Judgment Day! Has The End of the World Come? Not Yet.

It’s happened again.  Judgment Day was predicted and the End of the World was declared to be at hand.  Believers rallied together, posting sign boards, shouting on streets corners and what not.  They even got mainstream media attention.  We all heard about it.  THE END IS HERE!  Saturday, May 21st, 2011 is the day.  Repent!  Or be sorry.  But the day came and went like any other day, and here we are, business as usual.  Nothing has changed.

Sad isn’t it?  They were so sincere.  They really, really believed that it was going to happen.  But it didn’t.  Those of us who did not buy into Harold Camping’s prediction were amused.  We chuckled, had a bit of a laugh about it and wondered how it is that people could be so naïve, so gullible.  And we went about our business as usual, knowing he was wrong.  “Not going to happen,” we said to ourselves with confident certitude.

But there’s the rub.  Will it ever happen?  Will there ever be a Judgment Day, a so-called End of the World as we know it, brought about by God?

My concern with preachers, prophets, and pastors, the likes of Harold Camping, is this: their wrong misguided and false predictions only serve to make the general population all the more resistant to the very idea that there will ever be a Judgment Day and a Second Coming of Christ.  They sneer and laugh, and make jokes about it, chalking it up as one more piece of evidence that all Believers, all Christians, all followers of Jesus Christ who put their hope in the promise of a Second Coming are delusional, misguided ignorant and naïve fools.  This too is sad.

Biblical prophecy is clear on this point.  There will be a Judgment Day.  There will be an END TIME.  God declared it and Jesus confirmed it.  It will happen.  We just don’t know WHEN!  “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write to you.  For you well know that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2).  “Thief in the night”?  In other words, as if by stealth—unlooked for, unexpected—catching the unaware by surprise.

When Jesus Himself was asked by His disciples about the time of the restoration (the End Times), this was His answer: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has set by His own authority” (Acts 1:7).

Thus, we who chuckled with respect to Harold Camping’s prediction, yet consider ourselves believers, were laughing only at the idea that he presumed to know the exact date and time of Christ’s Return.  That was his mistake.  But we don’t chuckle at the core issue here, that there will be a Judgment Day and that God will be bringing an end to this world as we know it.

The Apostle Peter put it this way: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10-13).  So the promise is there.  And the event is predicted by one who actually walked, talked, sat, ate, and spoke with Jesus Himself, pre- as well as post-resurrection.  In short, Peter knew of what he spoke.

Peter also had this to say: “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9).

So, before we get too smug in our attitude regarding misguided teachers and their misdirected followers about exactly when the End Time will come, let us not lose sight of this core truth: The End Time is coming, sooner or later.  Meanwhile God is giving humanity time to repent and to be saved from His Righteous Judgment.  Jesus came to save, not to condemn us (John 3:17).  But when the end comes, all this life’s misery as we know it will finally be dealt with and be put to an end.  So, for some, the coming of Judgment Day, “The End,” will be Good News; but for others, it will be the most pitiful day of their lives.