Tomorrow Is the Day of Rapture! Or Is It?
Apparently, there is a man somewhere on earth who told the world that rapture will happen this year, on 23rd and 24th of this month, which is actually today and tomorrow – just a few hours after this article is published! I am told that there are many prophecy confirmations about this, all bearing witness that rapture will “definitely” happen. Certainly, you will hear my standpoint on this, however, allow me to take you down the past, to remind you that rapture predictions are not something new. I have selected just these because of my limited writing space.
#1.) In AD 500, three Christian theologians, Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus and Irenaeus predicted that Jesus would return in the year 500. One prediction was based on the dimensions of Noah's Ark. In Hippolytus' Commentary on Daniel, he writes that six thousand years must pass, since the creation of the world, and he believes it was created 5500 years before Christ.
#2.) A certain Baptist preacher, William Miller predicted that Christ's second advent would occur in 1844, first around March 21 and later on April 18. When these dates passed, a fellow Millerite, Samuel S. Snow, calculated the date of October 22, 1844. The failure of this date to bring about the second coming became known as the Great Disappointment and the start of the Seventh Day Adventist movement.
#3.) In 1994, Harold Camping, a Bible teacher and general manager of Family Radio, published a book predicting that Christ's return was likely pointing to 1994. When it failed, he revised the date to 21 May 2011 followed by the end of the world on 21 October of the same year.
According to Wikipedia, these are some of the names of the people that have predicated the rapture of the Church before and failed: Joachim of Fiore, Jean de Roquetaillade, Sandro Botticelli, Johannes Stöffler, Thomas Müntzer, Michael Stifel, William Aspinwall, Ann Lee, Joanna Southcott, John Wesley, George Rap, Charles Taze Russell, Sun Myung Moon, Herbert W. Armstrong, Hal Lindsey, Ed Dobson, Jack Van Impe.
What then is my take on this? First of all, I never like the word “rapture” because of many abuses and wrong teachings that have gone along with it, nevertheless, Scripture is clear that Jesus will come again, and that we are to look for His appearing (Heb 9:28, 2 Tim 4:8). That is, it’s only right that the redeemed of His Beloved are expecting the Lord’s return and are excited about it. It is what Titus 2:13 calls the Blessed Hope. On the other hand, there is a stern warning about the setting of dates. I mean, what part of “no one knows the day or the hour” don’t we understand? (Mat 24:36, Act 1:7, 1 Thes 5:2). Therefore, it is dangerous for someone to ever come to a point where they have calculated the exact day for the Lord’s coming. Secondly, most people – if not all – who claim the Lord is coming tomorrow claim to have had a direct message from the Lord through their dreams and private encounters. On this platform, I believe we have extensively discussed the “God told me” guys and the kind of confusion they have caused among God’s Church. One more time, I say, we can’t, we simply cannot afford to base our Christian hope on someone’s private vision which we have no way of verifying its truth. Furthermore, the past has proved again and again that false predictions of the Lord’s return do damage to believers because many sincere Christians put their hopes in that; some even sell their goods & possessions – all to be disappointed while the false teacher vanishes with the money bag. It is that bad. Finally, the coming of our Saviour must be followed by certain events before it happens, one of which is the revelation of the Antichrist (1 Thes 2:3-4), and the Abomination of Desolation mentioned in Matthew 24.
Having time, I would go on and do a lesson about the different viewpoints about the Coming of Jesus, i.e. Pre-tribulation Rapture Millennialism, Mid-Tribulation Rapture Millennialism, Post-Millennialism and Amillennialism. Regardless, my overall point of today is that you have every right to take the 23 September rapture obsession with the tiniest pinch of salt. It is within your Christian right to doubt, or even reject, anyone who sets a date for the Lord’s return. More so, as believers, we have no fear of the Day of the Lord. If you are in Christ, you don’t have to worry about being “left behind”. If He decides to come tomorrow, so be it, but if He doesn’t come, we will go on serving Him, preaching the Gospel, investing and being productive with our lives as we have always done.
Conclusion: Friends, I applaud that God’s people are enthusiastic for the Coming of Jesus, nevertheless, I must warn about being over-zealous until we make predictions about something that the Bible calls a mystery (1 Cor 15:51). Furthermore, the message of the Gospel is not, “repent or you will miss rapture”, but it is “repent because you have offended God because of your sin.” Christ will come; however, no one knows the day or the hour. Let us, therefore, keep it that way, while we continue to look for His appearing. Adios amigos.
Sinothi Ncube
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