Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, I am the Messiah, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Matthew 24:4-8
Tomorrow is the End of the World. In case you missed it, a group of Christian activists have predicted that tomorrow will be The End Times. Jesus is coming, so hold on. Predictions like this are nothing new. They come up a few times every generation. If this Apocalypse is inconvenient for you, there will be another in 2012.
Considering the zero percent success rate of predicting the end of the world thus far, you would think evangelist Harold Camping wouldn’t even bother making a prediction. In fact Camping originally predicted himself that the world would end in 1994. Nonetheless, he has spent more than $140,000 on advertising to spread the word of the upcoming Armageddon. His high profile campaign has attracted international media attention and garnered followers and volunteers all over the country. His Family Radio website is so busy it is difficult to get it to load properly. In spite of Camping’s past failures, his group soldiers on in spreading its message.
But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only. Matthew 24:36
While no mainstream religious leaders are rushing to endorse Camping and his prediction, he has managed to attract a number of followers and there are plenty of evangelical Christians who believe in The Rapture even if they think Camping is wrong about the date. But what is it about the End Times that are so attractive to people? There have been plenty of groups of people throughout history who thought that the end was near and that it was there duty to warn others. It is easy to laugh at the futility of their efforts, but they return time and time again.
As crazy as Camping and his followers are, as a Christian, I find something in their message that I can sympathize with. While predicting The End Times is a pointless and hysterical exercise, I understand the desire to see the world remade. It can seem many days that everything about the world is the opposite of what Christians (or any good people) desire for society. Greed and hubris are rewarded while decency and kindness are ignored. Honesty is sacrificed for vanity. The sadistic brutalize the powerless. The world can be a horrible place, it is no wonder some people wish it would all go away. That some great event would sweep through and end the misery.
However, Camping and his followers make the same mistake in belief that apocalyptic groups always make. Every generation likes to think that it is unique and that they live in a pivotal time in human history. We think that the suffering of our age is somehow more potent than the tribulations of the past, and that we will be on hand to to see justice finally served. The world will not end tomorrow, and neither will the obligation of decent people to do whatever little bit they can to make a world that is better than the one we inherited. There will be no great cataclysm that washes away our problems, only slow and often painful efforts to create small changes over time. Camping and his followers do not need to die like Jesus on May 20th, they need to live like him in the days that follow.
