So the End of the World Didn’t Happen–NOW What Do We Do?

Obviously, rumors of our rapture, and the subsequent pending apocalypse, have been greatly exaggerated. 🙂

At least, I hope so. (Anyone still out there? Anyone?)

The end of the world has been wrongly pinpointed before, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard this much chatter about the previous (non)-incidents. Thank you, Facebook and Twitter.

The last time in my memory that there was anywhere close to this much of a stir about the supposed return of Christ was in 1988.  A lot of people in my circle were actually talking seriously about it, though perhaps not buying it completely.  It was just enough to make you wonder if maybe it was true. I got married one month before it was supposed to happen, and while my pastor and I were waiting in the wings to go on the platform, he rather insensitively made small talk about it, like it was a possibility.

Now, I wanted to go up in the rapture as much as the next Christian–and I knew logically whatever we’d go to would be much better than here–but dang, the timing sucked. (RIGHT when I got married? Really, God?) I honestly felt a lot of relief when the deadline passed without incident. And I also felt a little bit of guilt for feeling such relief.  Funny how we see the world through this little teeny lens sometimes.

I share this story to illustrate how unhelpful it is when people make these kinds of predictions.  Never mind the poor souls who spent their life savings in anticipation of the non-event–one has to wonder if these people even read the Bible.  (What about verses like “NO ONE knows the day or the hour” or “Occupy till I come.”?) Not only does it make us look foolish, but I also find that it really has the “cry wolf” effect, where it drops people’s guard (even Christians) every time one of these deadlines passes.  Like we really need another reason not to be taken seriously.

In case any of my readers were actually wondering–I do believe in the return of Christ, and the end of this world. I have come to distrust nearly every person’s interpretation of what it will look like or how it will go down, but I do believe it will happen at some point. I gave up on eschatology some time ago when I realized there are just about as many interpretations of end-time prophecy as there are people.  Pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, no trib. It’s obvious no one really knows for sure, and God has a track record of fulfilling prophecy in ways people do not expect.

I’ve come to embrace a philosophy about Scripture that we should not spend so much time on the things that are ambiguous, and focus on the things that are clear. “Love your neighbor” is clear; the afterlife and the age to come–we see all that through a glass darkly. Yet we fail to fulfill the most basic commandments while we speculate and try to figure out the unclear parts. I believe Scripture is inspired by God, and that what we have there is on a need-to-know basis.  If God hasn’t made certain things clear to us about the end of the age, and if He chooses not to reveal the exact timing of Christ’s return, it is for a reason, and that is knowledge that is either unnecessary or unhelpful to us at this time.  So all I know is when the end comes–it will be on time. And like Jesus said, we should be ready, because we really don’t know the day or the hour.

Among all the jokes and levity about this issue this past week, I saw several believers on Facebook post a rather insightful question: If you knew the world was about to end, how would you spend your time? This question provokes thought, and perhaps a little conviction–because most of us can make a list of things we have put off because we thought we had plenty of time. Now, like anything else, living with that sense of urgency can become unbalanced (example: spending all your money because the world is going to end), but it is a healthy thing for us to live with some sense of anticipation–to “occupy until He comes”, going about our business…but to live ready.  And not to put off the important stuff.  Jesus didn’t come back yesterday, but He could come back at any time.

Here’s the thing.  One way or another, this world is going to end for all of us at some point. The world ends for someone every day.  None of us really knows how much time we have, whether we are alive when the world ends or whether we live out our days here and eventually pass on.  If there’s one redemptive thing about the non-rapture, it’s that it has got people thinking about it, thinking about time and how we use it.  It should serve as a reminder to us that we should embrace the moments we have and live them as fully and as healthily as we can, with a sense that time is a precious and valuable gift. For me, I want it to remind me not to put off the significant goals in my life. I also want it to remind me to cherish the everyday.

Whenever my last day is–I want it to be a day when I told my family that I love them.