Read John 16.
"A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you" (John 16:16,22).
A very misguided "preacher" or "pastor" -- or perhaps he was just an enterprising lifelong salesman who had made a ton of money off of spiritually gullible radio listeners and followers over the years -- caused quite a stir all over the English-speaking world not long ago when he confidently warned that May 21, 2011, was going to be the date of "the Rapture." According to this silly fellow and his equally silly followers, true believers would be caught up on May 21, 2011, to be with Jesus; the rest of the world would suffer terrible disasters and catastrophic events until the day of Final Judgement, which he said would happen on October 21, 2011 and end all of time as we know it.
Really?
You can guess, of course, what he did when May 21, 2011, came and went without believers being caught up from the world, and actually without the worldwide catastrophic events he said would happen. He concluded that his calculations were off. Or, no, wait -- May 21, 2011, was the "spiritual" judgment and October 21, 2011, will be the actual Final Judgment.
This silly fellow did the same thing in 1994, predicting the Rapture and/or Last Judgment (I haven't looked it up to be sure exactly WHAT he expected back then) for the autumn of that year.
My dear Lord -- and I say that as a sincere prayer, though a prayer of dismay -- how many foolish people with sincere hearts seeking to serve God will be duped by how many silly fools (let's call them what they are: "false prophets") before we'll learn. God has NOT put us in this world to seek after obscure "truths" of Scripture. He has put us in this world to love and serve him and to share that love in service to everyone we meet.
When will the Rapture happen? When will the Final Judgment take place? Are we living in the Last Days or the End Times today?
Who knows and who, really, is supposed to care outside of God himself??
Of course God intends for us to eagerly look forward to Jesus' return. That ought to be part of what motivates us to care about others and to share that love of God in Christ by the way we live and serve those all around us. But no where are we told to obsess over "Bible prophecy" or some of the "end times" wall charts so-called teachers throw out there to satisfy our curiosity for their financial gain. (Do they still use wall charts or have we progressed to Power Point presentations in Bible prophecy "seminars" these days?)
Yet still, given the way human nature seems to crave a careful, simple plan for living, there will always be people who flock to the Bible prophecy industry, eagerly laying out big bucks to line the pockets of these wonderful teachers. A Harold Camping (I think that was the latest false teacher's name) seems to arise every 10-20 years. And every time, ignorant believers let themselves be duped by this latest false prophet's message. Time after time, it's as though otherwise thinking, intelligent people tell themselves, "No, really, I really think THIS time, this guy has it right ..."
No, not really. I honestly believe you ought to throw away your Bible if you aren't going to use it for anything more than some sort of sanctified "magic book" to see into the future.
Forget about seeing into the future and set about loving God fervently, serving God joyfully, and serving all those people in need who God brings into your life today!
