Posts Tagged "religion"
It’s not the end and I still feel fine
Believe it…or not?
I’m sure you have seen the billboards and heard all the chatter about some guy’s prediction that THE Judgement Day will happen on Saturday. Yeah, THIS Saturday. As in, the day after Friday. Now, if the world didn’t end after the release of that song, what makes you think it’s going to end this Saturday? Besides, I graduate on SUNDAY. How incredibly inconvenient would that be?
Sidebar: while I have only watched maybe 30 seconds of the original Rebecca Black version of the song, I’ve watched the Fallon/Colbert/Roots version a lot of times. They made it so enjoyable.
But on a serious note, as a Christian, I do believe there will be a final Judgement Day; it just won’t be this Saturday.
I know that doomsday predictions are nothing new [and so far have all been obviously false] but there are serious repercussions to these seemingly constant false alarms. First, those who do not believe take this opportunity to point and make fun of the “religious sheeple” for believing in “fairy tales” and makes it even harder to possibly engage in some intelligent conversation about God. Why would they listen to a bunch of wackos whose God has, up to this point, haven’t shown up yet? Plus, this will just be more fodder for them to make light of the situation [ though, this attitude was also predicted in the Bible].
Yada, yada, yada
Second, I honestly believe this is detrimental to the believers who are later disheartened when Jesus doesn’t return, which could cause them to lose faith in God and turn away from Him. They leave thinking God has let them down when they were misguided by man. The thing is, I don’t understand why religious organizations continue to persist in Judgement Day predictions. Are they trying to shock the public into believing? Obviously that is not going to work. They just make it harder for other people to believe, or at least, listen.
The funny thing is, some people have erroneously used the Bible to create many different equations to support their predictions despite the fact that in their main source, the Bible, plainly says that
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
So, if the Bible says that no one but God himself knows when the Second Coming will happen, then why should I [or anyone, for that matter] believe someone who says they have figured it out? Not even Jesus know! And I would think if someone would know, it would possibly be Jesus. Conversely, if man will not know when this would happen, can we honestly believe that God will show up when we said he would? If Judgement Day does happen this Saturday, then we would have proven God to be a liar and not worth believing in. I know for a fact that God would not prove himself to be such a thing. Therefore, we can be absolutely certain that God will not return on Saturday simply because we said he would.
But in His infinite wisdom, God has warned us that there will be people who will deceive others:
Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds – Jeremiah 14:14
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many – Matthew 24:4-5
And because of this, we as believers have been charged with knowing the word of God so that we won’t be misled. If we know what it says in the Bible, then we can better detect when someone has twisted the truth to fit whatever narrative they want you to believe. As a side note, if someone comes at you saying what they believe is biblical truth, always ask them to show you exactly where it is in the Bible and read it in the correct context. Everything a believer believes is based upon Biblical truth; if you can’t find the corresponding scripture in context then it is wrong. It’s time for saner voices to be heard over the cries of Harold Camping’s crazy prediction.
There are simply some things that we are not meant to know, though in our eternal quest for knowledge, we will continue to try to figure things out [we are often wrong because we apply what we know to any given situation when God does not deal with the same constraints that we do]. The End Time will come like a “thief in the night,” so until then, all we can do is live like Judgement Day is tomorrow but plan for that to not happen for 100 years. My true hope is that people would begin to consider the true message behind Christianity. It is so much more than just some organized religion that restricts what you can do. It is about having a true relationship with God and accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, one that is based on love for everyone.
God wants nothing more than to have everyone believe in Him and be saved; however, this is ultimately left up to each and every person to decide whether they want to believe or not. No one can force you to choose but I would honestly hope that people would make the effort to learn more about it before simply dismissing it as some fairy tale that won’t come true. There is no other way except through Jesus Christ.
In the end, there will be a Judgement Day. We won’t know when it will happen; maybe this generation will still be alive, maybe it will happen after I am laid to rest. Whenever it happens, we can be sure it won’t be on Saturday [the other, non-predicted days are fair game though!]. Either way, my advice for you as we head into this weekend:
I’ll see you next week.
Read More