When will this silly prediction stop?

Since I was young I have always heard about predictions upon predictions about the end of the world. I started being conscious of this prediction in 1977 then there was another one in 1999. The climax was the year 2000 when the whole world went agog in anticipation of what was to menace it. Was it the end of the world? Or the millennium bug that was to destroy all the computers and paralyze every digital device? I have no problem with these predictions and those who make them, however, I do have a problem with those who follow and believe these bogus and silly predictions. I feel bad for them because, unless someone is tired of this beautiful world, why should someone allow a man or woman to brainwash them to kill themselves for the sake of the end of the world? I really wonder why people should make these predictions. Is it because these prophets of doom are afraid to live that they want to die, or they want to kill themselves that they decided to take everyone with them?

Those who followed current trend of things these few days would have seen and heard that the world was to have ended on May 21, 2011. This was the prediction of Herald Camping, a Californian preacher radio talk show host. When Rev. Camping’s prediction did not come true, he, of course changed his prediction date to October 22, 2011. He was audacious enough to say that the 21^st date was an invisible judgment day. Oh yes, this was a judgment day for Rev. Camping. This was to remind him that he should not tread where angles are afraid to walk. How dare him to claim to know when the world will end when Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of God most high warns us against even imagining that we could know of the time and the date. Let us listen and learn from the master. In Matthew 24:23-27, 36 Christ says this: If anyone says to then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is! Do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told it to you beforehand. So if they say to you, ‘He is in the desert,’ do not go out there; if they say, ‘He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it…. “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”” Now, here is the big problem, why all the predictions? Is it that they never read portions in the bible like this or other words of Jesus quoted above? What is the meaning of the rapture envisaged and prophesied by Camping? Is it that there is no just person in the world for Christ to take up into heaven? Or could it be that God has changed his mind and decided to give us a second chance to get us really prepared for, according Rev. Camping October 22 when the real rapture will take place?

Really I don’t care when the world will end; that dose not bother me. What bothers me is how I am able to live my life and the impact that it has on others. Paul our brother tells us that “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live of die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:7). After all we told by the book Wisdom, “But the just man, though he die early, shall be at rest. For the age that is honorable comes not with the passing of time, nor can it be measured in terms of years. Rather, understanding in the hoary crown for men, and an unsullied life, the attainment of old age” (4:7-9). So what does it really matter when the world will end so long as I am living an upright life that has impact on the life of my brothers and sisters? So please may I have some peace and let us not disturb ourselves about the end of the world. One thing I do know is that the world will end when it will end. It dose not matter what I think about it or how much I want or do not want the world to end. That is in God’s domain and let us leave it right there where it belongs.

One more note on this issue: I kind of believe with Rev. Camping, the world ended for some people on May 21, 2011. Many people died on that day. For them, the world ended. The world has been ending for some people every day. I know this as well as Rev. Camping that one day soon, the world will end for him. Please let him not presume that it will end the same day for all of us. A word is enough for the wise, they say!