FIRST-PERSON: May 21 wouldn't be the first false prediction

Baptist Press ^ | May 17, 2011 | David Crosby

[Graybeard58]

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--I predict that Harold Camping, the elderly radio talk show host now predicting Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, and the end of the world October 21, 2011, will adjust his predictions to future dates after doing further calculations on May 22, 2011.

I believe my prediction will most certainly take place because "no one knows the day or the hour," according to Jesus. Since Camping is working from the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 and the account of Noah's great flood, I assume he can and will come up with calculations to support new dates for the world's demise.

William Miller, a sometimes Baptist preacher, predicted the end of the world no later than March 21, 1844. He adjusted his prediction after the fateful day passed without incident, lighting on numerous other dates in 1844.

Edgar C. Whisenant predicted that the rapture of the church would occur Sept. 13, 1988. As an American pastor, I received his free booklet, "88 Reasons," which I keep as a more recent example of misguided apocalyptic fervor. Whisenant was insightful enough to realize that his date had passed without incident, so he then predicted Sept. 15, 1988; then Oct. 3, 1988; and then again selected a day in 1989, 1990 and 1991. By then no one was listening.

So why are we listening to the presumptuous Camping? He thinks all churches were abandoned by God and conquered by Satan on May 21, 1988, his own un-churched and unaffiliated status apparently providing him protection.

This is Camping's second go-around for predicting the end of the world. His book "1994?" postulated the end of days in 1994 with a tad more humility. He thought at that time he could be wrong, but apparently all uncertainty has passed.

I first encountered Camping's date on a huge billboard in Accra, Ghana. Similar signs in downtown New Orleans encourage us to "save the date." Seminary students here are discussing the prediction, and various Christian ministries have gotten on board with Camping just as Trinity Broadcasting partnered with Whisenant in 1988.

Expectation of the return of Jesus Christ and the end of the age is an historic part of orthodox Christian theology. It should keep Christians future-oriented and eager to see God's unfolding plan. It gives hope beyond human strength and wisdom. And it provides confines for human history that exalt the role of God in the world and set all human effort in the context of God's sovereign rule.

Setting dates for the end of the world is a truly bad idea. While it may remind us of God's ultimate authority, it also disappoints and disillusions those who assume the prediction to be true. I have personally witnessed the flagging enthusiasm of those who thought they knew when the end would come.

The prophets generally profit from their prediction in various ways but often recover nicely despite the inevitable disappointment. The average person who is caught up in the excitement of the final day leaves the whole ordeal with a bad taste in his mouth.

Judgment Day is coming because justice is an eternal quality of our eternal God. May 21, 2011, is a great day to hope in God's sovereign rule and continue your faithful routines. If the end of the world should catch you in the classroom or at work instead of on the mountain, you will be found faithful. --30-- David Crosby is pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans. This column first appeared at SBCToday.com.

[Graybeard58]

Ping.

[Revolting cat!]

I’m packed and ready. Just in case.
(Better change your underwear on the 21st, even if it’s not in your schedule.)

[exnavy]

No one but God the Father knows for sure.

[Bitsy]

Man, I have a vollunteer luncheon planned for Saturday. I hope it comes in the afternoon when I am finished eating and at home. I would hate to be taken away in the middle of my fried catfish dinner.s/ All kidding aside, Jesus said even HE didn’t know the day or the hour - only the Father. The reason no one will know is that God doesn’t want people waiting to the last minute to accept Christ and live a dedicated Christian life.

[Salvation]

I am currently reading this book. A much different story than Camping's

BTW, this book was written in 1881; you wouldn't believe how accurate it is!

 

Reading this book was one of the greatest graces of my life!"
— St. Thérèse of Lisieux

In the late nineteenth century, Father Charles Arminjon, a priest from the mountains of southeastern France, assembled his flock in the town cathedral to preach a series of conferences to help them turn their thoughts away from this life’s mean material affairs—and toward the next life’s glorious spiritual reward. His wise and uncompromising words deepened in them the spirit of recollection that all Christians must have: the abiding conviction that heavenly aims, not temporal enthusiasms, must guide everything we think, say, and do.

When Father Arminjon’s conferences were later published in a book, many others were able to reap the same benefit—including fourteen-year-old Thérèse Martin, then on the cusp of entering the Carmelite convent in Lisieux. Reading it, she says, “plunged my soul into a happiness not of this earth.” Young Thérèse, filled with a sense of “what God reserves for those who love him, and seeing that the eternal rewards had no proportion to the light sacrifices of life,” copied out numerous passages and memorized them, “repeating unceasingly the words of love burning in my heart.”

Now the very book that so inspired the Little Flower is available for the first time in English.

Let the pages of The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life fill you with the same burning words of love, with the same ardent desire to know God above all created things, that St. Thérèse gained from them. Let them also enrich your understanding of certain teachings of the Faith that can often seem so mysterious, even frightening:

• The signs that will precede the world’s end
• The coming of the Antichrist, and how to recognize him
• The Judgment and where it may send us: heaven, hell, and purgatory
• Biblical end-times prophecy: how to read it and not be deceived

  Jesus commands us to be ever-watchful for his return, and ever-mindful that we have no lasting city on earth. The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life is an invaluable aid to inculcating in your spirit that heavenly orientation, without which true human happiness cannot be found—in this world or the next.

[Dogbert41]

There are simply too many prophecies in Scripture that have not occured yet that have time lines that take years to complete. For instance, Ezekiel 38-39. Months and months to clean up, and 7 years to burn the weapons. That one single prophecy alone out of hundreds means what it means.

[Skepolitic]

I predict it won’t be the last, either.

[Revolting cat!]

I thought Jehovah’s witnesses cornered the market on predictions?!
They have the expertise, experience, and the credibility, me thinks.

[Erasmus]

I've transferred all my funds to the First National Bank of Him. Imus used to plug it on his radio show.

I just hope I can remember my damn PIN.

[Revolting cat!]

There too much cynicism on these pages, even if that is a sign of the times.

When it comes to such matters as the end of the world, who do you trust:

The politicians, who promise to solve all our problems?
The celebrities, who seem to know everything?
The Feds itching to regulate every aspect of our lives?
The scientists unable to find a cure for the common cold?
Your neighbour who forgets to return the tools he's borrowed?
The lying media? HA!

I trust our spiritual leaders like Dr Camping.

Goodbye Cruel World (on May 21, 2011.)

[353FMG]

“....now predicting Judgment Day on May 21, 2011....”

.
Judgment day is every day.

[Revolting cat!]

Could be right.

[353FMG]

Be careful with that statement.

If one believes in the Trinity and takes that saying literally, one has to believe that the Father keeps secrets from the Son and Holy Spirit which means that the Three Persons are not equal in majesty.

[Daffynition]

A stranger offered a man a magical ten-line poem, and the man pointed out
that it had only nine lines, and the stranger pointed out that the man was the final line.

[WKB]

or the last

[utherdoul]

can I have your stuff? :-)

[Graybeard58]

If one believes in the Trinity and takes that saying literally, one has to believe that the Father keeps secrets from the Son and Holy Spirit which means that the Three Persons are not equal in majesty.

When Jesus says things like "only the Father knows", He's speaking from the man part of him, not Jesus as God, His choice not to know. The same when the two apostles asked to be seated on either side of Him in heaven, He told them that it wasn't His to give but the Father's, He was speaking as the man He was, not as God that He was.

He suffered and died as a man would suffer, not as God would, again, His choice.

Just my interpretation, yours most likely will vary and neither interpretation will affect your salvation or mine - still my "opinion".

[Graybeard58]

can I have your stuff? :-)

In the event of rapture, you're welcome to mine, if you're still here. None of my family will need it as they won't be here either.

I just finished putting out my veggie garden, you get that too!

[Graybeard58]

Could be right

We will know on/if 5/22.