Rapture Today...or Not

Well, today is the day.  So far, as the day already has started wrapping up on the other side of the world, no news yet of the massive earthquake or people being raptured.  I wonder and worry about those who have put so much faith in Camping's calculations that they have built their lives around the events that they think will happen today.  Here are a couple of links to stories about what's been going on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20rapture.html - Story about a family where the parents believe and the kids don't and what the effects have been.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/rapture - Story about why people get excited about these dates and an interview with Jerry Jenkins who helped write "Left Behind" series.

We have had some fun with all this but today I am feeling more cautious and concerned than anything.  While it may be easy to mock this date setting, especially with the highly questionable dating that Harold Camping has done and the fact that he has been wrong before, there is an aspect of this that shouldn't be made fun of.  Jesus is going to come back and people do need to be ready.  While we need to be good stewards of our resources, there are too many Christians who don't live like Jesus could come back at any minute.  While some of Camping's followers have gone too far, there is an aspect of this that is good for us to consider and to join the world in mocking a belief in the imminent return of Christ may not be the best long-term plan.  I think Jenkins had the right approach.  Here is the end of the article linked above.

Leave it to the veteran end-timers, who have been through all this before, to provide perspective. "I applaud the discussion," Jenkins said. "I think people should be thinking about this." Jenkins' writing partner, Tim LaHaye, has said on many occasions that events such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami are signaling that the end is near. The way Jenkins sees it, the end of the world could well be imminent, but "our definition of 'imminent' is clearly not the same as God's." "If he waits one more day in his mercy, it could be a thousand years in our time," he said. So what will Jenkins be doing on Saturday? "We're just going to carry on with the usual activities," he told me. "One of our granddaughters is going to have a ballgame."

I appreciate that there is no mockery in Jenkins and that he emphasizes that the discussion this has brought on is good.  As for those who have followed Camping, they need to realize that the event is real even if the date was not.  They need to realize that the Scripture should not be taken as magical and mystical, but instead plainly and straightforwardly.  Jesus said that only God knew the date of His return.  Camping has played with that verse, but just read it plainly.    Here are some other verses they should consider.

At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible. (Matthew 24:23-24 NIV)

The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. They listened to the message with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true. (Acts 17:11 GNB)

My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. (1 John 4:1 MSG)

While Jesus could come back today, I'm not expecting it based on Harold Camping's fuzzy math and poor Scripture interpretation.  I will continue to work on living each day, ready to meet my Savior when He appears.  He knows when He's coming and I need to be ready.

***Update:  BTW, I first blogged on this back in January.  That post is here: http://beanscorner.org/blogs/blog2.php?p=411&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1