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.