April 28, 202

     This article is from a few years ago but the point is still sound. Since it recounts a true prediction from only a few years ago  I wanted to share it. 

I couldn’t believe it, I had read a little about the president of family radio predicting that the end of the world was upon us. But thought surely no one in my area would know and certainly nothing would be made of it in Meaford. But then as I was heading back from my workout at the tank range, there it was larger than life a huge Billboard proclaiming the end of the world beginning May 21 2011.

It seems that Harold Camping like many before him set out to study with a Bible and a calculator and after making some assumptions about the Genesis flood and God’s reckoning of time as well as setting some extremely precise ancient dates has decided that that he knows when the end will be.

The list of problems with this kind of prediction is so long that to deal with all of them would really take too long. However, a few simple points will serve to demonstrate the wrongheadedness of these kinds of predictions.

First people have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years, and guess how many have been right, none. From Montanus in the fifth century to Charles Taze Russell in the twentieth right up to those who feared the end at the turn of the millennium all who have made predictions about the end have been wrong.

There’s a reason they have been wrong, they have abandoned the teaching of the very book they claim to be representing. The Bible which is the only book from the creator of the world, and therefore the only trustworthy source on matters pertaining to the end of that creation says; “Of that day and that hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the father alone.” (Matthew 24:36; 42) Those who claim to know when Jesus will return are claiming to know more than even Jesus knew while on earth. Jesus goes on to say that his return will be like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:43). Later the apostle Paul would use the same expression to emphasis the unexpected nature of the Lords return (I Thessalonians 5:2-3).

This does not mean that Christians should not be aware of Christ’s eventual return, or that there is no application for people today. Despite the fact that we can’t know when the Lord will return we can know that he will. Jesus and Paul both continue the Thief comparison to point out that if you knew a thief were coming but not exactly when you would prepare yourself so you were ready any time. And this is what people need to do today. The apostle Peter phrases it this way “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people aught you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth.”

So don’t be too surprised if the world does not end on May 21st. But also don’t be surprised or unprepared when eventually it does.

Kevin Cleary