Unless There Is No Sunday

Greetings from Minneapolis! I am in this beautiful city for the annual Festival of Homiletics...an annual conference for preachers. Now listening to preaching for five days straight may not sound like an enriching activity to you, but I enjoy hearing a variety of preachers sharing their unique approaches and understandings of God's word. The weather has been wonderful all week and spring is just now beginning to peak here.

I look forward to returning home on Saturday and being with you for worship on Sunday, unless....unless there is no Sunday. Perhaps you have heard that a group based in California, led by a radio ministry executive named Harold Camping, believes that Christ will return this Saturday, May 21, ushering in the judgment of the Lord. Mr. Camping believes that when Jesus said that no one knows the date and hour of his second coming, he wasn't including true believers in that ignorant group. He believes that most of us who call ourselves Christians, particularly those within the established church, are not true believers. He, and others who believe like him, are indeed the ones who will be saved when Jesus returns this Saturday. Now though I have heard Mr. Camping on a few occasions on his "Family Radio" broadcasts, I do not begin to understand his rationale for the warning he has issued to the world about Christ's return. I have heard him try to defend his prediction, but have obviously found it unconvincing. I do believe that Christ will return, but that is a decision God alone will make and God alone knows that date and time. Jesus pointedly admitted that even he did not know the hour of his return, (Mark 13:32-33) yet many people have taken it upon themselves over the years to affirm their advanced knowledge on this subject before God.

It would be easy to lampoon Mr. Camping and many others before him through the centuries who have thought they had the inside track to God's timetable. The tragedy in all of this, however, is that those skeptical of the church and the message of Christ become more skeptical, and many within the body of Christ, more cynical. I will not question the sincerity of Mr. Camping or his followers, for I do not know him or them. I do however wonder at the arrogance of the human mind to once more imply that we have figured God out...charting the "signs" even better than Jesus could, to calculate, or calculatingly bring forth God's judgment.

If my flight arrives safely Saturday afternoon and I awaken Sunday morning by the grace of God, I will walk through the doors of Westwood Baptist Church with anticipation for what the living God will do in and through the community of faith gathered in that place on that day...and I will trust God with the time God gives, believing again that God's grace will be sufficient for each moment, and that God's timing is not dependent on the arrogance of human prognostication. Thank God, and thanks be to God!

Jim Abernathy