(May 15, 2011) I believe every generation since Jesus Christ walked the earth has believed they were living in the End-Times. The Thessalonian Church of the First Century was worried that their fellow Christians who had died would miss the second coming of Jesus Christ. Millennial fervor swept through elements of Christendom leading up to the year 1000 A.D. (here is a website with a list of apocalyptic dates in history) The current generation is no different from previous ones when it comes to some sort of Apocalyptic Fever. Last week someone at my job asked me about the news story stating that Jesus Christ would return on May 21, 2011. They had heard the women on the television show The View discussing it. Later in the week I heard the following commercial on one of our local secular radio stations:
It is amazing to me that Christians continue to set dates about the return of Jesus Christ.
The Millerites
In 1833 William Miller, a Baptist layman, was convinced that Jesus would return sometime during the years 1843-44. He gained a substantial number of followers. Eventually they came to the conclusion that Jesus would return on October 22, 1844 based on the 2300 day prophecy in Daniel 8:14. Some followers prepared for this event by getting rid of their possessions. When Jesus did not return the “Millerites” were understandably disillusioned while at the same time the general public ridiculed them. There were even some acts of violence perpetrated against Miller’s followers.
88 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1988
More recently Edgar C. Whisenant, a NASA engineer, published a pamphlet titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. Once again elements of the Evangelical Church including Trinity Broadcast Network were caught up in Rapture fever. When Jesus failed to return that year Whisenant published a new pamphlet titled The final shout: Rapture report 1989. When that date passed he wrote more pamphlets predicting that the return of Jesus would occur in the early 1990s.
Harold Camping
Harold Camping is the president of Family Radio, a Christian broadcasting network based in California. In 1993, Camping wrote a book in which he said there was a “strong likelihood” that Jesus would return in 1994. Here is a partial audio recording of a debate between Harold Camping and John Noe on the Larry King Live show in 1993:
This would not be the end of Harold Camping’s date-setting.
May 21, 2011
On March 8, 2011 the Daily Mail newspaper website posted the following headline with the accompanying article which discusses Harold Camping’s latest foray into predicting the return of Jesus Christ: ‘Awesome, it’s the end of the world’: Doomsday campers travel the country preaching the Apocalypse…on May 21 The article states: “Most people like to push thoughts about the end of the world to the back of their minds, hoping that the apocalypse, if it ever comes, will be a long way off. But for one group of not-so happy campers, doomsday is a lot sooner…May 21 to be precise. According to the predictions of the Family Radio ministry, on that date a massive earthquake will shake the world apart, littering the ground with ‘many dead bodies’. Those who believe in Jesus will be carried into heaven, while the rest of humanity will endure 153 days of ‘death and horror’ before the world ends on October 21…Speaking to CNN the group’s leader, 89-year-old Harold Camping, is adamant that the date is accurate. He said: ‘I know it’s absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true. ‘If I were not faithful that would mean that I’m a hypocrite.’ Despite his conviction, Camping has predicted the world would end before – on September 4 1994. That, he says, was a mistake, a misreading of the biblical codes used to decipher the exact date of the ‘rapture’. In order to get the warning out in time he fudged his calculations, a mistake he maintains he did not make this time.” [emphasis added]
The article then reports the calculations Camping used to come to the conclusion that the Lord would act on May 21, 2011: “According to the Church’s website, there are two ‘proofs’ that May 21 2011 is the judgement day. According to them, Noah’s great flood occurred in the year 4990 B.C., ‘exactly’ 7000 years ago. At the time, God said to Noah he had seven days before the flood would begin. Taking a passage from 2 Peter 3:8, in which it is said a day for God is like a thousand human years, the church reasoned that seven ‘days’ equals 7000 human years from the time of the flood,making 2011 the year of the apocalypse. In its second ‘proof’ the exact date is revealed by working forward from the exact date of the of the crucifixion – April 1, 33 AD. According to their reasoning, there are exactly 722,500 days from April 1, 33 A.D. until May 21, 2011 – the alleged day of judgement. This number can be represented as follows: 5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17 = 722,500. The church then argues that numbers in the bible have special meanings, with the number 5 signifying atonement or redemption, the number 10 signifying ‘completeness’ and the number 17 equalling heaven.”
Why?
Why do Christians continue to set dates concerning the return of Jesus? As I said at the beginning of this article, interest in the second coming of Jesus Christ began in the early church. I believe the desire to see His return is a God-given desire to those who believe in Him. The apostle Paul wrote, “12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (Titus 2:12-14) Because of this desire I believe some people try to “help” the Lord fulfill His prophetic word. God had promised to give Abraham his one desire, a son. Instead of waiting on the Lord to fulfill His promise, Abraham tried to “help” the Lord out by sleeping with one of his wife’s handmaids. This resulted in the birth of Ishmael which eventually led to many problems for Abraham and his Jewish descendants. God, according to His timing, did fulfill His promise with the birth of Isaac. The problem with Christian date-setting is that it is clearly contrary to the word of God. Jesus said concerning His return, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Matthew 24:36) In the article above Harold Camping stated, “I know it’s absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true.” Therefore Mr. Camping and all the Christians throughout history should have known that the return of Jesus Christ will be in God’s timing and that we will never know the precise date of that timing. This truth notwithstanding, we will once again be subjected to Apocalyptic Fever next year as we approach the Mayan prophetic date of December 21, 2012.
What about this generation?
Is this generation different than all the previous generations when it comes to expectations about the return of Jesus Christ? Not in regards to Christian and biblical beliefs. I believe God has put in Christians today the same spiritual desire as all those who came before us. However, there is one extraordinary difference between us and those who preceded us. For eighteen hundred years the Jews as a people were dispersed throughout the world. Yet God promised in the Old Testament that one day He would bring the Jews back to the land of Israel and that He would never remove them from the land again. In 1948 God returned the Jews to their land. I believe the culmination of this prophecy will occur when Jesus does return and gathers the rest of His elect from the four corners of the earth and brings them to Israel.
From a non-biblical viewpoint, I wonder how long humanity can go on with the turmoil that is occurring around the world and is likely to continue. Islamic terrorists can never give up trying to regain control of Israel and therefore terrorism will not abate. With the advent of globalization in the 20th and 21st centuries, economies are so interdependent that an economic disaster to any segment of the earth’s governments can have an adverse effect on the rest of the world. Even the world has some sense of foreboding concerning the earth’s future. Three days ago bloomberg.com posted a story about Russians who were purchasing bunkers because they thought a global catastrophe was in the near future (Rich Russians Buy Bunkers on Apocalypse Angst). The first line of this article states, “Terrorism can be good for bunker builders. An apocalypse can be even better for business.” Last year there was a story of some Europeans fleeing to caves in order to protect themselves from some future calamity. I wrote an article last June concerning a Pew Research poll of Americans and the return of Jesus Christ. 41% of Americans think that Jesus will return by the year 2050. Of course these people have no way of knowing that but it does reflect a growing sense of pessimism about the earth’s current state of affairs.
Lastly, besides the rebirth of Israel there is one other biblical prophecy spoken by Jesus which may have some bearing on how soon He may return. His disciples asked Him a few days before His crucifixion and resurrection what the signs would be of His return and the end of the age. He gave them several signs but one in particular referred to the actual timing of His second coming: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) How close is this prophecy to fulfillment? Last year I did an article titled, “Bible translators hope to have every language covered in 15 years”. I am not saying that Jesus will return in the next fifteen years. What I am trying to do here and with this blog is illustrate that events have occurred, are occurring, and will occur that seem to indicate that Jesus’ return will be sooner rather than later. How much sooner I cannot say because “Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”
