Well it’s official. We thought we had until 2012… but the Mayans were wrong and now we only have until a little less than 3 weeks from now. Bummer, huh? I was really looking forward to summer weather before the end of the world hit. But now over 2,000 billboards in North America are saying it isn’t so. I figured I’d address this here since many are talking about it and it is even gaining national attention in various outlets (http://woot.com used it as a joke a couple days ago).
Really, what’s this about? Why is http://familyradio.com going all end-times on us? Unfortunately, their logic is pretty shallow. Have you looked into it? Let me share the fly-by version so you don’t have to read their loaded/biased writings (though by all means, feel free to do so, taking it with a grain of salt).
Basically they are quoting the verse in 2 Peter 3:8 – one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Then they are pulling verses out of context from Genesis 7 that refers to God telling Noah that in 7 days he will destroy the earth. Compare the two, and they make the massive logic jump that God was also warning us that 7,000 years from that day would be the end of the world. When you account for no year 0, the Biblical calendar vs the modern calendar, etc… It comes out to May 21, 2011 (I sure hope they factored in leap years).
So why is this wrong? Well for starters, let’s look at the source. The proprietor of Family Radio is Harold Camping. Mr. Camping wrote a book in 1994 explaining how the end of the world would happen then as well. Track record on that? He claims he was rushed then and knows more now… and that back then he thought 2011 was more likely too. Ok, so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.
What about the logic jump made to say because a verse in 2 Peter explains God’s time isn’t like our time… that he doesn’t live by our understanding of time… that we can apply that to any other part of scripture? Let’s play this out. Why not say Christ died and rose again 3 days later, that God was also alluding to Christ returning 3,000 years later? After all, Jesus himself said, he would destroy this temple and rebuild it in 3 days! JUDGMENT DAY IS EASTER 3,033!!! TELL EVERYONE!
Do you see how shallow/dangerous/slippery slope this is?
Look, I’d LOVE for it to happen May 21, 2011. Being in heaven now vs later isn’t a bad thing! But let’s be real people. We don’t know the day/time when Christ is returning, despite the logic jump Mr. Camping makes. Yes, the Bible says there will be signs and that we will know when we see certain things happen that Christ’s return is near… but it never says an exact number to figure that out, and Mr. Camping won’t even accept that as a possibility. In fact, on their own website they have a FAQ that discusses various things and one of the questions is “what if nothing happens” and they blow it off as simply not possible due to the overwhelming amount of “evidence” they have. I’m curious if he is truly living as if it’s the last days.
I have some questions… if this is the case, how does he justify the fact that there has been no 7 year (or even 3.5 year) period of peace/tribulation before this day? Where/Who is the anti-christ? What about the false prophet who is supposed to preceed him? What about the temple that was supposed to be rebuilt in Israel first? It’s still missing… It seems to me that Mr. Camping’s shallow logic jump leaves a lot to be answered.
Well, here’s hoping! But I’m not holding my breath and I don’t think you need to either. If May 21st hits and we have an earthquake like none we’ve ever seen and the dead start to rise in glorified bodies and people start dying in mass numbers every day for the following 5 months until God fully destroys the earth, then hats off to Mr. Camping. He saw what millions of others missed. Then again, he thought he did in 1994 too.