Sorry to disappoint but I will not predict the date of Christ's second coming. A seminary professor of mine once told us as a class, "if you think you have an idea when Christ will return just don't give a date." It was good advice that I would suggest we all adhere to.Nonetheless there has been no shortage of conversation and activity in recent days and weeks on Judgment Day. This is due in large part to Harold Camping's prediction that the world as we know it would come to an end on May 21, 2011 at 5PM Central Time. I will admit, at 5PM the other night I did pause for a moment, just in case the ground began to tremble, but alas no tremble, no earthquake, no rapture. I figured at the very least if it happened without me noticing and I was "left behind" that surely Bekki and the boys wouldn't still be around. At 5:01 when I realized Bekki and the boys were still with me I knew that there had been no rapture.
And yet, while many of us made light and perhaps even poked fun at all the hoopla surrounding this prediction there were many who took it quite seriously. I read of one family, up to their ears in debt, decide to go and visit the Grand Canyon before the Day. Yet, two days later they're now in even greater debt due to the added expenses of this trip. There were others, like a man in New York, who advertised $140,000 of his life savings to advertise in his city. And then there was Camping himself, who sincerely believed that May 21st was the Day!
What this event (or lack thereof) displays is that there is a serious fascination in our culture and among Evangelicals with the end times. Camping is not the first to predict when the world will end, in fact it wasn't even his first prediction! Check out the shelves at any Christian bookstore and you're sure to find some end times stuff. It was the Left Behind series afterall that raked in enough money to buy a small country not too long ago. Why the obsession with the end of the world? Why are we so fascinated with trying to figure this stuff out? Wasn't it Jesus himself that said not even the Son would know the day or the hour?
What the past few days has demonstrated to me, once again, is that followers of Christ are too often obsessed with the wrong things. We are too obsessed with the WHEN of Jesus' return. Can I let everyone in on a little secret? Nobody knows when Jesus will return! Nobody...not Harold Camping, not the Pope, according to the Gospels not even Jesus, and believe it or not Billy Graham probably doesn't know either! This means that any time someone makes a prediction he or she is immediately a false prophet, a wolf in sheep's clothing. It doesn't matter how sincere or convinced one is, it is unbiblical and false teaching and is extremely dangerous if followed. Sincere and convincing people can be sincerely and convincingly wrong. This is why it is so important that we read and know the Bible. In this case, knowing one little verse exposes the false teaching that cost over $1 million and increased damage to the reputation of the church. You can exegete Jesus' words all you want. You can study the Greek and it all comes out the same...No one knows, not even Jesus.
Here is my suggestion: Let's stop obsessing over the WHEN and start obsessing over something that really matters. This past week I was studying Matthew 25 where Jesus speaks of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, caring for the sick, inviting the stranger in, and visiting those in prison. He says that when we do this for the least of these, we do it for him. When we don't do it for the least of these, it is actually him that we are ignoring and rejecting. Do you know what the context for these words is? Judgement Day. The section in which we read these words begins with "When the Son of Man comes in his glory...he will sit on his glorious throne...and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." (Matthew 25.31-32) He goes on to say that he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The sheep are those who will live eternally with him and the goats are those who will experience eternal punishment. And who are the sheep? They are those who loved the least of these.
What if we were less obsessed with the WHEN of Jesus' second coming and were more obsessed with WHAT kind of people Jesus wants to come back for? What if we were obsessed with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and welcoming the stranger? When Jesus returns these are the kind of people he wants to bring with him, this is the kind of church he is looking for. What if we were obsessed with being the kind of people who embodied the love of Christ in our relationships, in our communities, and in our world...who sought to proclaim Christ's good news in beautiful, creative, and compelling ways?
This recent erroneous prediction has sparked a lot of response. The most healthy response would be to obsess over the WHAT and not the WHEN. Jesus will return for his church, this much the Bible tells us. My hope is that I will be the kind of person that Jesus would want to come back for and live with eternally, and the good news is by his grace I can be!
