsible "prediction" as catastrophic for weak-spirited Christians. The rest of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, can laugh at his folly and crack jokes about his missing the mark and his scrambling around to save face in the midst of his failed prediction. However, some serious consequences have been paid for his careless and irresponsible declaration that the end of the world happened according to his calculations. A few suicides have been reported because these people who trusted and believed him did not want to be judged among those left behind the proclaimed "rapture." They have been deceived, greatly deceived. :( Contrary to the seeming attitude of many congregations, we individually are responsible for our own salvation. We are responsible for our own personal relationship/friendship/fellowship with the Lord. We cannot trust every word that comes from the pulpit at face value, we must verify and learn it for ourselves by reading our Bible, listening to God's voice behind His Word.
This is why the Bible says very clearly, "Let God be true, and every man a liar." That doesn't mean that we can't know the truth, but that what we know needs to align up with what God says is true. Our hearts can be deceived if we don't guard it against falsehoods. There are many things that belong to the Lord until He reveals it to mankind, and we can have the mind of Christ as we read God's Word, but we are still not God. God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, His ways higher than our own. We may possess greater wisdom than another person, but God's foolishness is still far greater than any wisdom we can have bestowed upon us.

We should not be attending church or reading our Bibles so that we can have a religious experience, like we might have attending a concert or a sporting event. God's Word has an awesome capacity to transform us into the likeness of Christ, and like Christ, we can make a difference in others through Him. If we are attentive to the Lord's voice, we can know what He means for us to know and to have confidence even in what we don't know while still having faith in it. No one can know the moment in which the Lord WILL return, but we can know what to observe until He DOES return, and we can know when He HAS returned.

In the meantime, I do pray that, if he hasn't already, Mr. Harold Camping comes to truly know God's son, Jesus Christ. I pray that, before it's too late, that he accepts Jesus' gift of eternal life, and lets Him be his Lord and Saviour. May he accomplish this before he passes away, whenever that day or hour for him is.