"And so it Ends" - The Prediction of May 21

You may have heard that you and I have less than 21 days to live on the earth as we know it.  According to former Civil Engineer and present-day Bible prognosticator, Harold Camping, hold on to your souls come Saturday, May 21.  http://www.kcci.com/video/27687484/detail.html  He's predicted the end of the world before (1994), but now he's certain.

And, so is his troupe.  Women are crying that their daughters will not be given the opportunity to have their own children and families.  Young and old alike are wearing t-shirts heralding the foreboding forecast.  200 million will be saved on that day.  The rest...well, not so well.  "It's in the Lord's hands," another testified.

The certainty comes from an alleged timeline ticking off 7,000 years since the Noahic Flood.  Thus, right on cue, on 5/21/2011, an earthquake will  inaugurate a 5 month process that will conclude with a climactic, wholescale burning.  "There is no reason in the world...no possibility that it will not happen" (Camping, Oakland, CA).

Years ago, when ministering in Kazakhstan, I listened to the testimonies of several young believers who had been  swept up in a similar movement predicting the end of the world in the early 1990's.  In Moscow at the time, they were sure the Lord was returning and the end was coming on New Year's Eve.  Huddled in a large Russian auditorium, worshipping into the late hours of the evening, when morning (and the new year) came, they were still there, and the end had been (apparently) postponed again.  "We finally realized it wasn't going to happen the way we were taught, and we simply left."

In all of this, there is a tragedy.  It is that the credibility of the gospel message re: Jesus the Christ (which is truthfully certain) is unhappily wedded to doomsday predictions which Jesus himself specifically forbade to happen.  "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." (Matthew 24:36).  Jesus did say that conditions on earth will be similar to those that were present in Noah's day.  But he insists no one can know "the day or the hour."

Perhaps what will actually end on May 21 is the credibility of Harold Camping himself, and whatever followings his unfortunate predictions have spawned.  Still, and sadly, such predictions have sprung up repeatedly in the past (e.g., the origins of the 7th Day Adventist movement), and will likely occur again.

Jesus followers long for the return of their Lord ("Come, Lord Jesus!"  Revelation 22:20-21) .  He will come again.  That is certain.  The "when" is a matter for the Father, and indeed, it is in the Lord's hands.  What is needed is grace to patiently wait and look, but not predict.