Que Sera, Sera

I almost forgot! According to Harold Camping of Family Radio, the world will end tomorrow (as opposed to last May 21st when obviously it did not).

(Big Sigh)

100% of all end-of-the-world predictions have been wrong. It's like playing a lottery you have no possibility of winning. Has Mr. Camping ever read Matthew 24? Perhaps he is really trying to predict his own passing?

When I was in junior high one of my friends told me the world was going to end on such-and-such a day. She knew because there had been a speaker at her church and the speaker showed them all the signs from the Bible that had "come true". My friend told me to read the Book of Revelation and that it would scare me to death. I did read it, or tried to, but found it too confusing and gave up. Decided to pray instead. And wouldn't you know, here we are +/-35 years later, still waiting for the world's demise.

Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Que sera, sera. What will be, will be.

UPDATE: There was a 4.0 magnitude earthquake near the Family Radio headquarters!!! I cannot imagine the reaction inside that building. ROFL

I tried to find something about end times predictions in the late 70s to pinpoint what my friend was talking about  and I found this list of predicted dates of the end of the world on Wikipedia (Martin Luther made the list!).

Pop Quiz!

The first time I took this quiz it told me I was going to hell.

The second time I took the quiz I took time read the questions. :-)

It actually makes no difference how you answer the first part of the quiz (even leave it blank!) - the "score" is always the same. Eventually you end up at the 10 steps to being a Christian (or something along those lines).

Spinning

"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly;
"'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you may spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many curious things to show when you are there."

The charming spider reminds me of Candy. She lures women in with homekeeping advice and recipes, but the real intent is to proselytize.

Back in college we had street preachers. They would stand on benches and yell at people to repent, call people names and get into pointless shouting matches with students. They were quite a contrast to the Christianity I had experienced in my small midwestern hometown. The Christianity I knew was John 3:16, not Revelation 21:8.

One day in college, on my way to work shelving books in the library, I had to pass by where a couple of the street preachers were setting up. Classes were still in session and there weren't many people around so I was an easy target. They called me a whore, told me I was going to hell and that I needed to repent NOW!

I ignored them.

The point:
Some folks see hostility and antagonism as a legitimate form of evangelism. They try to scare you into belief. But how long will faith based on emotion (such as fear) last? Not very long. Faith is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel and the Sacraments. It is not a fickle human emotion.