. . . this time on Saturday, September 23rd - and I'm betting it'll turn out to be just as false as all the previous ones.
Seriously, why do people listen to this nonsense? The latest claim is from someone calling himself a "Christian numerologist", who's identified a series of recent events as lining up with Biblical prophecy. He's also rehashing the old, tired nonsense about a non-existent Planet Nibiru (which, if it were about to collide with Earth as he claims, would long since have been visible to the naked eye, never mind telescopes).
To me, the most telling give-away about all this nonsense is the source's claim to be a Christian. If he is, his faith is no more than skin deep - because he's ignoring one of the fundamental tenets of Christian revelation (which, as a retired pastor, I take seriously, even if some of my readers may differ). You'll find it in Matthew 24:36.
"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."
That says it all. Jesus admits that not even he, the Son of God, knows the day or the hour that the end of the world will come. Therefore, if anyone else claims that they're a Christian, and they've worked it out, and that they know more than Jesus does . . . they're saying they know more than the Son of God. I call BS, right there. If they claim that, they are demonstrably not Christian at all, no matter what they say!
Don't bother with anyone prophesying the end times, the Second Coming, or whatever. We don't know when it's due, and we won't know until it happens. Down the ages, countless people have thought they recognized the "signs of the times", and believed that the end was nigh . . . and they've all been wrong. I see no reason to think we know any more than they did.
For Christians, the Biblical message is that we all live, every day, in our own end times. None of us know the day or the hour of our deaths. Yesterday, Miss D. and I were driving when someone decided to change lanes - and almost hit our car, because we were in her blind spot. We could have died then and there, but for some rapid evasive action by Miss D. There's no guarantee that she (or I) will always be able to react so quickly, or have room in which to do so.
Our own "end times" can come without warning - so we'd better be ready for them, and live our lives in such a way that our actions, our entire way of life, provides evidence of our faith. That way, when the end does come for each of us, we'll be prepared to give an account of our lives before the righteous Judge of us all. As Marcus Aurelius famously said, "Do every act of your life as if it were your last." Words to live by . . . and to die by, when the time comes.
Peter
18 comments:
Because knowing is much easier than not knowing, even if it's wrong.
Which could be the justification for all religion, if you think about it.
REALLY? If I knew, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the world was going to end on Sunday, exactly WHAT would restrain my anger today or tomorrow? I've got all day Saturday to repent and seek forgiveness, after all. So why not let the beast inside free for a couple of days? There are a ton of people trying to destroy my nation and my rights, why not exact my revenge? Or how about that idiot that rammed my pickup and forced me to have spinal surgery because he was having a panic attack? What's to stop me from making the next two days of his life a living hell like he made 9 months of mine?
Surety of the future absolves us of all responsibility for our actions. God knew that freewill was a two-edged sword when he handed it to us. He also knew that we game his offer of pardon if we knew how much time we had left. Instead, he gave us uncertainty along with the freewill to help us temper and control our baser selves.
Back in the day when it was popular for a few unwashed individuals to walk the streets with signs warning that "the world ends tomorrow," I always wanted to make a sign that said "the world ended yesterday, but nobody noticed."
Bruce,
I like your point.
Personally, I'm still amazed no one seems to have noticed we really seem to have a very long papacy, a very short one and a black pope. Apparently quite similar to some prophecy or other.
Take care.
Ferran
I'll stick with the scripture, thank you very much...
Well, I was pretty sure we were almost there when David Lee Roth left Van Halen, but I learned my lesson.
My wife is a 7th Day Adventist. They are OBSESSED with predicting the end times; like the 'free beer tomorrow' sign at the bar, it all starts anew every sunrise. They pour over Revelations like a 70's kid with a Sears Catalog showing the ladies' undergarments section.
I do enjoy trolling her, though. I sometimes refuse to make plans for upcoming events, claiming that I have to mend the window screens in case we get locust plagues and The Rapture over the weekend.
Didn't Bishop Ussher calculate back in the 1800s that the Creation occurred st 9 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2004 B?
"Do every act of your life as if it were your last."
Right, then I'm definitely not making an appointment to get my teeth cleaned next week.
I recall back in the early 1990s there was supposed to be the Second Coming. A friend of mine hoped and prayed that it indeed was the one, because she didn't want to have to make some major decisions then looming in her path. I sympathized, but that conversation pretty much terminated my confidence in, or concerns about, predictions of the End of the World, secular or religious.
LittleRed1
I don't know any of these end-of-the-world loonies personally.
But I'd love to know how many of them are, say, spending all their money now on a big party before the end. I wonder how many would take me up on a contract where I'll give them a big send-off now in exchange for signing over all their property and bank accounts to me, effective Sunday and to be held in escrow until then?
BTW - isn't the appropriate music for this "It's the end of the World as we know it (and I feel fine)?"
I'm guessing Jesus has been let in on the secret by now. A fair amount happened since He said He didn't know.
I doubt anyone else I know or could know has similar information.
"For Christians, the Biblical message is that we all live, every day, in our own end times."
As a Christian, I believe that fully. If you really, really want to know it as an intense, personal feeling, buy a motorcycle (or five).
--Tennessee Budd
The level of biblical ignorance of Christians today is terribly depressing. It explains the terminal rot that is present in so many mainline denominations today. It's also shows in how people are abandoning "churchianity" in droves. All the modernity, inclusiveness, Starbucks in the lobby, social outreach, laser light shows and jumbotrons behind the pulpit are just masking the fact that those in the pews (and the pulpit) don't know what they believe, why they believe it, where that belief comes from and the truth that it is grounded in. They sit in the pews every Sunday with a latte on their lap twiddling on their smartphones lacking even the most rudimentary biblical discernment leaving them utterly incapable of recognizing the poison coming from the pulpit. Because flashing lights and feelz.
Most 'Christians' go to church to be entertained like going to a Cher/Willie Nelson concert. They are not there to worship or be educated. It's not that the average minister doesn't know, it's his congregation doesn't want to know. This is where the Gnostic idea of the masses and the smaller group with knowledge and decremented comes to play.
I tried to live each day as if it was my last but constantly having to change the funeral arrangements got annoying.
Don't know about the end of the world, but there seems to be no shortage of demand for the end of California. Parts of it, anyhow.
Every Hollywood film showing L.A. sliding into the Pacific, or the Golden Gate bridge smashed by a tsunami, is an automatic box office success.
Life-saving advice: never hang in someone's blind spot. And if you're on a highway that makes that impossible, due to traffic load, find another route.
Likewise, don't let anyone hang in yours, either.
Did I miss it? Dang!! Maybe I'll catch the next one.
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