Film at eleven

The Washington Post reports that a resident of my former suburb of the nation's capital- Springfield, Virginia- has the perfect headline for the paper on May 22:

WORLD ENDS; TRAFFIC BACKED UP FOR HOURS

Oh, wait. No, it's merely  is it merely he "rapture-" a entirely  unbiblical concept common among "Evangelcals," and based on a misinterpretation of 1 Thessalonians 14:13-18- which actually describes the resurrection of the dead Christ's coming at the Final Judgment rather than a removal of believers from a world which will go its merry way to hell in a handbasket 

The confusion is understandable, since much of the publicity for the coming non-event refers to it as "Judgment Day-" a term which does not describe the mistaken notion of the "rapture."In any event, a more biblical understanding of the whole subject of the "End Times" than one finds among the millenialists can be found here, by the way.

But since Jesus tells us that "no one knows the day or the hour" of his coming, of two things we can be sure: first, that Judgment Day (and hence, the "rapture" referred to by Paul) will not be taking place on May 21, and secondly, like William Miller and all the other presumptuous predictors of what Jesus says cannot be predicted in the past, the Family Radio crowd will have a far-fetched but ready made explaination of that fact on May 22.

Or not. After all, if the true believers in Christ are all taken to heaven on May 21, what excuse will these people have for still being around on May 22?

Harold Camping, the man responsible for this prediction, also predicted that the end of the world would take place in 1994. His secret decoder ring is unlikely to be more accurate this time. And after all, Deuteronomy 18:22 remains as valid as it ever was:

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.