“But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)
Well, this Friday, October 21, is the “end of the world” (again) according to Harold Camping. You might remember that he is the nut-job who said that the world would end on May 21 of this year, but he was obviously proven wrong. Yet instead of giving up, he has “doubled down”. He has somewhat “admitted” that he was wrong in his initial prophecy, but only by changing his prediction from physical to spiritual. He said that the world really did end on May 21, but none of us could see it because it was “spiritual”, and that we are currently living in a time of judgment where God has withdrawn from earth. According to this false prophet (see above), there will be an actual physical judgment of the world on Friday and God will overthrow mankind and Jesus will set up his kingdom. Of course, I am eagerly awaiting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I know my Bible a little better than that. The passage above says that when a false prophet is proven to be false by an unfulfilled prediction, that he is to be taken out. Obviously, I would never suggest doing that. That command was for Israel in the Old Testament to keep their prophetic ministry pure. But why on God’s green earth does anyone pay attention to this man? What is worse – why on God’s green earth does anyone pay money to this man? He is not a pastor, he has no church, yet he has a multi-million dollar empire and thousands of devoted followers based on his false prophecies. Why can’t anyone see this? Who are these people who continue to prop him up with support?
All this just adds to the demonstration that this world is stark raving mad. We live in some of the most exciting times in the history of humanity, yet it is bizzaro-land at the same time. One of the best ways to sort out the craziness is to look at a bigger perspective. We know from the Bible that the world is against God and his word. I John 5:19 says, “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Virtually everything perpetrated by the institutions and establishments of this world will be in opposition to God. Why does this guy get press time? They want to discredit true Bible Christianity by parading this goof ball in front of the whole world. Those who know nothing of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ view us through the eyes of people like this. It makes our job of sharing the gospel that much harder. Most of us have heard of the idiots in Topeka Kansas who picket the funerals of servicemen because there are gay people in the country. (Isn’t that a weird connection?) When Phelps and his crowd were taken to court recently, the ACLU supported them. Stop and think for a minute. That makes absolutely no sense. When did the ACLU ever support anything even remotely connected to religion, God, or the Bible? They are the most anti-Christian organization on the face of the earth. Pray or post anything Biblical in public, and watch those cockroaches come out of the woodwork. They exist for one purpose – to remove God from our society in any form. Then they support Fred Phelps. It makes perfect sense. The best way to get rid of a genuine witness of Jesus Christ is to keep those people in the public eye and make everyone think that they represent true Christianity.
Our job gets tougher every day. Yet God’s grace is as powerful as ever. Paul said, “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:57-58). Stay at it. One soul is worth the world. Keep serving Jesus until he comes, even if it is after this Friday.
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