Predictions – Benefits & Abuses
I would be surprised if anyone hasn’t heard of the prediction for the end of the world at the close of this upcoming year. December 21, 2012 is the date set, and it is affecting people as any prediction on the end of time does. Earlier this year, Harold Camping made news by warning the world that Judgment Day would begin around 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2011. But this bulletin is not to focus on the ‘supposed’ doomsday, but rather what the bible really declares about the end of time, how we should view that day in view of God’s predictions, and how false predictions negatively affect our preparation for the certainty of that event. Here are some passages regarding the Judgement:
-It is certain to come –
John 14:3 - And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Acts 17:30-31 – God…commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
-It might be today –
2 Cor. 6:2 - “…behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation…”
-It will be for most people as was previous catastrophes –
1 Thess. 5:2, 4 - For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night... see also 2 Pet. 3:10
-The judge and the standard for judgment –
Acts 17:31 - he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained…
John 12:48 - the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Rom. 2:16 - in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.
-Preparation is to be made –
2 Pet. 3:11-12 - “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…”
-Knowledge of God’s will ensures preparation –
John 14:4 – “And whither I go, ye know the way.”
1 Thess. 5:4 – “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief…”
2 Peter 3:17- “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.”
Man can try and predict all they want, but no one knows the end of this life but God. Rather than predicting, we ought to be preparing!
But the predicted “doom” date gives a year for those who believe in it to prepare for it. So it will be curious to watch when December 21st comes and goes next year. There will no doubt be people changing their lives, getting things in order, so the question is for those who are turning their lives around: will you stay changed or will you change back?
The point: don’t “live right” out of fear; “live right” out faith, for faith, NOT fear is the substance of things hoped for...Heb. 11:1. Don’t be blind to how big of a problem your current lifestyle already is.
Should Jesus come on any day that somebody has predicted, it will not be because that person(s) knew. It will be because God, the Father chose for time on earth to end. Remember the statement of Moses long ago: “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a work that the LORD has not spoke; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:22).
Michael Ross Bruner