In the week leading up to September
23rd, I came across a video on Instagram from some young lady about a
guy who predicted the “Rapture” as some faiths call it (in my church they call
it the Second Coming) would happen at some point on the 23rd or the 24th.
I also came across several such video messages on the 23rd.
In at least one of them, the person
posting said that pastors believed this guy and was telling their congregations
to get their lives in order now.
Okay, since they are talking about a
Christian concept, I have to assume these pastors are Christians, and, as such, should know the Bible because it is their job to expound upon its precepts to
their congregations but clearly they don’t know their scriptures very well. So
let me, a college dropout, layperson, fill you in a simple fact I learned while
was still in grade school.
First Thessalonians 5:2 clearly
states that the “day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Or how
about 2 Peter 3:10 which states the same thing, that the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night.
Since when does a thief announce
their coming in advance?
And it isn’t like other people have
insisted the end is coming. For those of you old enough, you might remember
that part of the Y2K hype was that the world would end on January 1st,
2000.
Clearly that didn’t happen, but
neither did the world end when the Mayan calendar ended, nor when several
scholars insisted Nostradamus had predicted the end. All of which happened within my lifetime.
But it doesn’t end there! I remember
reading about a group in the early 1900’s whose leader predicted the end of world
and even insisted a finite number of people would be accepted into heaven. At the
time of his first prediction (and yes I said first) his followers gathered on a
certain hillside, insisting they would be taken up into heaven at dawn.
When that didn’t happen, the leader
said he miscalculated. His second prediction also doubled his finite number of
those who will be saved, most likely because his believers had swelled to that
number.
As far as I know there is no report
of a third prediction, nor of his followers leaving this world in masse.
The book of Revelation is supposed
to inform the reader of the signs leading up to the Lord’s Second Coming, if
you can understand it, but you still have the earlier passages saying he’s
coming as a thief in the night.
And I can’t get over how many times it’s
been predicted in my lifetime, let alone that, according to Revelation chapter
11 the Second Coming, or the “Rapture” will not come until after His two
witnesses prophesy for a thousand two hundred and threescore days in Jerusalem then
they will be killed and lie in the streets for 3 and ½ days and raise again.
I mean, really, read Revelation 11.
This is the clearest sign of His Second Coming I have read. None of this has happened yet.
The end isn’t here, yet.
Obviously, the Prophet John the
Revelator would know when it will occur, and he did warn us in what I think is
pretty clear language in chapter 11. So why all the hysteria? Why all the hype?
Why all these false predictions?
And the scriptures also answer that
question, clear back in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 2 Peter 3.
I’m simply confused at people who
are supposed to be Biblical scholars not knowing this stuff and me, a simple
college dropout knows it, and I’ve known this stuff since grade school! Then
again, the Bible also tells us we need to repent and became as little children believing
all things.
And maybe the issue is that all
these scholars and theologians don’t believe as the little child believes; they
don’t have the faith of a child, and I gained my faith as a child and never lost
it.
So, anyway, until those two witnesses
lie dead in the street for three and ½ days, I’m not going to believe anyone
saying the end is here, because the Bible tells me otherwise!
Happy writing, Everyone!
