Be Prepared

If you believe Harold Camping, Judgment Day is near. May 21, 2011, to be exact. Or so Harold Camping predicts. Camping is a Christian radio host who claims the Bible has proof "beyond the shadow of a doubt" that May 21 (this Saturday) will be the date of the rapture and the day of judgment.

Camping spent $140,000 to put up billboards across the country, warning people to "Save The Date. Jesus will return on May 21." I saw one of these billboards when I was in Amarillo a few weeks ago.

He also has a Web site, Wecanknow.com, where he explains how he used Scriptures to come up with that date. Besides predicting the rapture will occur on May 21, he says the end of the world as we know it will take place five months later on Oct. 21, 2011.

That right there tells me that Camping's predictions are wrong. From the book of Revelation, we know the earth will remain until after Christ's 1,000-year reign on the earth. So the end of the world can't happen five months after the rapture. After the 1,000 years, and the White Throne Judgment, the present earth will be destroyed to rid it of all traces of sin. Then, there will be a new earth and a new heaven.

Camping previously claimed that the world would end in September 1994. It didn't happen then, and the world won't end in October either. But thanks for the warning, Mr. Camping. People do need to wake up to the fact that we ARE living in the end times. Jesus really is coming back, and I believe His return will be soon.

Other people have tried to predict the date of the rapture. Remember that book "88 Reasons Jesus Is Coming in 1988"? Or was it 87 reasons in '87? Any way, a lot of people believed He was coming back then.

Even though others had unsuccessfully predicted the rapture before 1988, that was the first time I had heard a date set, and it scared me. Even though I was a Christian, it made me look at myself and ask 'Am I really saved?' I remember waking up in the middle of the night afraid that I'd been left behind.

That was a real wake-up call for me. Ever since then, I've known that Jesus could come at any minute, and I've tried to live my life like He is comimg today. Maybe Camping's prediction will wake others up now. People need to be ready, because ready or not, Jesus is coming one day.

Will that day be this Saturday? He could come then, but He could just as easily come the day before, a week after or any time in between. No one knows the exact date. No one. So we have to live ready for Him to come at any time.

We can read about the signs of the end times in Revelation. Or we can just watch the nightly news on TV. When we hear them talking about all the nations turning against Israel, as some have done this week, we can know that something is about to happen. And the rapture IS the next big event on God's calendar.

I write about this a lot, but I never set dates. I just know He is coming soon, and I want everyone to be prepared. That is the most important thing in all of life: Be prepared!