IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT PART I

by Aaron

Q: So there has been so much said about the end of the world recently. It seems that no matter where you look, there are either "prophecies" or speculations about the last days and when the world is going to end. I know what I believe, but I wanted to know your thoughts regarding all this speculation we are hearing. Oh, and I hope you are prepared because the world is going to end on May 21st.


A: Well, I think I will answer this in two parts. One about the end time speculation, and two maybe a primer on how to study your bible.

First, end times...

I have two people I really love getting married on May 21, so I hope I hope the end of the world waits another day or so.

All the speculation really bothers me because it does nothing but hurt the message of the gospel of Christ. The modern church is so caught up in prophesies and trying to identify if "this person" or "that person" is the anti-Christ that many lose sight of the REAL Christ in the process. Jesus said WE WILL NOT KNOW the day or hour so why in the world do we keep trying to prove Him wrong when we know He is always right?

The current slate of doomsayers are predicting May 21, 2011 as judgment day. They call it "awesome news" that the world will be destroyed. The ad campaign has been estimated to have cost more than 3 million dollars so far.

The spearhead of the May 21, 2011 date is Harold Camping. Camping previously had predicted that the world would end on Sept. 6, 1994. When it didn’t, he blamed it on mathematical error (because we know that the scriptures are all about math and not about Jesus). This time he believes the new date because of the proper "mathematical calculations" and "clues in the Bible."

Personally I believe the scriptures teach that God is NOT going to destroy His creation on May 21 or any other day. It says in Romans 8:19-21 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. God loves this world He made, He doesn’t want to preside over its demise, He plans to make it right again. Redemption is the redemption of all creation. The Jewish Idea was restoration, redemption of creation, making it into what it was intended to be.

There is a reason God never gave us a time and a date about the end of the world...the reason: WE ARE CRAZY. God calls us to be a people of simple trust and faith in Him and what He is doing, not second guessing Him or trying to conform Him to our narrow little view.

Ralph Tone wrote on the Baptist Press website. “Jesus left no doubt about the futility of playing the dating game when he told his disciples three times in Matthew 24 not to go there.”

Warren Gage, dean of faculty at the Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, said, "I think there's a very clear scriptural reference that no one knows the time in the end. May 21 is not circled on my calendar. And I'll be looking forward to Sunday, May 22.”

The goal of Jesus' teaching was never to get us out of here and go to some other place, it is for us to live as light in the world making a difference IN this place. So don't give away all your stuff, go into debt, drink the grape juice or wear the tennis shoes (and tin foil hat) of the doomsayers.

I am sure I will see you Sunday morning May 22.