Rapture tomorrow??

If the prediction of 89-year-old Mr Harold Camping is correct, this may well be the final post that I place on this (or any other!) blog.  Mr Camping has predicted, and has been doing so for a couple of months, that the apocalypse will take place at 1800 hours on Saturday May 21st, 2011.  He has not, as far as I know, identified the specific time-zone that is involved - meaning that, if it is 1800 hours Pacific Standard Time, then I have some eight additional hours with which to play (and to get a final, final post out!).

It is, of course, perfectly possible that the Rapture of the saints of God (all who, having recognised and confessed their sinful nature, and their sins, have placed their trust, personally, in the Lord Jesus Christ, for full salvation) will take place at 1800 hrs PST on May 21st, 2011.  It is equally possible that it will not.  Mr Camping, like so many before him (and he already has one false prediction to his 'credit'), appears to have missed out the clear statement of the Lord Jesus, as recorded in Matt.24:36 and Mark 13:32.  No interpretation is necessary.  The statement is as clear as crystal.  Referring to that tumultuous event, the Lord says: "...  no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows." (Matt.24:36; NLT).  One wonders which part of "... no one knows ..." Mr Camping has not yet understood.  His claim that those words do not preclude knowing the month does not hold any theological, or hermeneutical, water.  And, of course, this time, he has given 'an hour'!

Of course, such brash announcements are also doing a disservice to the Lord, causing the unbelievers great merriment.  One such has already posted on a newspaper forum that he will be interested in the 'back-peddling' that Mr Camping will have to do when his second prediction is shown to have been as false as his first.  Mr Camping's problem, there, is that he has also declared that his earlier failure was due to his not having factored in all of the relevant information to his calculations, but that this time "There's no possibility - none, none, none - that it will not happen." (The Philadelphia Enquirer, 17-01-11).  

Although placing no confidence in either Mr Camping or his predictions, it is good to be reminded that there will be a rapture, and a judgement.  However, rather than spend precious time trying to discover the undiscoverable, we are better to ensure that we are prepared for that event - whenever it may occur.  We do this by a deliberate and conscious acceptance that we are, by nature, sinners; that we are unable, ourselves, to do anything about our sinful state; that Almighty God, in His great mercy, has provided an escape from the penalty and power of sin through the sacrifice of Himself, in the Persona of the Son (Jesus) on the cross at Calvary; and by accepting that salvation, by handing over control of our lives to Him.

If we've done that, then we enter eternal life and are assured that, at the end of our time on this earth (which may, or may not, be coincidental with the Rapture) we will slip through that fine curtain that separates time from eternity, and dwell in the nearer presence of the Lord for ever.