Driving through Cedar Springs, MI as I often do I saw a new billboard Ad up a few weeks back that read “Judgement Day May 21”. I have always been a student of Biblical Prophecy and over the past the few years have spent many hours studying it. Researching the Hebrew and Greek texts, the cultures and settings in which the prophecies were spoken, all for the purpose of better understanding the season of the time of the end BUT NEVER for the sake of determining an exact date.
The scriptures are clear that “no man knoweth the day or the hour” of Christ’s return and Jesus himself told His disciples “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:8). So why then has Harold Camping gone to this extreme to set a date? For fame? For notoriety? Well, believe it or not, this is not the first time that Camping has set a date for “judgement day”. His last prediction was for Christs return in 1994. So, why are so many Christians quick to believe him this time around? What excuse was given that makes up for such blatant theological error? Jesus specifically said “It is NOT for you to set a date”!
I believe this goes beyond Harold Camping; it goes beyond May 21, 2011, it even goes beyond the doctrinal truth of the return of Christ. This very ethos of date setting is a distraction to the very mission which Christ has called the church to. In the same verse where Jesus boldly declared that it is not for us to know the time, He also called for us to be His witnesses in all Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the world. Yet, so many Bible teacher and preachers are caught up in predictive theory that the Great Commission has little to no relevance in their theology.
As J. Lee Grady, contributing editor of Charisma Magazine, put it:
Dates and deadlines do not have the power to save souls—only the gospel can do that. When we share Christ with others, we don’t need to provide a date for His Second Coming. Instead, we tell them about the miracle of Calvary and remind them: “Today is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). No one knows when he will die; every new day could be his last. And every person will stand before God when this life is over. There is urgency in the gospel, for sure, but it is not about a countdown to the rapture. Hundreds of thousands of people die every day without Jesus, whether or not He returns in their generation. This alone should motivate us to avoid foolish distractions and false prophecies so we can get busy with the task of genuine evangelism.
So, how can I possibly believe that Campings May 21st prediction is a farce? Because it does not line up with what Jesus has called us to be about. If Christians were to take the time they spend in worrying about the date of the rapture and spend it in being a genuine witness for Christ; than what would we have to worry about?
pastorstrom.com 
Outstanding! When something works, just reinforce it,right? Point out how well everything went when they chose a certain action and how if they choose that again they can have a similar result. but i dont understand why the viewpoint changed drastically.
This is a good subject to talk about. Sometimes I fav stuff like this on Redit. I think this would be the best to submit though. I will be sure to submit something else though.
my feelings on this topic vary from you.its fine that you brought this up on your blog,it was a nice debatable go through.
Have you ever wondered who posts some of this stuff that you come across? The internet never used to be like that, recently though it has turned around. What do you think?
Great points altogether, personally I’m gonna have to bookmark this and come back to it. I’m curious if you have any follow ups to this post?
your blog sure does rank high in bing for some keyphrases,thats how i got here and i must say it deserves the rankings.really liked this post.
This post is one of those on which an interactive argument can be started as i differ from you on this, but nonetheless great quality post.
I’m having a small issue I cannot make my reader pick up your feed, I’m using google reader by the way.
Hello, I accidentaly found your blog!I am trying to get ideas for proper writting style for my own website and what you write definitely gave me some ideas. You have a cool website so keep up the good work!
A fine post by every standards, but i had exptected a more personal interaction on your part, as in where you express your detailed opinion as well, but each person has a different style of expressing,hence its fine.
i had to go through it again since i could not grab the entire escence of the post in one go.That was a very articulate and logical point you make there.I appreciate you letting me know your thinking on this.