May 21

The news lately has included a lot of coverage to the claim that the rapture would come today. I am not sure why the group got so much attention for their claim, especially since the same guy once predicted the world would end in 1994. May 21, 2011 was chosen as the day since they believe it is the 7,000th anniversary of Noah's flood. I am not sure how they came to that calculation, but I am glad to now know what gift to get someone for a 7,000th anniversary--Jesus. The craziest part of the claim is that the rapture will occur everywhere at 6 pm local time. I guess Jesus cannot do it all at once so we will get rolling rapture. I am not sure if they accounted for Daylight Savings Time in their theory. If not, Jesus would call up Arizona at the wrong time since they do not have DST. This theory meant those of us in the U.S. would have about a half-day warning of a rolling rapture, which kind of takes the fun out of the "thief in the night" songs. Since there were no news reports this morning of people vanishing in the Asian Pacific region, it looks like today's not the day. The idea of a rolling rapture makes me think this whole May 21 thing was thought up by some drunk guy on New Year's Eve--or by someone who thinks Jesus travels at the speed of Santa's sleigh. Yet, it would still be fun to prank call my pastor just after 6 just to see if he is still there. The worst thing about this clearly inaccurate claim is that the media gave the group so much attention. Giving the group so much coverage makes Christians in general look odd and dumb. Even though the Bible clearly says that no one will know the day or the time--let alone both--many people buy these types of claims. Hopefully, people will quit spending so much time and energy trying to predict when Jesus will return and instead work on following him in the here and now.