THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

Rev. John H. Bigelow

For the week of October 31, 2010

One day I walked into a shop where I had developed an acquaintanceship with the owner and he immediately asked if I was aware of what was going on in the Middle East. “Of course”, I replied, “who isn’t these days.” But then I thought, not having seen or heard much of the news that day, and with the urgency with which he asked the question I naturally thought that something terrible had just happened. Actually, something terrible seems to be happening over there almost every day, but my mind raced to all-out war.

I was almost relieved to find that what he was referring to was a series of events that had convinced him that on October 28^th. The world would experience Christ’s return, perhaps the end of the world. This, I knew, would really hurt the church Fall Festival we had planned to have on the 30^th and our Bazaar and Chicken Pie Dinner on November 13^th which helps support the works of the church. But then I realized that we’d no longer have to worry about those good works anyway if the end of the world was on the 28^th..

In any event I rushed to the office to check my ministerial calendar but could find nothing on it that gave me any insight into this forecast cataclysmic event, so I turned to the Bible. You can’t even begin to imagine, therefore, how thankful I was to find not one, but two, references to this predicted event.

The first is in Matthew 24:36 (NLT), “No one knows the day or the hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” The second is soon after in Matthew 25:13 (NLT), “So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return.”

Now I don’t mean to poke fun at people who truly believe, with absolute conviction that the “End Is Oct. 28^th,” but I feel we Christians, all of us, would better serve our Lord if we witnessed the truth of what Jesus taught, in love, rather than attempting to be haughty prophets, boastfully proclaiming things that only God knows.

Then, on the other hand, perhaps if people the world around, not just in the Middle East, could learn to love one another with the love that Christ taught, well, I might humbly suggest that perhaps, just perhaps we will all be around to celebrate Christ’s birthday. It’s certainly worth the effort! Oh, and this was written with great faith on October 26^th.