If you don’t know me, you have probably figured out that I consider myself a Christian. I am not a big fan of “religion”, but believe in the Bible as being literal.
“So you believe the world is only like 6,000 years old?!”
“You believe that God brought a global flood?! Then where did the water go if that is true?!”
“You really believe Jesus died and came back to life?! That has to be an elaborate hoax by his devoted followers to make Jesus bigger than he really was!”
“How can you believe in a literal Heaven and Hell, and that a loving God would send people he created to a suffering eternal Hell?!”
Simply: Yes. Yes. Yes. God doesn’t “send” people to Hell, but Hell is real.
My faith is personal, it is unwavering, and it is based on both the matters of the supernatural as well as scientific fact.
“Wait, Science? Ok. Now you go too far, Science has eliminated GOD!”
I would beg to differ, and I am willing to explain that it takes more faith to be an atheist these days than it does to believe in God. If you genuinely want to know about those questions above, my email is always available. jmprebish@gmail.com. Just be prepared for an answer that might take longer than just a quick paragraph.
But that is not what this post is about…
If you haven’t heard, the end of the world is this Saturday, May 21st. Specifically it is going to be around 6pm. Also keep in mind that God is apparently time zone sensitive and will wait for 6pm even if you are in a different time zone. God’s choice of destruction? An earthquake that will continue to follow 6pm around the globe for 24 hours. This is the very public opinion of Harold Camping. Google it, or just click on any news link these days.
Mr. Camping apparently got this date and time from his meticulous studies of the Bible. If I can figure correctly his logic is something like this:
Genesis 7: 4 - Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
2 Peter 3: 8 - But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
If you do some creative connection of the alleged dots, 7 days for god equals 7,000 years for us. And so through Bible lineages I imagine Mr. Camping has determined that creation or the fall of man was 7,000 years go. How he got 6pm, I have no clue.
Genesis 7 deals with the story of Noah and the flood. It is not bible prophecy intended to be decoded. 2 Peter 3 is talking about the timelessness of God. It isn’t a conversion table! Under this logic, It took Jesus 3,000 years to raise from the dead.
What offends me, is that Harold Camping is being referred to by the media as a “Christian”. This means that I, admittedly being a Christian, am in the same boat as Mr. Camping. Gentleman like Mr. Camping do more harm to the Christian faith than good. Skeptics are already scoffing at this prediction, and rightly so. After all, the same Mr. Camping already wrote a book and predicted the second coming back in 1994. Apparently, he had a math error.
The problem is that even non-believers know enough about the Bible to understand this is fantasy. If non-believers know that Bible talks about no one, not even Jesus knowing the time of Christ’s return, what does that say about Mr. Camping and his “meticulous studies”? It says they weren’t meticulous at all. It basically solidifies non-believers thoughts on why they don’t need Christianity because they see bold proclamations like this and see a complete lack of logic. Christianity then become a part of the “fantasy” world.
The non-believers may not know the location of the reference, but the important verses are below:
Matthew 24: 10-11 - At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
Matthew 24:36 - But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
See, the Bible is not an ancient book that requires unique knowledge to “decode”. I imagine even if you have never opened up a Bible, you understand what those versus above are saying. It is easy to discount the Christian Faith if you have never looked at it honestly to form an educated opinion about it. It is easy to take people like Harold Camping and attach “loony” and “cult” to all Christians. Christianity is very simple. It is not a life of strict rule following and eliminating all fun in life. It is a life of freedom. Another verse in the Bible is pretty clear about this simplicity as well:
Jeremiah 29:13 - You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
So my prediction is simple. The world will not end on May 21st 2011 @ 6pm. I know this, because of Matthew 24:36. I didn’t do any creative decoding or interpretations. I just looked at the Bible. I read it, and took it as being literal.
If you genuinely want to know, honestly seek the truth wherever it takes you. If you don’t know where to start, email me, jmprebish@gmail.com, and I can start you down that path. It isn’t my job to “sell you”, just give you information to allow you to draw your own conclusion. It is the genuine seeking part that is key.
If only Harold Camping would genuinely seek the The Truth.
Jon
Pure awesomeness! -megs
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