“By God’s grace and tremendous mercy, He is giving us advanced warning as to what He is about to do.  On Judgment Day, May 21^st, 2011, this 5-month period of horrible torment will begin for all the inhabitants of the earth.  It will be on May 21^st that God will raise up all the dead that have ever died from their graves.  Earthquakes will ravage the whole world as the earth will no longer conceal its dead (Isaiah 26:21). People who died as saved individuals will experience the resurrection of their bodies and immediately leave this world to forever be with the Lord. Those who died unsaved will be raised up as well, but only to have their lifeless bodies scattered about the face of all the earth. Death will be everywhere.”  The above is the belief of Harold Camping of Family Stations radio and TV ministry.

II Peter 3:10 – 12 – “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”

Revelation 6:12 – 14 – “There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”

What are the signs of the time telling us?  II Timothy 3:1 – 5 – “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

Other teachers tell us that the world will end on December 21, 2012 according to Mayan and Hopi’s predictions.  Thousands of people in the Netherlands are preparing for that day by accumulating emergency supplies.  It has been circulating on the Internet, in books and recently a motion picture.  Rumor has it that the government is actually preparing secret underground bunkers.

Jesus Christ Himself taught that no man knows the day or the hour of the Lord’s return.

I Thessalonians 5:1 – 3 – “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you,  for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”  Paul taught that believers know all that they need to know.  Christians have nothing to fear in Christ’s second coming but we must stay alert and ready.

II Thessalonians 2:3 – 5 – “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”

Scripture is very clear the Day of the Lord will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed.   In the early church some believed Christ’s second coming had already happened.  In chapter two Paul tells the church not to be unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy from false teachers.  I have read where some predicted the second coming in the 1940s, 1988 and 1994.  Who are you going to believe—the Apostle Paul or today’s teachers?  When anyone tells you the world is going to end on a certain date refer them to II Thessalonians 2:3 – 5.  Ask them if the man of lawlessness has been revealed and has the rebellion occurred?  If so, who is he?  What temple is he in proclaiming himself to be God?  When that happens I believe CNN and Fox News will let us know!  I believe the rapture will occur prior to that but at least we will be here long enough to witness its coming.