Wonder Why the Rapture Didn't Happen?

When His disciples asked Him about the signs that would accompany His return to earth, Jesus gave them answers. Much of this conversation is found in Matthew 24. Interesting, He began with these words: "Watch out that no one deceives you”. He knew that the ignorant and the charlatan would use and abuse the curiosity of the faithful and the insecure alike until the appointed time of His 2nd coming.

Appointed time? Well, it wasn’t May 21, 2011, was it? Yet, thousands…who knows how many bought into “guarantee” of a radio teacher that he had somehow figured out the schedule of Christ’s coming and the ensuing “end of the world”. Duped they were by what I believe to be a genuinely sincere but dead-wrong man.

What’s almost funny about it is that this was Harold Camping’s second such prediction. The first time, he had Jesus descending from the clouds in 1994. When that date came and went he was quick to explain that he had miscalculated…forgot to carry the 2 (or some such ciphering error). But with his 5-21-11 doomsday prophecy, Camping declared his “absolute certainty” that this was it.

So now what do we think? Is all this talk of apocalyptic earthquakes and the eve of destruction simply the imaginations of delusional cultists, or is there some truth behind such a notion? I always find the simplest answers to those kinds of questions to be to take a look at the obvious in the Scriptures.

Briefly (because there is quite a bit of coverage in the Bible of the subject of the 2nd Coming and ensuing end-times) here’s where Camping and his crowd went wrong, according to Jesus. You can read His words in Matthew 24 as He addressed this very issue.

Things are going to get worse before they get better. Jesus said to not be alarmed when everything on the news gets worse instead of better. Earthquakes, famines, political uprisings, and persecution of Christians, He said, would precede the days before the end. Gentiles (non-Jews) would gain control again of Jerusalem. (Does any of this sound a bit like current events?) Those things, Jesus said, would be early warning signs that Christ is coming back, but they don’t necessarily mean the time is “at hand”.

Imposters would both proclaim, as Camping did, that they know the date or that they themselves are the returned Messiah. Ultimately Christ’s return will be visible to all on earth.

Camping’s error started with a faulty pre-supposition that the Bible is somehow codified and the only way to understand it is to break the code. Of course, he happened to be the one guy in thousands of years able to figure this out. But the Bible isn’t a mystery code. It is God’s gift to us intended to help us. “God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:17 NLT)

Some can’t see the forest for the trees. At the very end of Jesus’ discourse on His 2nd coming are these words: "Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son —except the Father only”. (Matthew 24:36 HCSB)

That seems about as plain as the nose on my face. So when someone says, “Yeah, I know that’s what it says, but I’ve bypassed God and figured it out on my own”, guess what? He’s wrong. And shouldn’t be given the time of day. Not even 6PM.