Well, the date-setters and the end-times prognosticators are at it again! According to a story by Bob Smietana in the Wednesday, December 1, 2010 edition of The Tennessean, Nashville's daily newspaper, Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio, Inc., "a nationwide Christian network," has definitely identified May 21, 2011 as the date for "The Rapture"! So mark it down – there are seventeen shopping days left until Christmas and 164 days left until Christ's second coming!
This message of the very imminent return of Christ is going up on forty billboards in Nashville, as well as on billboards in eight other U. S. cities. (Sort of gives new meaning to the "signs of the end-times," doesn't it? J) Allison Warden, who orchestrated Nashville's billboard campaign and who is a volunteer with WeCanKnow.com, a website set up by followers of Family Radio, is "absolutely sure that Camping's predictions are right." She says, "It is a certainty." Tom Evans, a spokesman for Family Radio, says "It's a matter of simple math."
Interestingly enough, a year or so ago I was given a book written by a fellow who also on the basis of a mathematical process—as well as jumping through a bunch of inventive hoops and loops of biblical texts which he had managed to thoroughly mangle—had "figured out" the date of "The Rapture. According to him, it will be June 8, 2014!
In times of national and international crises, the date-setters come out of the woodwork. The newspaper article quoted Richard Landes, director of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University as saying "predictions of the end of the world provide relief from the daily pressures of life for some … Whatever the mess that your life is in, it makes everything nice and simple."
One of the most famous "prophecies" for the second coming was that given by William Miller for an 1843 return of Christ. Miller and his followers sold their homes and waited out in a field for Jesus to come. His prediction became known as "the Great Disappointment." In 1967, Billy Graham saw "the end coming in about five years." Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth predicted a 1988 return of Christ. Former NASA engineer, Edgar C. Whisenant sold millions of copies of his book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be In 1988. But none of these failed prophecies keeps others from "getting in on the act" and coming up with their own dates. Nor do they keep people from gullibly believing them.
In Matthew 24, Jesus addresses two topics. First, He discusses the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, which occurred in A.D. 70. Of this event, Jesus said: "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation (the generation Christ at that moment was addressing, hf) will by no means pass away till all these things are fulfilled" (Verse 34).
Then in verse 35, Jesus turned His attention to another great event—the destruction of the entire world. He said: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." In the very next verse (36) Jesus plainly states: "But of that day and hour (the day and hour in which heaven and earth will pass away, hf) no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" (emphasis mine, hf). Continuing that same discussion into the next chapter, and drawing His conclusion
from His parable of "The Wise and Foolish Virgins," Jesus said: "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming" (Matthew 25:13).
I find it utterly amazing in the light of the plain statements of Christ that there are those who nevertheless claim that they do know the time of His second coming and are bold enough to publish it in books and plaster it on billboards!
Hugh Fulford
December 7, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment