Soothsayers Saying Sooth

Our New Testament yesterday (Matthew 24) has often been used to support different theories and understandings of the end time. In reality, the question that Jesus is asked and the answer that He gives have to do with the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the end of the Jewish age. There is a warning about the end of the world and it is pretty simple-- "Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." That becomes the theme of the parables that follow in today’s reading in Matthew 25 (see Matt 25:13). We can't know when Jesus will return so we must be ready all the time.

And yet, there have always been would be prophets that the title of one book calls "Soothsayers of the Second Advent," I have always liked that title. These soothsayers claim to have have found some key or the other that allows them to unlock hidden truths in scripture that allows them to predict the day of the end of time. (There always seems to be enough time left from the publish and sell a book!). Here are some examples--

• In the mid-second century, Montanus set the date for the return of Christ and the end of the world in the late second century. His followers gave their goods away and waited for the return. When it didn't happen, the Montanists were reduced to beggars and the movement ended.
  
• In 1524, a German theologian named Stoufler predicted the coming end of the world in a cataclysmic flood. He attracted a wide following, and his disciples built boats and rafts and waited for the great world-ending flood. When it didn't happen, they were so annoyed that they threw Stoufler into a lake!
  
• William Miller predicted that the world would end in 1843, a date he later had to revise to be October 22, 1844. The Millerites were so shocked when it didn't happen that they referred to October 23, 1844 as “The Great Dissappointment.” While Miller faded from the scene, some of his followers led by Ellen G. White founded the Seventh Day Adventists.
  
• Some of the other ex-disciples of Miller led by Charles Taze Russell formed the "Millennial Dawn" movement. They set many dates for the end time, beginning in 1874 and then reset to be 1914, 1925, 1929, 1941, 1975, and their most recent prediction was for 1991. This movement is now called the Jehovah's Witnesses; they no longer set dates.
  
• In 1970, Hal Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth in which he predicted the second coming sometime in the mid-seventies based on the Egypt-Israeli war. The book as been revised many times because the world has changed a little since he wrote.
  
• And of course, Y2K sparked renewed interest of end time predictions as the third millennium began. Not only did the world not end, but most of the lesser catastrophes that was supposed to come with the changing of the calendar did not take place.

One can only suppose that events like 9-11, tsunami of several years ago, and the Giants upset of the Patriots in the Super Bowl will encourage other soothsayers of the end time to continue making predictions. If the Cubs ever win the World Series, then look out!

Jesus' words ring as true today as they did when he spoke them. Our job is not to unlock hidden keys that allow us to use our newspapers as decoder rings that reveal the exact time of the second coming. Everyone who does that ALWAYS comes up with something different. That is just not our job… it wasn’t even Jesus’ job while He was here on earth (Matt 24:36). No, our job is to live our lives so that we are ready for Jesus coming whenever it happens—today, tomorrow or a hundred million years from now.