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Did The World End? A sub-title to this lesson could be, "Did the Day of Judgment come and nobody noticed?" A so-called evangelist, Harold Camping, said the world would end and the Judgment Day would come on May 21, 2011. He got this number by multiplying 5 by 7 by 10 and squaring the number. May 21, 2011 was supposed to be that number of days since some past event. Frankly, I tried reading some of this man's calculations and was totally lost. There was neither rhyme nor reason for some of his assumptions. However, a lot of news services ran stories about this man and his prediction of the end of the world. Some people sold all they had and used their money to advertize the end of the age. One man took his family to see the Grand Canyon and ran up his credit cards. One man stood in New York Times Square handing out Bibles and waited for the end to come. Can you say "false prophet" or simply false teacher? First, God did not give us the Bible to obscure what He wanted us to know. He did not hide secret codes predicting the end of the world in His revelation. "When you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." (Ephesians 3.4) Paul is specifically talking about the common salvation of Jews and Gentiles through the blood of Christ. But God communicates to us today through His word and it says what it says. We are warned about false prophets in both the Old and New Testaments, Deuteronomy 13.1-3;18.15ff, Matthew 7.15, 2 Peter 2.1ff, and John 4.1ff. Harold Camping is the poster child for a false prophet. He predicted the end of the world would be on September 6, 1994 and of course it did not happen. This time he said, "I do not understand why nothing has happened." In an article titled, Doomsday prophet, followers flabbergasted' world didn't end, I found the following paragraph: Camping's PR aid, Tom Evans, told the L.A. Times that the group is "disappointed" that 200 million true believers weren't lifted up to heaven on Saturday while everyone else suffered and eventually died as a series of earthquakes and famine destroyed the Earth. "You can imagine we're pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true," Evans said. "We obviously went too far, and that's something we need to learn from." The group posted 2,000 billboards around the country warning of the rapture, while Camping-- an uncertified fundamentalist minister--spread the word on his radio show." I bet you were "pretty disappointed" and yep you did "go a little too far." Duh! You were exposed as being more than simply wrong and you went totally beyond what the Bible says. You are dishonest with the word of God and need to ask for His forgiveness. The Bible plainly and clearly says that no one will know the hour when Jesus will return. "But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is." (Mark 13.32-33) This is not baseball and you have three strikes before you are out. One false prophecy makes a false prophet. Not specifically stated in the article, but clearly implied is that Mr. Camping believes in the rapture and Premillennialism. He believes that the unbelievers will remain here on the earth while the righteous are raptured to heaven. Then there will be tribulation here on earth. Again, he is wrong. Jesus' return will be the end of His Kingdom and everyone will be raised from the grave, 1 Corinthians 15.24-26. There is one other point I want to make in this article which may seem kind of strange, but I think it is valid. The end did come for some people on May 21, 2011. In Joplin, Missouri a tornado hit and killed over ninety people. I am sure a number of people died on our nation's highways that day, some were killed protecting our nation abroad, others died at home, and still more died in the hospital. The end of the age did not come, but the end of their world did. They now await the Day of Judgment. We may or may not still be alive when Jesus returns, but the greater chance is that we will die and wait in the grave for that Day. We need to be ready and that is the point in Mark 13.32-33. If you are ready, you will not be disappointed no matter the day or the hour. -- Dennis Tucker
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