Since May 21 ended and Jesus hasn’t come back, we can now say that Harold Camping is a false teacher. So the next question is, ” Is Jesus coming back in 2012?”
It is amazing how people are fascinated with the end times. We all want to know. From books trying to decipher the end times to Harold Camping’s May 21 movement.
Newspaper Theology:
A lot of end time authors try to use newspaper to predict the coming of Christ. I have read some of this books and find them quite fascinating and unbiblical. Here is what the Bible says:
Acts 1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Ac 1:6–7). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
The Scripture clearly states it is not our business to know the times and dates. So why all the fuzz on the end times. Why create a ministry based on the end times? The Bible encourages us in the next verse to do something more worthwhile:
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The Bible calls us to be witnesses of God’s love and grace to the world. He calls us to make disciples of all nations. Rather than to put our effort and finances on finding the times and dates which even angels do not know, why try to solve a puzzle that God tells us not to solve.
The greatest tragedy about this END TIME FASCINATION is that so many Christians are so focused on not being left behind that they are being left out on what is more important – to do the works of the Lord while we still can.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 (New International Version)
1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.