Should I prepare my Sunday School lesson for May 22nd?

"This web site serves as an introduction and portal to four faithful ministries which are teaching that WE CAN KNOW from the Bible alone that the date of the rapture of believers will take place on May 21, 2011 and that God will destroy this world on October 21, 2011. Please take your time and browse through the teachings of Harold Camping, President of Family Radio. Visit EBible Fellowship, Bible Ministries International, and The-Latter-Rain to read and listen to many faithful teachers give scriptural insight on the doctrines that God is teaching His people. Learn about the Biblical Timeline of History, the correct method of Bible interpretation, the End of the Church Age and God's command to believers that they must depart out of the churches. Study the proofs that God has so graciously given in His Word showing us that these dates are 100% accurate and beyond dispute. Above all, please READ THE BIBLE and prayerfully ask God to open your spiritual eyes to these truths. May it please Him to have mercy on each of our souls."

 The words above are not mine, but came from a web site which is supporting the view of Harold Camping that Jesus will come back and the rapture will take place on May 21st of this year.  Camping has spent a lot of time and money to let us all know that Judgment Day is coming.  He has even set the date for the rapture, which is a very impressive feat.  He has outdone Jesus because Jesus said He didn't know when it would happen.  Of course, he also "calculated" that the rapture would happen in mid-September of 1994.  Oops - That first prediction didn't work out very well, did it?  My guess is, this second prediction will fare about the same.  I'm sure there are already some Camping folks working on a press release for May 22nd that will talk about how he misread the data or, once again, miscalculated the date, but at least they got people to think about eternity, yadda, yadda, yadda.  That's one press release I can't wait to read.

I had another blog ready to post, but felt the need to address this topic when I had conversations with two separate men at the gym this week asking me what I thought about the coming judgment.  Here are some Goslen Facts about May 21st:

Fact #1 - Only the immature follower of Christ will get sucked into this talk.

Those who are mature in their faith know that no one knows the day or time of Jesus' return.  They know He will come like a thief in the night.  They also know that He promised there would be signs which could be seen in preparation for His return, but these signs would not point to a specific date.  They also have seen other false prophets, like Hal Lindsey, claim a specific date of Christ's return, only to see that day come and go.  Those who care nothing about Christ just laugh at such foolishness.  They find it humorous when someone thinks he knows more than God and are excited about seeing that person proved wrong.  This adds fuel to their fire to not take Jesus seriously and becomes another reason for them to mock Jesus and His Church.  The ones who get sucked in are the ones who know just enough about the Bible to be dangerous.  They walk by touch, taste and smell rather than by faith.  They have a Bible, but wait for others to interpret it for them.  They rarely make time each day to spend in prayer and study of Scripture so they are easily duped.  They attend church, but are not involved in church.  Their faith is at about the same level as it was five years ago.  They are still wrestling with the same issues they have always wrestled with over the years.  These are the ones who can be sucked into such discussions and maybe even have fear over the future judgment of God.

Fact #2 - God enjoys giving us wisdom, but He'll never give the date of Jesus return to anyone

We must have a solid Biblical understanding of the "when" of Jesus' return.  The Bible tells us specifically that no one knows the day or the hour.  For man to presume a specific date is to allow man's foolishness to supercede God's wisdom in our lives.  Jesus gives us signs about the end times in Matthew 24, but this is simply to prepare us for His return.  It is a reminder that as the devoted followers of Jesus, we should always be about His business.  Don't let the owner of the house come home and find his servants goofing off.  In James 1:5, God promises to give us wisdom in any situation, however that wisdom does not include the date of Jesus' return.  If He gave us that date, it would be abused because of our sinful nature.  There would be those who are slackers until the day before, then try to get everything ready for His return.  There would be others who would like out every destructive passion until the day before and then try to get right with God.  There would be others who would misuse that date to make themselves look wiser and gain for themselves.  God, in His infinite wisdom, will never reveal this date to any person so don't waste time reading the different voices who advertise the answer.  So this bold claim of 100% accuracy claimed in the intro of my blog is not just audacious, but flat our, wrong.

Fact #3 - If Jesus does come back on May 21st, I'm covered

In 1971, I got my ticket for eternal life by receiving Jesus as my personal savior.  From that day forward, I have been covered with my rapture flight ticket.  Now, have I lived the way Christ wanted me to live every moment of ever day since then?  Not a chance.  I have needed His grace more since I came to Christ than before I came to Christ.  But that grace is the reason I have confidence in what will happen to me at the return of Jesus.  So I don't spend a whole lot of energy trying to figure out when Jesus will return.  It simply shouldn't affect how I am living because I should be living full on for Jesus every day.   So I'm not really worried nor investing much energy into this latest prediction and all the hoopla given to this prediction.

Fact #4 - God is God

God alone determines the time of Jesus' return.  Jesus' return can happen at any moment since Jesus ascended.  It could even happen when I type the period to this sentence. (Pause)  It didn't, but it could have.  Ever since Jesus ascended forty days after His resurrection, the Church has been awaiting His return.  The Apostles thought it would happen very soon after His ascension.  One of the problems of the early church was those Christians who didn't want to work or serve because they thought Jesus was coming back within a week, month or year.  So to think that Jesus cannot come back until THIS specific event happens is limiting an unlimited God and making His less than Sovereign.

Fact #5 - I would not want to be Harold Camping on May 22nd

If his prediction is wrong, he is a false prophet.  The Old Testament tells us to stone false prophets because they said they spoke on God's behalf but reality showed that they didn't.  I guess if we had taken that Old Testament admonition serious in 1994 Harold Camping would not have been around to make his latest prediction.  Why would anyone listen to him now when he was so wrong earlier?  If Jesus doesn't return on May 21st, what will Harold Camping and those following/supporting this prediction say?  If May 22nd comes around with no rapture, only a fool would listen to this man and anyone connected to this prediction.  Unfortunately, Fact #1 will still hold true on May 22nd because there are too many followers of Christ who are "spiritual weaklings" (A term I attribute to my wonderful Mom).  Apart from the way he will bring shame upon the church, Harold Camping will reap what he has sown by giving a false prediction.  I don't mean others will pick up rocks to stone him, but there will be spiritual consequences to this.  He will also be held accountable for how he has spent such huge amounts of money for Billboards, web advertising, TV ads, etc.  Money which could have been used to help the widows and orphans, which James says is the true expression of religion.

So by now you have figured out the answer to my question.  Yes, I have prepared my sermon and Sunday School lesson for May 22nd.  I have done that because these facts will never change, no matter how many predictions are made about the return of Jesus, the rapture or the end of the world.  So if  Jesus doesn't return and you are still around on May 22nd, we invite you to come to Hillcrest Baptist Church at 3400 Hillcrest Road, Richmond, California at 9:45 AM to study God's Word and worship the Lord together.  I'm fairly certain all of our Sunday School teachers will have prepared their lessons for that day.