ONE DAY TO GO! HAROLD CAMPING'S PREDICTION THAT THIS SATURDAY, MAY 21, WILL BE THE SECOND COMING!

24 hours.  The long-running TV drama “24″ mesmerized many followers as Jack got into one pickle after another.

If Harold Camping, owner of 55 Family Radio stations, is correct, THIS COMING SATURDAY will be the pickle to end all pickles!  Based on his mathematical calculations, Camping believes he has figured out when Noah’s flood took place, has added 7000 years (“a day with the Lord is as a thousand years”), and has come up with MAY 21, 2011, as the date for the 2nd Coming of the Lord Jesus.

I have mixed feelings about Camping’s prediction.

1.  He’s been wrong before.  His book 1994? came with a question — and deserved it, because his math didn’t work out too well back then.  On Sept. 6, 1994, dozens of Camping’s believers gathered inside Alameda’s Veterans Memorial Building to await the return of Christ, an event Camping had promised for two years. Followers dressed children in their Sunday best and held Bibles open-faced toward heaven.

2.  Jesus said clearly that no one knows the day or hour of His return (see Matthew 24).

3.  If Camping is WRONG, it will be a bit hard to identify oneself with Christianity come May 22nd, especially for Camping’s followers.

4.  If Camping is RIGHT, Jesus Christ will come to the earth to fetch His bride, the Church, and those who are not taken to be with Him in heaven are in a lot of trouble.

5.  Although I long for the Lord Jesus to return, and believers ought to pray “even so, come, Lord Jesus!”, I would really love to see my 2nd grandson born on or around August 28th.  I’d love to keep teaching theology at Columbia International University.  I’d love to keep writing books that make theology and doctrine understandable (as I often tell my students,”Theology is not

"Look out, Djokovic! Here I come!"

boring.  THEOLOGIANS are boring!”).  I’d love to continue to improve my backhand crosscourt shot.  Here is a picture of me in action. (I know.  I know.  I look a lot like Nadal).

One of CIU’s two radio stations, WRCM in Charlotte, just had me on this morning for a few minutes to talk about Camping’s prediction.  You may listen here to those two-and-a-half minutes:  WRCM INTERVIEW

Discussion Questions:  What would you miss out on if Jesus came back?  The items that come to your mind — does that mean those things are too important for you or me?  What in the world makes us think that heaven will be less than the joys of earth?

About these ads