Apocalypse 2011... - After the Altar Call
Hello World,
I’ll admit it…I’m not ready for Jesus to come back yet…I mean I’m a Christian and everything, but in spite of all of its ills, I’m still enjoying my life for the most part on regular ole planet Earth…I’m pretty much the same person I was in the third grade. My Sunday School teacher at the time asked me if I was ready to become a Christian, I told her I would, but I wasn’t done being bad yet. Yeah, I was a cheeky child…
Fast forward to 2011. I still feel like there are some things I want to accomplish and experience before it’s a global wrap…I would like to be an established author who has traveled the world in my literary pursuits. I would like to have a fabulous wedding and an even more fabulous marriage. I want to travel to South Africa and meet Nelson Mandela and see where Zora Neale Hurston was reportedly buried in Florida. I want to save six months of living expenses and make some really good investments. I want to meet Oprah and go out with Common (Since Tupac is dead, Common comes in second.). You get the idea. I got some things I want to do…
But according to Family Stations Inc., unless I somehow get this week off from work, I won’t be able to accomplish any of this. (I figure in a week’s time, I can at least get to Florida to see Zora’s grave and tweet Common about my dream.) This group of Christians are predicting that Jesus will return Saturday, May 21. Below is an excerpt from an article in the AJC yesterday.
Tom Evans, media representative for Family Stations Inc., of which Camping is president and general manager, said, “All the signs that Jesus warned of in the Bible that would precede his return have taken place, and are evident in our world. For example, the re-establishment of the nation of Israel; the complete decay of the church; the dismal state of our world; and the moral breakdown of all of society.”
The belief holds that not only will the Rapture occur next Saturday, but the end of the world will occur on Oct. 21.
Bishop Chandler Jones, however, won’t be holding his breath. Instead, the rector at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Dunwoody will be performing a wedding May 21 “that will go on exactly as planned.”
“I think it’s very presumptuous to try to predict the time and hour of Jesus’ return because our Lord says in the Gospel that even the Son does not know the hour of his return,” he said.
Jones said he thinks some people may buy into that theory, though, because of the recent number of natural disasters around the world, including earthquakes, tsunamis and floods, and the “anxiety of our times,” including the economy, politics and society.
The Rev. Lynn Eynon, pastor of Woodstock Christian Church, plans to talk about the prediction during his sermon Sunday. Not that he thinks it will happen, however.
“I think the whole concept is foolishness,” said Eynon. “What they’re doing is contrary to Scripture. The Bible says that no man knows the day or hour of his coming. Those dates have come and gone over the years in church history. It’s going to happen eventually, but we’re not going to know the date. It makes Christianity look silly.”
According to an article on CNN’s website, last October, many people who are supporters of Family Stations Inc. quit their jobs to join the station’s “Project Caravan.” This group has been traveling the country for several months to warn people that the end is near. Below is an excerpt from the CNN article.
They walked away from work, families and communities in places as far-flung as California, Kansas, Utah and New Jersey. Among them are an electrician, a TV satellite dish installer, a former chef, an international IT consultant and a man who had worked with the developmentally disabled.
They gave away cars, pets, music collections and more to relatives, friends and neighbors. Some items they kicked to the curb. In homes that weren’t emptied, clothes are still hanging in closets, and dishes, books and furniture — including one man’s antique collection — are gathering dust. Unless, of course, they’ve been claimed by others. If you believe it’s all going to be over soon, why would it matter if you close the front door, much less lock it, when you walk away?
It’s a mid-winter morning in Jacksonville, Florida, when CNN joins this faithful caravan. The “ambassadors,” as they call themselves, are easy to spot. They are the 10 people milling about in an RV park drawing stares, eye rolls, under-the-breath mutters and, at times, words of support.
They’re wearing sweatshirts and other clothing announcing the “Awesome News,” that Judgment Day is coming on May 21. On that day, people who will be saved will be raptured up to heaven. The rest will endure exactly 153 days of death and horror before the world ends on October 21. That message is splashed across their five sleek, vinyl-wrapped RVs, bearing this promise: “The Bible guarantees it!”
I don’t like to ridicule people (at least publicly,) but I wonder how these people explain this verse.
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Matthew 24:36
But just in case they’re right, let me get on Twitter and tweet the only light-skinned man besides President Obama that has got my attention…Incidentally, why are folk trippin’ because Common got invited to the White House. I mean he is one of the most conscious hip hop artists out there…
So what would you do this week if you thought everything would be over on Saturday?
Any thoughts?
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