Is God Bringing Judgment on the World on May 21st, 2011?
“Topics You Always Wanted a Sermon On”
Matthew 24
Today we are starting a new teaching series which is called “Topics You Always Wanted a Sermon On”. Each year, I ask people to submit topics in November & December which we then tackle in March & April. This year you submitted a large number of questions & on-time!
Our first question can’t wait for a later date: “Is God bringing judgment on the world on May 21st, 2011?” Currently this message is being broadcast on a series of Christian radio stations, it can be found on billboards, signs & advertisements. There are 4 van painted van tours going around the country – one starts in Pennsylvania next week. In fact, if you look on page 3 of your bulletin you’ll see one of those ads painted on a car down south. Thanks to Alan, we have one of their video clips from the web - LET’S WATCH DVD #1
As you can imagine the news is noticing this, especially since the fall. This particular clip is from CNN in Colorado. WATCH DVD #2
So “Is God bringing judgment on the world on May 21st, 2011?” Let’s turn first to scripture for our answer.
PROPOSITION: Many false prophets will appear and will tempt many to follow their false ways. We must practice being discerning Christians and learning to use more objective criteria.
I. Jesus is coming again
The Bible is clear that Jesus is coming back again – bodily and visibly. That’s a fact.
A. The disciples already believed this Matt 24:3
What is surprising is that the disciples were already convinced of this before the last week of Jesus’ life here on earth. READ Matt 24:1-2. Here during the last week of Jesus’ earthly life, the disciples are amazed at the magnificent building in Herod’s temple complex. It should be magnificent – they had been working on it for 46 years and the actual temple was done in less than 2 years. Now Jesus shocks them by saying that this center of Jewish identity, pride and worship will be completely destroyed.
Now notice the disciples follow up questions. READ v 3. The disciples already knew that Jesus was coming back and that His return had something to do with the end of the sinful world we know today.
B. Jesus warns many false claims will be made Matt 24:4-5
So in Matthew 24-25 Jesus teaches them about this. He spends a lot of time warning them that many false claims will be made concerning when He was coming back. READ v 4-5. Many will be deceived in this area. Then in v 6-8, Jesus warns them that a world shaken by strife and warfare may naturally make people think it is the end of the world– but it is not – it is just the beginning of birth pangs. First, Christians must be persecuted & killed. And then the gospel must be preached to the whole world. READ v 14. How bad will the end times get? READ v 21-22. Yet even when it is this bad and they are totally overwhelmed, they are not to believe the claims that Jesus has returned. READ v 23-24. Wow!
C. Jesus’ return will be very visible Matt 24:26-27
Now the reason we can be sure that Jesus hasn’t come back, even in the worst catastrophes of life, is because Jesus’ return is going to be very visible to everyone that looks up! Jesus is going to visibly return from the sky. READ v 26-27. Jesus then repeats that again in v 30. READ. Jesus can NOT be clearer – we need to be very skeptical about these claims of Jesus’ return. Yet even with these clear warnings, many people will be deceived.
D. When will this happen? “No one knows”
Matt 24:36, 42, 44; 24:45-51; 25:1-13; 25:14-30)
So our natural follow-up question is “when will Jesus return?” READ v 36. That seems pretty clear to me – “no one” – not even the heavenly beings who can go into the very presence of God – not even the Son of God who is incarnate on Earth at this time. NO ONE KNOWS – that seems simple & clear, yet church history is filled with people who put a “but” after this. No one knows the day or hour BUT we can know the week and year. No one knows the day or hour BUT God has revealed it to some special people in the end days. NO ONE KNOWS.
To make this even clearer, Jesus spends the next chapter and a half showing how we are to rightly respond to this truth. Our responsibility is to “keep watch” – that is “keep anticipating it can happen at any time.” READ v 42. ILLUSTRATION 1: Jesus is going to come like a thief in the night. If we knew when that time was we wouldn’t be asleep but awake so we could stop the thief. READ v 44. We must be spiritually ready always because NO ONE knows the date or time – in fact Jesus will come when we DO NOT EXPECT HIM too – not when someone says He will.
If that wasn’t clear enough, Jesus now tells 3 parables saying the very same thing from different perspectives, all so false teachers won’t deceive us with their convoluted arguments. In Matt 24:45-51, Jesus says we are to be like the faithful and wise servant who keeps carrying out their work responsibility when the boss leaves and no one knows when the boss will return. So as Christians we are to make sure our spiritual responsibilities are done first – never put these off until later.
Then in Matt 25:1-13, we are compared to 10 virgins, think 10 brides maids, who are waiting for the groom and the groomsmen to come. Once you how time works in the Middle East, you realize one needs to prepare for a long wait! So in these joyous, relaxed times we are to make sure that we consistently living the Christian life.
Finally in Matt 25:14-30, we are called on to use our spiritual and natural gifts to advance Jesus’ work because Jesus is going to examine the results of our spiritual service when He comes back. In ALL three parables, the key is that the people didn’t know when the person was coming back IN FACT THEY COULDN’T know it. It was their response to “not knowing” that showed what their real attitude towards Jesus is. And because they were expecting Jesus AT ANY TIME, they weren’t surprised when Jesus does come back, even though they didn’t know the exact time ahead-of-time. This is what our attitude and perspective is to be whether we are talking about our possessions, our responsibilities, our enjoyment or our talents. There are not many other areas of life where Jesus is this comprehensive in terms of showing us how to live rightly.
II. “Yes we can (and should) know the time and date of Jesus’ return”
But we have this dangerous attitude inside, like Eve, which is not satisfied with this, but wants more – so throughout the ages so-called Christian teachers claim they now have secret knowledge from God which allows them to know when Jesus is actually coming back. If you will just follow them, you will see that God really didn’t say “No one knows”. Just like Eve millions upon millions have been deceived, all the while thinking they were obeying God. which . As we have seen in Matthew 24, the Bible is very clear that we can NOT know the date or time of Jesus’ return. Yet we saw in our introduction we saw that there is a group in America who call themselves Christians that are putting their message on billboards, outdoor benches, cars, buses and anywhere else you can put ads -- which clearly states that Jesus will return and judgment will start on May 21, 2011.
A. Who is making these claims?
So who is behind these billboards, outdoor benches, cars, buses and anywhere else one can put ads which claim Jesus is going to return and judgment will start on May 21, 2011. Behind it is an 88 year old Grandpa type man named Harold Camping and a network of Christian radio stations he owns called “Family Radio”. This is no small thing as they have over 150 radio outlets & stations. Plus their work is translated into 48 languages all over the world. They claim that every true Christian should know the date of Jesus’ return and according to I Thes. 5:4, only those in the darkness don’t know it. In fact, they claim that if you do not believe May 21st, 2011 is the date of Jesus’ return then you are not a true Christian.
B. What is the basis for their claim?
(Ecc 8:5; Daniel 8:27, 12:4,9; Rev 5:1-9, 8:1; Lk 15:4-32; I Thes 5:4)
What do they base their claims on? Turn to Ecclesiastes 8:5. Unlike many groups, they actually believe the whole Bible is true. BUT they have a unique way of approaching it – to them the main message is not what you read in context, but a spiritual message that is behind it.
So in regard to Jesus’ words in
Matthew 24:36 that no one knows the time of Jesus’ return, they say that was
true for most of history because God told Daniel, in Daniel 12, to seal up the
words of his prophecy until the last days. They then take a huge leap and say
the scroll with 7 seals that only Jesus can open in Revelation 5, is the scroll
Daniel sealed up. That jump alone should take your breath away. Additionally
they believe Jesus has opened those seals in modern day and that is what
unleashed this new knowledge, previously hidden by God since Daniel’s time so
true Christians can know exactly when Jesus will return.
How do we know this? They claim Ecclesiastes 8:5 says it. READ. I didn’t see it either, but that is because we are using the wrong Bible version. Everything must be done in the King James and only the King James version. So I brought my King James: “Whoso keepth the commandment shall feel no evil thing; and a wise man’s heart discerneth (at this point Camping changes the KJV language to “will know”) both time and judgment.” According to Camping, this proves the wise man can know the date and time. OK??? Another thing one notices when studying Camping’s writings is that the context only matters when he wants it to matter. Even if just use the KJV version, doesn’t Ecclesiastes 8:7 (just 2 verses later) say a person can’t know what is to come?
Turn to II Peter 3. So how do they come up with May 21, 2011. Because it is 7,000 years after Noah’s flood! Again not being consistent or careful with the context, Camping says that v 6 deals with Noah’s flood, v 7 deals with the future judgment of God and then v 8 says a day is like 1,000 years. So they must all be used the same. Therefore since God told Noah 7 days before the flood to gather all the animals and get everyone on board, then there must be 7,000 years between Noah’s flood and the end of the world – God is giving sinful humanity 7,000 years to find refuge in the salvation provided by Jesus Christ (but Jesus won’t appear on Earth for another 5,000 years.) Huh! The “May 21” comes from the fact that the 17th day of second month is when the flood actually happened – that’s the Hebrew calendar for our May 21. To which I reply, only on certain years, that is why the day of Easter changes every year for us. The Hebrew calendar and our calendar are not the same length so the dates don’t regularly equally each other.
Now Camping claims this is all fact, not a prediction. The reason, he says that, is because of all the infallible proofs in the Bible that verify this date is accurate. What kind of proof you might ask? According to Camping, "Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D - Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years." Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year. Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500. He then breaks that down into “Biblical numbers” – numbers he says have significance in the Bible. (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500. Or put into words: (5=Atonement x 10=Completeness x 17=Heaven), squared means it will surely happen. Camping said, "Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story. It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved. I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that.” Under this logic why didn’t this happen on April 1 883 AD which is 5x10x17 years after his date for Jesus’ birth. That has the same secret meaning.
C. What else are they claiming?
What else are they claiming?
· Judgment starts May 21, 2011 but the world doesn’t end until Oct 21, 2011. Why 5 more months. Because in Noah’s day, “the waters prevailed upon the earth” for 150 days! So it must go 150 days more. Why do we keep days as days this time when last time we took 7 days and made them 7,000 years?
· He says May 21, 1988 was the last day of the church age. At that point God handed over the churches to the rule of satan. In fact he says there are no new Christians coming from local churches today and if you are in the church today you CAN NOT be saved. Why? Because when Jesus opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for 30 minutes. That means no one became a Christian for otherwise there would be rejoicing in heaven. May 21, 1988 began the 23 year, or 8400 day Great Tribulation.
· The first 2300 days of the Great Tribulation ended in Sept 6, 1994. That is also the date of Camping’s last prediction when Jesus would return. These guys never learn and never give up. And people keep believing their garbage. So Camping called for all true Christians to leave their local churches and make new home fellowships. They don’t believe in church discipline, baptism, communion or any authority outside Family Radio's interpretation of the Bible. Mr. Camping rejects 1 Corinthians 11:26 that says we are to proclaim the Lord's death, till He comes. I can go on, but you get the idea.
D. What is their “hook”? Disobedient, syncretistic, worldly, surface, church goers.
There are a number of people in this congregation who, in the past, have been deceived by a cult group. Today they are some of our most dedicated believers. How could these really, earnest believers be so deceived? Because false teachers always use a “hook” – this is some statement, idea or challenge that makes a person WANT to listen to the false teaching. It is strong enough to make them overlook concerns and questions. This is no different with Harold Camping. How can you not like a soft spoken grandfather type? His hook is to point to the disobedient Christians, the compromising Christians & the lazy Christians in churches. Doesn’t God want better? Don’t you want to wholeheartedly serve God? Like the sport of Judo, they use your strongly held beliefs to capture you. You believe the Bible – how do you explain this? You want to serve Jesus – look how dedicated these people who follow me are? If it was easy to resist the claims of false teachers, Jesus would not have warned us so much!!!
IV. Practical helps so you won’t be deceived
So what are some practical helps so you and I won’t be deceived by false teachers and false prophets whether they are falsely speaking about when Jesus will return or whether everyone will go to heaven whether they surrender to follow Jesus or not?
A. Most Christian media does NOT police itself – don’t rely on them I John 4:1
First, we must realize in our day Christian media – written, radio, TV or Internet – does NOT police itself. Popular false teachers or false teaching is rarely, if ever expelled or spoken against. So when you hear Family Radio is Christian and have never heard any religious radio group speak against them, you assume it must be OK. Our attitude should be just the opposite. Most of the Christian publishing companies are owned by secular multinational corporations, Christian TV is rampant with false teaching and radio puts more priority on “their big tent” goal than good doctrine. Just go in with your eyes open and don’t rely on Christian media to have weeded out the false teachers and false prophets. I was pleased that when I asked Ric McClary of the Light Radio if he would say something on the error of Family Radio & Camping’s claims, he hinted he would IF it became an issue up here.
B. Divide the “hook” from the claims - The “hook” is probably true
Second, it is important to separate the “hook” or the “draw” from the rest of the person’s claims. The “hook” is probably true. There are lazy and disobedient and selfish Christians in local churches – including this one. In fact, we welcome them in – how else are they going to be challenged? You don’t stop going to the doctor because there are more sick people in his or her office than other places you go – the sick are suppose to be there!
D. Feelings are a poor judge of truth – compare to doctrine held through the ages
Instead, we need to rigorously examine what claims teachers are making. This isn’t as daunting as it sounds because we only need to focus on the basics of the faith: The whole Bible is true; everyone is a sinner; Jesus is fully God and fully man who died on the cross as the only way for our salvation; Jesus is coming again and God will judge the world; God calls us to obey His morality. The basics. In fact, if Harold Camping and crew hadn’t said that every church is wrong, none has the HS, you shouldn’t do baptism or communion, and any one in a local church will not be saved – I would have just labeled him as someone who foolishly makes future dates when Jesus said not to. He is a false teacher. BUT most Christians in America don’t judge by solid doctrine truth – they go by feelings, by appearances, about how people make them feel. Feelings are a poor judge of truth. Listen to the words of this one lady on a Internet question site: “Why is Harold Camping ridiculed by Christians? (He isn’t ridiculed, he is exposed for false teaching). He's spent his whole life teaching patiently the gospel. He has sacrificed more than most ministers. Yet he is reviled by Christians, feared by churches and mocked by those who should know better, with their understanding of how God works among men.” This language just drips with emotion and a total blinding to the fact that if Camping says “those still following any church on May 21, 2011 are not saved,” those are quite a slap-in-the-face that will be challenged.
C. Exclusivism is a sign to be wary
I have always found that exclusivism is the best “tip-off” that someone is a false teacher. In this case Camping insists only one Bible version is right, only one way to interpret is right, no other church is right, and the list goes on. The claims of having new secret knowledge others don’t have is definitely included here. Exclusivism is a sign to be very wary – chances it is false teaching goes WAY UP.
E. Study Bible passages in context without their interpretation
Fifth, it is important to study the Bible passages they quote IN CONTEXT without their specialized commentary or interpretation. Do at least 3 verses before and after and most of their interpretations don’t fit the passage. No one else, without those preconceived ideas, would come up with it. Just his statement that Jesus will return on May 21, 2011 is not a prediction but a fact infallibly proven by the Bible should set off the biggest red flags in our minds.
F. Learn one Bible truth clearer through their error
(Matt 24:20; II Peter 3:11-12/Matt 24:14; II Peter 3:3-4)
Sixth, it is always helpful to learn a Bible truth clearer through their error. It is hard for God to hard-code the date in time when Jesus said we are to pray it isn’t in winter, it will happen after the gospel goes to all countries and Peter said we can hasten its coming. Those verses are in your outline.
G. Occam’s razor – we should tend towards simpler theories
Finally it is good to apply Occam’s razor – which is not something to cut beards. It was a simple observation made 800 years ago. We should always favor or lean towards those theories which are simpler – because they have far fewer assumptions. But we Americans are intrigued by the complex and intricate thinking that makes it more true. As soon as someone does their third logic jump it is time to get skeptical. Camping has so many assumptions in every step that it takes my breath away.
Is God Bringing Judgment on the World on May 21st, 2011? It is probably one of the few days I can confidently tell you Jesus isn’t coming back – He can come anytime but it won’t be when we predict it. So I’ll see all of you on Sunday May 22nd as we faithfully follow Jesus in a culture that constantly tries to mislead us.