The end is near

If you are yet unaware, the world is coming to an end.  When is that end? May 21, 2011.  That's Saturday around 5 pm CDT.  Better get your ducks in a row.


At least, that's according to Harold Camping of Family Radio Worldwide.  Harold claims to have examined the scriptures and done the math, and proclaims that Judgement day is upon us.  He's not the only one.  The message has gotten out, and numerous followers are preparing themselves for the rapture by spreading the news all over.  Some have even quit their jobs and budgeted their funds in such a way as to run out on the 21st.

In response to all this, I have two questions: 1. Even if I don't actually believe that the rapture is coming on Saturday (I have some serious misgivings about the rapture anyway), do I get to go? 2. What does all this say about the God we believe in?

Firstly, if this is all true, I hope I get to go.  I read Left Behind in high school, and it is bad news for those who don't get the call.  As I said, I have some misgivings about the theology of the rapture, like when Jesus prayed that God wouldn't take believers out of the world but that He would protect them from the evil one.  But maybe these folks are right.  Maybe God has chosen to make the timing (with which He wouldn't share with Jesus) known to an 89 year old white preacher with a $100 million radio network.  Reading some interviews, like here at NPR, folks have literally given their lives over to what this guy is selling.  NPR also notes, importantly, that Brother Camping has incorrectly predicted the world's end before as September 6, 1994.  (In his defense, he had yet to complete his research.)

If all this isn't true, what does it say about our perceptions of God?  Why is He poised in anger to torture and destroy most of the world?  And why do Christians work so hard to escape the world around us?

Three things strike me about the interviews in the NPR story linked above.  First, there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty among the believers interviewed.  They are not uncertain about Brother Camping's predictions, but they are uncertain about their salvation.  It is as though our God is one who sits in heaven measuring our good deeds, and He's not taking many with Him.  In fact, despite one-fifth of the world claiming Christianity, only 3% will supposedly be rescued.  The need for an in and out group, even within the church, is disheartening.  The same Jesus whose compassion extended to the weak and heavy laden, the orphan and widow, the outcast and the harassed is now going to massacre 97% of the world's population, most of whom used to be within His range of compassion?

A second point I noticed is that all of them are fearful of one thing: the suffering to come.  What could be more American than a gospel that assures avoidance of suffering?  Why are we, as Christians, so committed to a faith that allows us escape from suffering when it is one of the few things that Jesus promised?  Jesus assures few things, and suffering is on the list.  Thankfully, we also get a Helper, and the comfort of knowing that He is coming back.  I don't think Brother Camping would get much of a following if he promised his followers that they get tortured and killed, but somehow Jesus sold the promise of a cross and it worked.  (If that isn't divine intervention, I don't know what is.)

Finally, these folks are wholeheartedly committed to this cause - enduring rejection, forsaking their loved ones and selling all they have.  What if these folks were doing these things not to escape Judgement but to bring Justice?  In some ways, I am jealous of them.  They have found the proverbial pearl of great price, something so valuable that it is worth forsaking all else.  Though Brother Camping may be distorting the gospel and truth of scripture, he has managed to convince these folks that he has something worth value.  What if I believed in something so much that I forsook finances and relationships and social standing?  I am afraid that might actually be the call of the gospel.