Today I thought that we could take a look at some questions and comments that came through the website. I will respond to them; and then later on, John is going to do a study during our second meeting. But at this time, they are kind of piling up, so I wanted to take a look at them.
The first note was from Zambia. It is interesting. When I got back from the Brazil missions trip, there was an email that I had received from Zambia that was from the day after the Family Radio team was apprehended and deported from Zambia. I have that email with me today, but I have another email that came from Zambia a couple of days before that missions team had even left on that trip. Then I am going to read one from Barbados because they are really saying the same thing.
1st Question: The Bible says that no one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father (Matthew 24:36).
Chris: Now, it does not say “the Son” in Matthew 24:36. It does mention “the Son” in Mark 13:32. This person got these verses confused.
1st Question (continued): Why now do you claim to know when the world will end as of October 21, 2011?
The second question is the one from Barbados.
2nd Question: I have read the Bible and not once did Jesus say that any human would be able to tell when the end time will be exactly. That is why He tells us to be prepared. Can you tell me where I would be able to see this prediction in the Bible?
Chris: Well, you know, people are familiar with Matthew 24:36, even people who do not regularly or normally go to church. I actually know a person from my family who has basically quoted or summarized Matthew 24:36 and this person has not been to church for over 50 years.
So this has somehow gotten into the mindset of our society, as well as many societies from around the world. This is from Zambia, it is in Barbados, and we heard it in São Paulo, Brazil. This is found wherever churches are found because they have done a good job, as far as getting this particular message out into the world.
Many people read this verse in Matthew 24:36, which says:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
So this does seem to indicate what these people are saying. Actually, it does indicate this, as God wanted the idea to be known during the Church Age that man could not understand the time of the end. This is because God had sealed the Word until the time of the end.
So verses like this were strategically placed by God in the Bible in order for man to think that they could not know the day or hour so that they would not even begin to look. But we have to look at the context of this verse; and, actually, the context is the whole Bible. But looking at the context is especially needed in this passage.
So we read in Matthew 24:36-39:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man [or one], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
So do you agree that the Lord is likening His coming at the end of the world to the days before the flood? I would ask this question to this person from Zambia or to this person from Barbados or from anywhere in the world or to anyone here who might think this.
Do you agree that the Bible is saying that no man can know of that day or hour? And do you agree that the example that God gives is that the coming of the Son of Man will be as in the days prior to the flood?
Well, you should agree. Yes, you should agree because this is what the Bible is saying.
Go back in history, go way back to the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and examine what happened before the flood, because this will teach you what is going to happen in our time of the end of the world when Christ will return.
When we do this, if we go back to Genesis 7, we find that the Lord is speaking to Noah where we read in Genesis 7:1:
And JEHOVAH said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Then verse 4, Genesis 7:4:
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
Now, God told Noah that in seven days, in one week, He was going to destroy the world with a flood. So did Noah know the year of the flood? Of course he did. It was timed to his lifespan—he was the calendar reference patriarch—and it was in his 600th year. Did he know the month? Yes, because it was on the 10th day of the 2nd month when God said, “For yet seven days,” and so it would be that same month; therefore, he knew that it would be the 2nd month. Did he know the very day? Yes, because it was one week later. He could easily calculate this, “Well, today is the 10th day, so this means that on the 17th day of the 2nd month of the 600th year of my life, God is going to destroy this world by a flood.”
Do you see? But this is not so cut and dried in Matthew 24:36 and in the following verses. It is not as simple as so many people want to make it.
We know how this is. When people have an idea and they find a verse that seems to support their idea, they grab hold of it. They have a superficial and on-the-surface understanding of it, yet they grab hold of it and say, “Well, you see, this is what the Bible teaches.” But in actuality, the Bible is never that easy. We always have to dig into the Bible and examine each word carefully, if we are able to, to make sure that this is what God is saying and what the Bible is teaching.
So continuing in Genesis 7, seven days later we read in verse 10, Genesis 7:10-13:
And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
So the day that they entered into the ark is the day that the waters came and the flood began. This is just like May 21, 2011 will be the day of the Rapture, the taking up of God’s people, and the beginning of the five months of torment. There will be an earthquake on that day that will cause great havoc around the world. God is telling us that these things are simultaneous, as things were simultaneous at the time of the entering the ark and the flood. So, too, is May 21 the day of the Rapture for the believers and the Day of Judgment for the rest of the world.
Of course, we know that May 21, 2011 is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Bible calendar. If you go to a Hebrew calendar-converting website and you type in any date, it will give you an equivalent Hebrew or Biblical calendar date. When you type in “May 21, 2011,” it is going to say that it is the 2nd month of Iyyar and the 17th day.
Why does this sound familiar? This sounds familiar because we just read this in Genesis, did we not? God was using Noah as the calendar reference, and it was the 17th day of the 2nd month of Noah’s calendar that the flood came. This is also the day that Noah went into the ark.
May 21, 2011 is that 17th day and 2nd month equivalent date to Noah’s calendar. Therefore, God has confirmed this. He is saying, “Yes, this is the day.” This also happens to be the 7000th year from the flood.
Have you ever tried typing in “May 21, 2012” or “May 21, 2013” and seeing the equivalent date? It does not always match up, so God did something special. He did something to verify that we are understanding the Bible correctly when it says that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Really, if that was all that God had done, that would have been sufficient for us; it should be enough. However, there is a lot more information.
So in regard to the people before the flood, why does Matthew 24:38-39 say:
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Why? Why did God say this?
God said this because they were caught off guard. They were surprised. They were shocked, because these were the unsaved people of the world. Noah was not surprised. He was not caught off guard. He was not shocked nor were the other members of his family, eight people in total. They knew because they had advance warning. Hebrews 11 says that the Lord warned Noah “of things not seen as yet,” and they entered into the flood.
We can be sure that Noah warned the people of the world of his day, because 2 Peter 2:5 says, speaking of the Lord:
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness…
This is referring to a preacher of Christ or a preacher of the Word. It continues:
…bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
None of the godly people perished in the flood. No godly person was caught off guard or surprised. God did not destroy the world like a thief to His people, but He came like a thief in that flood upon the ungodly, the wicked.
We can be sure that there were many people there who heard Noah, who saw the ark being constructed, and maybe for a long time, and yet they just dismissed it. They wrote him off, “After all, how many people believe this guy? How many people believe that Noah is right? He only has his wife, his three sons and their wives: eight people! And here we have how many hundreds of thousands who do not believe Noah?” We know that the world was probably one million or two million in population. “How many people do not believe him? How many are there who do not listen to Noah? How many are just going on with life as normal? After all, the majority rules and the majority is always right.”
Is this true? Is the majority always right? No. Nope. The majority of the people in Nazi Germany supported Hitler during World War II. They were able to convince most of the people in that society that certain things were correct, that it was okay to exterminate the Jews.
But, of course, we also know the Biblical examples that God gives us in the Bible where there is one Elijah and over 450 prophets of Baal. There are several examples like this because God does not work by majority. Majority does not dictate truth. It does not matter if all of the churches in the world do not see it and do not agree with it and do not believe it. It does not matter if all of their pastors and all of their learned men and all of those who have doctorates do not see it. It does not matter because it does not impact the truth of the Bible one bit. It does not affect truth at all.
The world will be caught as by a thief. God tells us that He is coming as a thief in the night upon the world of the ungodly.
Okay, I am going to move on to a comment that someone from Louisiana made as they visited the site.
3rd Question: Are you guys responsible for this end-of-the-world Rapture in May of 2011 message?
Chris: Actually, we are not. We are not, and I am not going to say that Family Radio is responsible. People keep going back to Mr. Camping, but I am not going to say that Mr. Camping is responsible either, because it goes a little bit beyond him. Actually, it goes much beyond him because it goes back to the Lord. It goes to the Lord. God takes full responsibility for the message that we are hearing today, and the Bible tells us this.
This person has more to say and I will come back to it, but let us go to Mark 13, which is the chapter dealing with the Great Tribulation and with information about the end of the world. It says in Mark 13:11:
But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate…
Now this is odd because what does God tell us in the Bible, “Meditate upon these things,” and it is the same Greek word. We are to “meditate upon these things” and “be ready always to give an answer.” Yet here in Mark 13:11, He is saying:
…take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour…
And this is referring to the hour of judgment, which is the Great Tribulation.
Why would the Lord say not to think about this beforehand and do not premeditate or meditate or prepare what you are going to say in that hour? Does anybody know? It is really pretty simple. Why would God give this kind of instruction? He did this because He has sealed up the Word till the time of the end.
Did teachers or theologians listen to what the Lord was saying here in Mark 13:11? No, they did not listen. We know this because you can find all kinds of commentaries on the book of Revelation and on the book of Daniel and Ezekiel, etc., and they developed end-time scenarios. This is why we have pre-mill, post-mill, a-mill teachings. Yet is any of this right? They might have a bit or a piece of it that is correct; but overall, it is wrong.
Why? Because they could not know. This is why they should not have bothered. They were to “take no thought beforehand.” Before “that hour,” they were not to premeditate or try to develop a doctrine of what was going to happen at the end because they would not be able to do so; it was impossible.
Now, let us read Mark 13:11 again:
…but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye…
You know, people would prefer that we do not. People would prefer that we do not bring up annihilation, that we do not talk about Jesus being “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” and that this is when He made payment for sin, that we do not speak of May 21 in 2011 as the date of the Rapture and the beginning of judgment, and that we do not mention five months of torment on earth.
Well, you see, God says to speak it.
…but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye…
“Speak ye”; declare it; share it in whatever way you can. We are always commanded to bring the truths of the Bible, the Gospel truth. We cannot hold back. We have to declare the whole counsel of God. We are commanded to share what we know.
Then in the last part of Mark 13:11, we read:
…that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
I know that there are people who do not want to hear these things. They do not like hearing these things so they blame the ones who are doing the teaching or who are trying to share this. This is who they blame, “You are leading people astray. You are all wrong. You are scaring people. You…You…You…”
They are failing to understand that God sent Jonah into Nineveh and what did Jonah say? “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” and this is a message of “time and judgment.” God is the one who told Jonah, “Preach unto it (Nineveh) the preaching that I bid thee,” and Jonah went and he preached that message exclusively, as far as we know, and the people of Nineveh believed….Jonah? No. Jonah 3:5:
So the people of Nineveh believed God…
Do you believe God? Do these people believe God? They say, “Well, I believe God, but I do not believe you!” But if I or any believer was coming and saying, “I had a dream last night. It was a really exciting and spectacular dream, and May 21 was circled in red in 2011.” Alright, do not believe that. Do not believe that. Or if they were to say, “God spoke to me through thunder,” do not believe that either. We know that since the Bible is completed, God will not speak that way; but God says in Mark 13:11:
…for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
So how does the Holy Ghost speak today? He speaks through the Word, the Bible.
Go to 1 Corinthians 2, because, yes, God speaks through the Bible, but a lot of people use the Bible. A lot of people reference the Word of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:13, we read:
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth…
This is just like Mark 13:11 that tells us that the Holy Ghost will speak, that the Holy Ghost will teach. These two verses are basically saying the same thing. So we do not speak man’s wisdom:
…but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
You see, if we do this right, if we do this correctly and faithfully and we look at these verses and compare them with all of these other verses in the Bible and then we harmonize the final idea or the conclusion—we have to remember to do this—then God says that He speaks and that He teaches.
So here, “in that hour,” God said to all of the churches from hundreds of years to not worry about it or to bother thinking about it because they were not going to know anything about it anyway. “Take no thought beforehand”; but in that hour of the Great Tribulation that we are presently in, God will speak. God, the Lord, will take the responsibility for what is declared at this time through the proper methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture as the Holy Ghost teaches.
You know, somebody could say, “Alright, here is your conclusion,” and they could do a study comparing Scripture with Scripture or show where we did not do a well-enough job in comparing Scripture with Scripture, that would be something that we would definitely have to look at and receive correction from.
But just to take a couple of verses on the superficial level and say, “No way! There is no way that you can know this. You cannot understand the time of the end,” well, people can say this but they are not approaching the Bible in a proper way and they are not dealing with all of the information that God has unsealed.
I will read the rest of the comment from this person who wrote to us from Louisiana.
3rd Question (continued): Are you guys responsible for this end-of-the-world Rapture in May of 2011 message? You are wrecking people’s lives with this. Our daughter-in-law has quit her job and left town with our grandson for parts unknown because she is thinking that the world will end. As Christians, we know that Jesus said, “No one knows the day or hour.” Please put a disclaimer on your calendar analysis. Maybe you could be wrong. Have a heart and do not continue this without a disclaimer. Face it. You know that you cannot be 100% sure.
Chris: Now, first of all, at no time does an individual cease to bear responsibility for their own actions. Right? Everyone is responsible for themselves. There are even people who hear things that are not true and they can respond in a way that kind of leaves you shaking your head, which can even happen when they hear something that is true.
But if each one of us is responsible to the Lord to live in a God-glorifying way, and obviously, taking a child and leaving your family without notice is not God-glorifying nor is it being responsible. Just because this individual is using some of the information related to what God is opening up to us does not mean that an individual is doing it rightly. Nobody that I know would agree or support someone who just quickly goes off by themselves.
But, you see, this idea comes through many times, again and again, and stated in different ways, that you cannot be 100% sure. Well, as a believer, are you and I 100% sure that Christ is the Savior? Are you 100% sure that He is the only Savior, that He is Jehovah and that there is no other? Yes. Is the true child of God 100% sure that He, the Lord Jesus, is eternal God? Yes. Well, why not leave a little room for doubt? Why not be 99.9 % sure; that is pretty good. Why not leave just 1/10th of a percent for doubt? Well, because, if you doubt this, if you do not see this, if you think that there could be another Savior or that Jesus is not God, if you have that doubt in your mind, then you do not have a Savior.
Here is a good example, because you hear this from theologians today. The Hebrew and the Greek that we have that underlies every translation of the Bible, is this Hebrew and Greek 100% without error? Is it completely 100% without a mistake? If you read theologians, they will say, “Well, virtually. It was so watched over and God so protected it that it is 99% the Word of God,” leaving a little bit of doubt, a little, tiny window, a little percentage that, yes, there could be a scribal error. “You know, I mean, it actually took hundreds of years to compile. How can we be certain? How can we know that the Hebrew and Greek that underlies our King James Version Bible is 100% true?”
Well, as soon as you leave room for this little bit of doubt, it is like the edge of the wedge. Have you ever used a wedge? You have a little crack in a piece of wood, so you put the edge of the wedge right inside that crack and then you use a hammer on it, and what happens? It splits and it becomes a very big crack.
You see, this is what Satan wants, “Hath God said?” Just one little question and it is an honest question. “Did God say that to you, Eve? Did God say that you were not to eat of every tree?” Satan introduced just that little bit of doubt and then Eve started playing around with it in her mind. “Did the Lord say….?” And then we see the terrible consequences that have destroyed mankind up until our present day.
Everything began with just a little doubt, and people are trying to get the child of God to admit—just a little bit—that they cannot be sure. Well, no, we can be sure. We are sure. This is why there is not a question mark on May 21, 2011—the Rapture. We should have an exclamation point. There is no question that God is speaking and that His Word is declaring these things and that this is going to happen. We are not going to entertain “what if’s” because they are of no profit and it does not help anybody.
I have another question. Actually, I have a couple more but we do not have time, so I will just look at one more. This next one is from Tennessee.
4th Question: Greetings. I am intrigued by your claim that the Rapture will occur on May 21, 2011 and that the world will be destroyed by fire on October 21, 2011. I would be willing to pay $1,000 for all of your worldly belongings, property, real estate, automobiles, etc., to be transferred to me on the morning of May 22, 2011. You will get the $1,000 now and I will get your property after the Rapture. If you are interested, please let me know and I will have my attorney draw up a contract.
Chris: He does not know what I have, so I might take him up on this. No. But this person is basically saying the same thing in a different way, “You cannot be sure. You cannot be sure!”
This person is saying that they are sure that it is not going to happen, and that is just as much a prophecy as saying that it will. Anybody who is saying, “I will see you on May 22nd,” is setting themselves up as a prophet because they are making a future prediction. “I will be here and the world will be here and you will be here with egg on your face.”
Well, that is your prediction, but I am going to trust what God says in the Bible. I am going to lean upon the Word of God and not upon man’s ideas and man’s thoughts.
But, you see, if we entertain these kinds of statements, then we fail to recognize that this person’s focus is completely off. We have to say, “No, listen, here is how it is. Here is how it is. God came to Noah and He told him very directly, ‘Here is how much time you have and the flood is going to come,’ and Noah believed God. Noah believed God and then Noah acted on the information by preparing an ark ‘to the saving of his house.’”
Would Noah have been wise, as people with a genuine concern for him came to him and said, “Noah, you are going to look like a fool, a big fool, on the 18th day of the 2nd month when you have that ark left in your yard because that ark is going to be a testimony to your silliness. For the rest of your life, people are going to laugh that you have that ark there that you labored so hard and so long with?”