The End is Near...AGAIN.

At the risk of being in the proverbial "hot seat" of controversy, I have to address this whole prediction of the exact date of the rapture, May 21, 2011. If you haven't heard, but I'm sure you have, 1000's of birds dropped out of the sky dead on New Year's Eve in Arkansas and shortly after several hundred dropped out of the sky dead in Louisiana. There were also thousands of fish found dead in an Arkansas river and millions in the Chesapeake Bay near Maryland. What does this all mean? One would speculate several things, but one group has been inspired to pinpoint the exact date of the Rapture. If you are not familiar with the Rapture, it is the belief that all souls who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour will be taken from the earth to Heaven. This event will mark the beginning of the end of the World. This post is not to dispute the existence or non-existence of the Rapture. Nor, am I challenging the beliefs of Christians about the end times. It is no secret that I am a Christian. What I do take issue with, however, is inciting panic in people because you think you can foretell the exact date of the beginning of the end. There is a long history of people predicting the end of the world. Many crowded street scenes in movies often have a character dressed in ragged "Biblical" type robes wearing a sign or proclaiming, "The End is Near!" People will argue that Christ is coming because of the awful state the world is in. Really?? To quote Billy Joel, "we didn't start the fire." I will not dispute the fact that there is a great deal of sadness and evil in the world, but what about the mass annihilation of the Jews in World War II, the persecution and systematic execution of the early Christians, Herod's failed plan to eliminate Jesus by killing baby boys, the Viet Nam War, the Crusades, Caligula, Idi Amin... should I go on? Evil has existed since the beginning of time. We cannot use evil as the factor that the "End is Near." The Bible clearly says in Matthew 24: 36-44, 36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[a] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." I have read this passage many times, and have thought about it. I can see it two ways: 1. no one knows how long they have on earth, and so we live every day ready or 2. No one knows when Christ will come again, so for anyone to have the audacity to release a date for the end of the world is a true sign of arrogance. To use that proclamation as a means to get people to convert or come to Christianity is unforgivable. This poses the question, If someone converts out of fear, is their conversion sincere? Isn't that what the Crusades were about and the Salem witch trials? In Arthur Miller's The Crucible the characters who are accused of aligning with the Devil say anything to save their necks from the hangman's noose. The entire town is consumed in mass hysteria, and ironically, the truly faithful are the ones who hang for refusing to commit the sin of lying. I believe that God wants us to come to him out of love, not fear, for fear is fleeting, but true love lasts forever.