5-23-11<\/p>\n
Well, the Rapture has come and gone, or at least Harold Camping\u2019s itinerary for it. The news media took late and casual notice of it -\u2013 significantly, not with any focus on peoples\u2019 last-minute confrontation with their own sinfulness, but an opportunity to paint Christians as kooks. Mr Camping is nothing if not sincere, and since there were no Kool-Aid packets in Family Radio International\u2019s shopping cart (that is, no financial scam; maybe just bad mathematics, addressing biblical numerology) life goes on. <\/p>\n
Or\u2026 has anyone considered whether Heaven held a rapture and nobody came? How many of us ARE worthy to meet the Lord in the air?<\/p>\n
The question sounds half-kidding, but is totally serious. I believe the reason that the Bible is so ambiguous about all the questions regarding the Second Coming of Jesus, the End of Time, the Rapture, the End of the Age, the Great Tribulation, the advent of the Millennial Reign of Christ\u2026 is to keep us on our spiritual toes. <\/p>\n
We should rejoice, as the angels would, for all the souls that would be \u201cscared straight\u201d by the possible end of the world, a week from tomorrow (or whenever). But for every one of those people I have a feeling there would be ten thousand others calculating a \u201cGet Out of Judgment, Free\u201d pass they can hold until five minutes to Rapture, if it is so knowable, and is well-advertised by spiritual guides like Brother Camping. I don\u2019t claim to know God\u2019s mind when He intends that such things are\u2026 unknowable. But I am sort of an expert on human nature, being a human and someone far too often displaying the less admirable traits of same. I am pretty sure that if the Rapture were on peoples\u2019 to-do list of a date certain, it would be a disincentive, not an encouragement, to get right with God immediately. Most people would eat, drink, and be merry until it got too close for comfort.<\/p>\n
I believe it is consistent with God\u2019s will to cite a Bible verse that Brother Camping evidently overlooked. People think that we cannot know \u201cwhen Jesus will return\u201d and the saints of the ages shall be separated from the sinners. But it is there in every version of the Bible, and provides both long-term advice for our behavior, and immediate warnings about our standing with Christ; that is, our salvation.<\/p>\n
Here it is, no billboards or radio marathons: I Thessalonians 5:2 — The day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night<\/em>. Another way God stated it: Matthew 24:44 — Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect<\/em>.<\/p>\n There we have it: You want to know when Jesus will return? Answer: When we least expect it.<\/p>\n +<\/p>\n Here is a song about that day \u2013 that moment, the twinkling of an eye, whenever it might be. BE READY!!! A humble Christian gathering in Zambia, singing an old American gospel song.<\/p>\n