According to Harold Camping, May 21, 2011 was supposed to be the Judgment day. Here we are, a couple days later, and we are still waiting for the Judgment. This was not the first time for Camping to make such a prediction. He is also not the only one who has presumed to announce the date of this event. Despite all of the failed prophecies, there are still many people willing to believe that someone like Camping has figured out the date of the final Judgment. They ignore the Scriptures that say, “of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24:36), and “the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:10). But why?
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May 23, 2011
Why the Interest in Judgment Day Predictions?
August 7, 2010
Having a Zeal for God
After Paul obeyed the gospel and went about preaching to the Gentiles, he was viewed by many of his Jewish brethren as a traitor. When he came back to Jerusalem, a group of Jews stirred up the crowds against him, intending to kill him. He had to be rescued by the Roman cohort that was present in the city. Before being led away, he was given opportunity to make a brief defense for himself before the Jews. As he began, he started by highlighting what they had in common.
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today” (Acts 22:3).
Zeal for God – the eager and intense interest in pursuing Him – was a characteristic that Paul had in common with the Jews. It is important that we, as Christians, also have a zeal for God and the things of God. But zeal alone is not enough. That is plainly seen in this passage. Both Paul and the Jews were zealous, even sharing the same object of their zeal – God. But the Jews viewed Paul as an enemy. So intense was the division between them that the Jews were beating Paul, intending to kill him, when the Roman soldiers arrived (Acts 21:31-32). When Paul reached the point in his defense where he talked about his work in preaching to the Gentiles, they cried out, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!” (Acts 22:22). Both were zealous for God, yet they were on opposite sides of this conflict. How?
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April 24, 2008
False Knowledge
“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’ [science, KJV] – which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith” (1 Timothy. 6:20-21).
Tonight I was able to watch Ben Stein’s movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It is a documentary about the efforts to silence and discredit those who offer an alternative to the theory of evolution – namely, Intelligent Design. It was very well done and I highly recommend you see it.
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June 1, 2007
Preparing to Preach
One who decides to devote his life to the preaching of the gospel is to be commended. It is an important work and one which will always be needed. But how would a man who has decided to devote his life to the gospel prepare to do the work?
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September 1, 2005
A Famine in the Land
How much importance do we place in the word of God? Do we appreciate the seriousness of our responsibility to know God’s word? God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). There are many passages we can read to show the importance of knowing God’s word. In this article we will notice one such passage that shows the importance of God’s word and the results of being without it.
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, who say, “As your god lives, O Dan,” and, “As the way of Beersheba lives,” they will fall and not rise again’” (Amos 8:11-14).
This passage begins with a parallel between the word of God and food in order to make the point that His word sustains us in our spiritual life in the same way that food sustains us in our physical life. This comparison is also made in the New Testament when the word of God is referred to as “milk” and “solid food,” or “meat” (1 Peter 2:2; Hebrews 5:12). Those passages teach that the word of God is designed to cause us to grow and mature as Christians. Other passages also show the importance of the word of God. Without the words of Christ, we cannot obtain eternal life (John 6:68). Without the gospel, we cannot be saved (Romans 1:16). In the same way that food nourishes us physically, God’s word nourishes us spiritually.
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