Christ Is Coming

The May 21st Rapture teaching of Harold Camping and Family Radio has reached the notice of the mainstream media, with a weekend story on NPR.

It's been noted in a number of places that Camping holds the heretical belief that Jesus is actually the Archangel Michael. That in and of itself should be sufficient to cause anyone listening to Camping to spin the dial somewhere else.

But Jesus' own words, teaching his disciples that no one knows the day or the hour of the Rapture, are cleverly avoided by the Campingites, who insist that, "We Can Know."

No, we can't.

And what entitles Mr. Camping or his followers to say, in essence, that Jesus was wrong?

Here is something on which pretribulationists and prewrath believers can agree. No person knows the time of Jesus' coming. A pretrib teacher will assert that His coming for the saints is imminent - there are no precursors or warnings. A prewrath teacher will, on the other hand, state that the Rapture does not become imminent until the signs of the 6th seal are seen.

But neither man will be so foolish as to set a date and not only lead people astray, possibly damaging their faith, but subjecting every Christian who believes in the literal fulfillment of prophecy to ridicule.

Most seriously, this type of behavior is just one more inoculation - one more things to make unbelievers deaf to the message of Christ's return.