The Bible: A Love Letter


I had never heard of Harold Camping before walking into my dentist's office early this morning. The assistant and the receptionist walked in talking about this man and his doomsday predictions for tomorrow, May 21,2011. My first reaction was to laugh, but upon further thought, I was saddened for several reasons. First because there are so many who are falling for this man's "calculations" and these people are either in a state of panic or are throwing what have been called "rapture parties". This leads me to the other reason I am saddened; these people, along with Mr. Camping, clearly do not know what the Bible is, and what it is not. The Bible, Sacred Scripture is God's love letter to us, His children. He is present there and He speaks to us if we would but listen. The Bible is not a math book. Mr. Camping, an engineer by trade, has chosen to miss the beauty of this sacred text, and turn it into a sort of cipher which he thinks he has decoded.
Jesus told us that no one knows the hour of His return. Personally, I think that is a good thing. The end could be tomorrow, or years from now. What is more important, is our own individual end on this planet, and whether we are ready for that particular judgement.
So Mr. Camping, put down your calculator and open your heart~ see the beauty of the words and their message, not the coldness of numbers and codes.

For some sane commentary on this whole thing see Insight Scoop at Ignatius Press.

Comments

Mary N. said…
I've heard about this too, Karin. I can never figure out people's reasonings behind claims like this when the Bible clearly states that only God knows when the end will be. What's sad is that many people overturn their whole lives (and not in a good way) following people like this man. Then the day passes and they have to rebuild their lives again (hopefully on a truly solid base after).
As you say, the Bible is God's love letter to us not a math book!
Anne said…
Karinann, this is a beautiful, loving and sane post. Thank you so much for your words of wisdom. Thank you so much for all that you do to bring about the goodness of God into a cold and calculating world.
Unknown said…
Thanks for your comments Mary and Anne.
I don't know how this man has affected people in your areas, but in parts of NJ people are spending large amts. of money putting up billboards related to this man's predictions.
As Scripture says, Beware of false prophets.
Hi Karinann,

I didn't realise that the world ended yesterday either. We have on TV a quick summary of the news at 5:55pm. - and it said, according to the calculations, the world will end at 6:00pm - in five minutes time!

I quickly got up and switched off our gas oven. Wouldn't want to cause an explosion do we? The Insurance people would probably blame me for the end of the world.

God bless you.
Unknown said…
Yes, Victor we are all still here. Mr. Camping also failed to say what time zone he was referring to. At 6pm eastern time here in the US, I was at our 5:30 pm Mass. I can't think of any better place to be when the world ends :)
Thanks and glad you turned off that oven just in case :) God bless.