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

I guess it is ironic that this post will fall under the category of Living Life since it concerns death. I recently found this blog. The blogger recently died of cancer and his last post was made after his death. In it, he discusses the fact that when he died, he didn't go anywhere but just ceased to be. He references this cartoon.

Just a couple of notes on this point.  First, he speaks with great certainty that there is nothing to him but his physical presence.  This is a belief, not a provable fact.  Those that would say that there is no way to prove that there is a soul through scientific process are correct.  But just because you can't prove something scientifically does not mean that it isn't true.  So he has a faith that says that if you can't see it or test it, it doesn't exist.   Second, this cartoon and the blogger both equate human kind to the biological equivalent of a construction of legos.   Life is simply a biological construct of parts and processes and once the processes cease, that's it.  So what is there to give human life value if it is simply biological.  Perhaps it is the value that others assign you.  But then, what if you are not valued by others?  Do you then have no value?  That is what our society sometimes says.  If a pregnancy is unwanted, then the life that is growing there can be destroyed.  It has no value if it is unwanted.  But we as a society still draw a line.  If the baby is born and then you don't want it and destroy it, you are a murderer.  This is a tough question to answer if we are just biological legos.  What gives us value?  Is there inherent value in human life and if so, how is it derived?

As for me, my faith gives me a different framework.  According to the Bible, man was made by God, made in the image of God, and valued by God.  We are more than the sum of our parts and valuable regardless of whether we are valued by others.  There is worth in man and we remain after the legos are back in the box.  That's my faith and I can't prove it any better than the deceased blogger.  He now knows whether he or I was right, although really, if he is right, he doesn't know anything anymore.  So no matter whether he or I was right, he is lost.  That, to me, is sad.

Had a great time at the Farmington Area Homeschool Co-op family night.  It is so great to get all those families together to celebrate our kids growing together in faith and knowledge.  It is great to have a family of brothers and sisters from all different places in life to get together with and share.  I had a great time watching the kids and participating in the night and then getting to just spend time talking and sharing with different people throughout the night.  Just a great time.  Thought this video would go well with my thoughts of last night.

Lady Gaga has a new song out that has got some people all offended.  The name of the song is "Judas" and it includes these lines, "I want to love you,/but something’s pulling me away from you/Jesus is my virtue, and Judas is the demon I cling to….I’m just a holy fool,/ oh baby he’s so cruel,/ but I’m still in love with Judas, baby.”    Now, perhaps somethings wrong with me, but when I read those lyrics and heard of this song, I wasn't offended, I was amused.  Not in a warm, isn't that nice way, but in the "you've got to be kidding me" sort of way.   Now I do not listen to Lady Gaga and can hardly be described as a fan, but those lyrics just sound rather dumb.  Although the "holy fool" part may be a bit accurate.  :)

Why do some who call themselves Christians get so offended?  I'm not saying that we should not stand up for the holiness and righteousness of our God, but we also shouldn't be so surprised that those who have no clue, have no clue.  A much healthier response is pity and sorrow than indignation.  Lady Gaga arrived at a recent award show in an egg.  She wore a dress made out of raw meat at one point.  This lady loves to do things that provoke people.  Why should I be at all offended if she also has some pretty far out views on God.  I pity this woman and fear for her, but she really can't offend me.  Gaga's not the first artist who has mocked Christian ideas and beliefs either out of some spiritual darkness of their own, or just for the craven purpose of trying to stir controversy to drive sales and popularity.  We should pity and pray for their spiritual darkness and not play into their attempts at publicity by helping them create the outrage they want to market their music.  We can be smarter than that, at least I would hope we could.

So I have a thought/observation surrounding the events of Osama Bin Laden's death.

This relates to the response here in America as the news was recieved that he had died.  People began to gather near the White House, at Ground Zero in NY and other places to celebrate together.  This made me think of a future time when the two witnesses will proclaim God's message and then will finally be killed by the antichrist.  A similar scenario will play out with people coming together to celebrate an enemy killed.

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 11:8-10 NAS)

Perhaps the antichrist will kill the two witnesses the same way that Osama killed the people on 9/11 and Obama killed Osama.  Neither  did the actual killing but had people acting on their authority.  Who knows, but the one event reminded me of the future event which will no doubt also be covered on the world wide news when it happens.  Just interesting to me.  I don't feel like this event is any special sign of the times, I just felt like it might give a glimpse of the celebration that will follow the death of another "public enemy."