WHY I WASN'T EXPECTING THE END OF THE WORLD ON DEC. 21, 2012

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2 Peter 3:3-4)

I am no expert on the ancient Mayan calendar, but unless you've been on another planet for the past couple of years you know that the ancient Mayan calendar ENDED on what we know as December 21, 2012. There were some people who honestly expected "the end of the world" on December 21. I did not. I want to briefly explain why I did not. But I also hope to shake up those who (as in the passage above) become jaded by these false predictions, confidently assuming that everything will just continue on for millions and millions of years and there's no sudden climactic intervention of God to take place in human history any time soon.

If I gave a thorough Biblical explanation of why I believe Jesus Christ will literally and dramatically return to this planet and why I believe all human beings are accountable to Him, it would probably take a book length document. I suspect it would take at least 150 pages and probably more. So, this will not be thorough and exhaustive. This will just scratch the surface. It is true that for centuries people have arisen setting dates for "the end of the world" and the Second Coming of Jesue Christ. A group called the "Millerites" in the 1840s did exactly that. As I recall, Miller was a Baptist minister in the northeast. He and his followers went to a mountain top in white robes expecting to meet and greet Jesus. They were sorely disappointed, but some of them did not give up. From that group emerged the "Adventist movement" from which we get the Advent Christian Church and the much larger Seventh Day Adventist Cburch. I recall that in 1975, a man named Charles Taylor predicted "the Rapture of the church", that is, the day when Jesus Christ would "catch up" or "rapture" his Church to be with Him and then begin Seven years of Tribuation on the earth. A date was set for September of 1975, which of course turned out to be wrong. In 1988, a man named Edgar Whisenaunt wrote a much read booklet entiled, "88 Reasons Why Jesus Christ Returns in 1988". He predicted the Rapture to take place on September 12 or 13 of 1988. Of course, he was wrong. Amazingly, Whisenaunt came out with another booklet in 1989 arguing that his calculations were off by a year, but that Jesus would definitely return in 1989. Very few of those booklets were distributed! In much more recent times, Harold Camping, for years the Director of "Family Radio" and for years an active Member of the Christian Reformed Church, set a date for the rapture to take place in May of 2011 and later recalculated to October 2011.

These foolish men forgot that the Bible clearly teaches that no one knows the day or hour of the Lord's return.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24:36)

Now, I know this will sound very arrogant, but the Mayan calendar thing is just pagan conjecture and I'd never pay any attention to such matters, anyway. But, briefly, there is solid New Testament of a "Rature" of the Church and a "Revelation" of Jesus Christ- that is, Jesus Christ literally and physically returning to planet earth at least seven years after the Rapture of the Church takes place. I know this stuff is never taught in "liberal mainline Protestant" churches who consider all of it to be complete nonsense. Such churches teach, for example, that the Book of Revelation is not a book of primarily prophecy about the future but is a Book which speaks in mysterious language about goings on in the Roman Empire of the First Century and has nothing to do with the future. Listen, some of Revelation is about the Roman Empire and the First Century but most of it is not. Churches like the Roman Catholic Church teach that a lot of what is in Revelation is about the future but then go on to make virtually all of it totally symbolic and allegorical and not in any way, shape or form literal. If you carefully read I Thessalonians chapter 4, and I Corinthians chapter 15, you can absolutely see "the Rapture of the Church" there. No, the word Rapture is never used in the Bible, that's true. Neither is the word "Trinity", for that matter. Yet, the idea of the true Believers being "caught up" to be with the Lord and taken out of the world is very Biblical. Most evangelicals believe in a coming Seven year Tribulation period to follow The Rapture. That comes from the Book of Daniel, chapter 9 where it speaks of "70 Weeks". Those "Weeks" are not weeks of days; they are,in fact, weeks of years. Sixty-nine of them have happened. Sixty-nine of them have taken place. One has not. It's the "Seventieth Week of Daniel" and it will be the coming Seven Year Tribulation Period. I urge you to also check out Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Mark chapter 13, Luke chapter 21, and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, as well as the entire Book of Revelation. Before you roll your eyes, take the time. Make the time. Read this stuff. Read it prayerfully. Say, "Lord, show me if this stuff is really true. Show me if You are really going to return to this planet." See what happens.

I know the Rapture has not yet taken place and I know there will be at least seven years to follow the Rapture. That's a big part of why I was not worried about Dec. 21. That's also why most evangelicals do not believe the world will be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust...at least not prior to that Seven Year Tribulation period. If you've ever seen "Thirteen Days", you know that in late 1962 the word came very, very close to total nuclear annihilation. Listen, we came within a whisker of it, but God did not allow it!

Again, this is not an exhaustive treatise! This is just an extremely brief document! But the Second Coming will take place. We don't know the day or the hour, but it will! In the late 1800s and very early 1900s, fiery evangelical preachers were preaching this stuff and were laughed to scorn! These preachers said that Israel would become a political nation in the middle east; that multitude of Jews would return there; that the City of Jerusalem would become an all Israeli city; that this would prove the validity of these end time prophecies. Incidentally, this does not mean that whatever the nation of Israel does is always right. Sometimes, the nation of Israel is dead wrong in its policies! But God has decreed that Israel be a political nation there in "Palestine" and that Israel control Jerusalem. And God has decreed that one day Jesus Christ will physically, literally return to the Mount of Olives and that this will literally freak out everyone, Jew and Gentile alike!

No, Iam not setting any dates or going up on any mountains wearing a white robe. But, yes, I am "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;" as Titus 2:13 says! Will it happen during my lifetime? Only God knows, but this 58-year-old does indeed consider that a possibility!