END OF THE WORLD PREDICTIONS
It's hard to believe it was just a year ago that the head of The Family Radio Broadcasting Network--Harold Camping--predicted, through 2,000 billboards worldwide, that on May 21, 2011 the righteous, which totaled 3 percent of humanity, was to be whisked away to heaven, leaving the rest of us to weather five months of extreme natural disasters until October 21, 2011, whereupon God was to destroy the entire universe and everyone in it. Camping claimed to have "infallible, absolute proof" that this was gonna happen, and that there was no point in making plans for Memorial Day Weekend. Sadly, quite a number of people bought into it, selling their possessions and paying big money for billboards.
Of course, predicting exactly when Christ will return is nothing new. For example, Preacher Samuel S. Snow predicted Jesus would return on October 22, 1844. Thousands of people gave away all their possessions, only to be surprised when the world did not end. That day came to be known as "The Great Disappointment."
In 1806 news of Christ's return came by means of a hen in Leeds, England who had been laying eggs that bore the message "Christ is coming." Thus, she was named The Prophet Hen of Leeds. Apparently, great numbers of people came to visit the spot where this hen was laying these eggs.
And many people suddenly became extremely religious as they prayed fervently and repented of their evil ways. But, as it is written, "some gentlemen, hearing of the matter, went one fine morning, and caught the hen in the act of laying one of her miraculous eggs. Close by was a young lad inscribing the words on the egg with corrosive ink."
Moving forward in history, Dorothy Martin, a Chicago housewife, predicted the end would come December 21, 1954.
In his 1996 book: The Planet Earth 2000 A.D. Hal Lindsey, who has been making big money predicting the end of the world since his 1970 best-selling book: The Late, Great Planet Earth, wrote that Christians should not make any plans after the year 2,000.
And Pat Robertson, said on a broadcast of The 700 Club "I guarantee you by October or November of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world." Robertson later acknowledged, "I have a relatively good track record," but, "sometimes I miss."
Jesus said, "It isn't for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. Rather...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
(From a sermon by Kenneth Sauer, "It's Time To Stop Staring at the Clouds," 5/15/2012)