Tag: end of the world

On the Day Before Judgement Day

~ Bob Hayton ~ 8 Comments

If you haven’t heard, Harold Camping and FamilyRadio.com claim the Rapture will happen tomorrow and that Judgement Day will begin. The tribulation will last five months and on October 21, the world will end.

The sad part of all this, is that they claim the Bible teaches this and that God has revealed this to them. There has been a world-wide advertising campaign to warn people. The message has been spread via RV caravans, billboards, radio, and more.

The problem is Camping has predicted this would happen back in 1994 too, and will likely recalculate his numbers and come up with a new date once this one fails. Never mind that, his signs say “the Bible guarantees it”.

He gets to May 21 as the date of the rapture, through a far ranging use of Biblical numerology and assumptions. Since “begat” can indicate a father – son relationship or also a ancestor – descendant relationship, it is assumed it always refers to a time period rather than a direct father – son connection, unless other factors make it clear the Bible declares the two names are related as father and son. Because a day in the Bible can sometimes refer to a thousand years, it is assumed that days do refer to thousand-year time periods at important places in the scheme that results in May 21, 2011 being the date of the Rapture. Numbers can have an association or meaning, and then that meaning is applied universally. As in 23 is the number of wrath, 17 is the number of heaven, etc.

The result is a Biblical timeline of history that has a widespread corroboration with numerous numerological twists given to various time periods given in the Bible. For more on the Biblical timeline of history see this explanation. And several links on the left of the FamilyRadio.com website take a deep dive into the numerology.

The story is making headlines around the world. See the New York Times article here, and another story here. USA Today found that many of Camping’s staff don’t actually believe that May 21st is the day.

I’m saddened by the many followers who are being led astray in this. The Bible isn’t a mysterious collection of numbers to be figured out by experts. It has a plain and clear message of God’s redemptive plan for mankind. Jesus may return tomorrow, or even today. I believe that. But if He doesn’t, then Camping has revealed himself to be a false teacher and people should not follow him. I’ll probably say more about this in the future, it will be interesting to see what they say if the Rapture doesn’t happen tomorrow. I’ll leave you with a link to a video clip from FamilyRadio.com. May God help these people realize once and for all that this teaching is dangerous, and it trivializes the Bible’s message to a watching world.

Aliens & Atheist Absurdity

~ Bob Hayton ~ 8 Comments

My wife and I rented Knowing, a newly released (on DVD) movie with Nicolas Cage in it. I have to admit I love end-of-the-world, science fiction movies. Some of my favorites are Deep Impact, Independence Day and Core.

There is a scene in Knowing, where the professor character that Cage plays, explains two competing views of the universe: determinism and randomness. Determinism says everything happens for a reason, and is bolstered by the understanding of how small the probabilities are that life on Earth could just accidentally happen. The opposite view claims that in fact everything is an accident, a freak of randomness and chance. Life has no meaning.

By the end of the movie, we are left to side with determinism, but in a very meaningless way. <spoiler alert> The world will end and we glimpse the awe-inspiring (at least for the main character in the movie) truth about our existence — aliens protected us, and evidently seeded our planet. </spoiler alert>

What amazes me is how rational and realistic all of this seems from a secular, scientific viewpoint. Real scientists propose mainstream, class-room theories about all of life possibly having evolved on a different planet. Aliens brought the beginnings of life to our planet. In the movie Expelled, with Ben Stein, Richard Dawkins posits that in the face of evidence for intelligent design, a plausible theory is just this: life came here from another world.

Anyone intrigued by UFOs have seen how Biblical accounts such as Ezekiel’s vision of the presence of God among the wheels, are turned into ancient evidence for the existence of UFOs. While to a certain extent, science laughs off UFO claims; nevertheless, the search for extraterrestrial life continues in the most respected institutions.

All of this seems absurd. Aliens who bring life to earth in a spaceship; UFOs behind Biblical visions and indeed all the religions on earth (think Stargate); even the Big Bang itself — all of this is flat out crazy. If you take a step back, these theories are preposterous and absurd — beyond belief. But major motion pictures and scientific documentaries are endlessly preaching this dogma.

Now we come to my ironic point. In a world where science lets us dream of intelligent life all throughout the universe, why is the scholarly consensus so dead set against any notion of the Christian faith? Why is it that Christians are laughed to scorn for believing in a God who created life, and will one day bring all people to a moral accounting? Why is that unbelievable and absurd, whereas aliens, UFOs, paranormal experiences and the like aren’t?

Could it be that we deify man and his pursuits in understanding the universe (science)? At the end of the day, atheists refuse to believe Christianity’s worldview, because they cannot tolerate it. They don’t want to believe.