If the prophet is right, this is the final week of life as we have known it for 2000 years, as the day we have all been warned about finally becomes reality. Harold Camping, the 89-year old founder of Family Radio has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, purchased thousands of billboards and produced daily radio and TV announcements, warning the world that the Day of God’s Judgment will come about 9:00 pm, Pacific Time, Saturday, May 21, 2011. According to Camping, there will be a major earthquake somewhere in the world, and a small number of Christians will ascend to heaven on that day – which we refer to as the “rapture”, and on October 21, 2011, the universe will be destroyed.

Last year, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey regarding people’s attitude toward the second coming of Jesus Christ. Only 41 percent of Americans believe Jesus will return by the year 2050. But here is the problem: by the same truth that Harold Camping CANNOT know when the judgment of God WILL come, the rest of us CANNOT know when the judgment of God will NOT come! Jesus made that clear when He said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7) In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

In Hebrews 9:28, the Bible affirms that Jesus Christ will come again – “to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him!” While I certainly cannot agree with Camping in his “date-setting”, neither can I agree with the 60% of Americans, including a lot of people who claim membership in the evangelical church, that the Lord cannot or will not come back in our lifetime, in this decade, this year, this month, this week, today, or before I finish this article. Catastrophic events that used to occur periodically in only a few places around the world are now occurring daily, and in “diverse” or various places. Not only are we seeing weather like we have never seen before, at least in recorded history, but we are also witnessing world-wide events that could not have happened before; the Jews back in Israel for the first time in 2,000 years, a 200-million man army in China, the structure of the New World Order, just to name a few. And Daniel said one of the signs of the end times would be that, “many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase!” (Daniel 12:4). At the current rate, the amount of human knowledge doubles every four years, and if finances are not an obstacle, one can travel to any place in the world within a few hours and even to the moon within a few days. Truly, even the skeptics will have to admit, taking every facet of our lives into account, we have “never seen anything like this before!”
It is interesting that, in 2 Timothy 4:8, the Apostle Paul said the Lord had reserved “the crown of righteousness” for those who “longed for His appearing!” (2 Timothy 4:8) To “long” for something means to look forward to it with great anticipation and expectation – it means you are not only waiting for it to happen, as many believers say they are today, but you are actually ready for it to happen, and prepared for it to happen today! Jesus said He would bless those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching!” (Luke 12:37-38) As those who have been “called out” and redeemed, we are to live our lives in the daily anticipation of being “called up” to meet our Savior and Lord in the air. And when He calls, we want to be found FAITHFUL, prepared, ready, obedient, surrendered, submitted and completely up-to-date on our relationships with everyone.

If Camping is wrong, not only will he and his followers have made a terrible mistake in proclaiming their calculations as if they were biblical truth, but they may have “maligned the truth” to the point that even many of those who lived in the anticipation of being raptured, will regret being “taken in” by the false prophet, return to their lethargic complacency and write off every other voice of prophecy, even those inerrant voices of Holy Scripture that do speak of our Lord’s return. In other words, their dishonest proclamation of the “error”, in order to sell books and draw attention to themselves, or even if their motive is pure, will have a negative effect on those whose only goal is to proclaim the gospel “truth”, in order to validate the Word of God, and to draw people to see Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Dr. H. L. Wilmington, Founder and Dean of the Wilmington School of the Bible, and the Liberty Home Bible Institute, Liberty University compiled a list of past false prophecies:

• 2800 800 B.C.: The oldest surviving prediction of the world's imminent demise was found inscribed upon an Assyrian clay tablet which stated, “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common.” Wherever more than two people over 30 are gathered together, expect to hear remarkably similar sentiments.
• Second Century A.D.: The Montanists, founded around A.D. 155 by a man called Montanus, were perhaps the first recognizable Christian end-of-the-world cult. They believed that Christ's triumphant return was imminent and established a base in Anatolia (699 A.D), central Turkey, where they anxiously waited for doomsday.
• 1284: Pope Innocent III predicted Christ's second coming would occur in this year. He based his prediction on the date of the inception of the Muslim faith, and then added 666 years to that.
• February 1, 1524: Panicked by predictions made by a group of London astrologers, some 20,000 people abandoned their homes and fled to high ground in anticipation of a second great flood that was predicted to start from the Thames.
• 1556: Martin Luther felt this might be the year.
• 1715: Isaac Newton thought Christ would return.
• 1792: Shakers predicted the end of the world.
• 1914: Jehovah's Witnesses have set several dates for the prophetic end-1914, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994.
• 1844: Baptist preacher William Miller predicted Jesus would return to upstate New York on October 22, 1844. This became known in American history as the “Great Disappointment.”
• 1988: There was even a major book titled 88 Reasons Why Christ Will Return in 1988, by Edgar Whisenant. The following year he published 89 Reasons Why Christ Will Return in 1989, claiming he was slightly off on his calculations. Make that twice.
• And there have been others of lesser notoriety throughout the generations!

Here are the three things you need to know about the date of the rapture of the church and our Lord’s return!

• It is NOT for us to know – in fact we cannot know! (Acts 1, Matthew 24)
• God the Father DOES know – the date is FIXED in His-story! (Acts 1:7)
• His children will be eagerly waiting for Him to come and take them home! (Hebrews 9:28, 2 Timothy 4:8)

Wayne J. Edwards, Mature Ministries, Inc., www.matureministries.com May 17, 2011