Will the World End Tomorrow?

Last weekend after I finished saying the expected announcents after Mass, I added one of my own: the world will not end on May 21st. People chuckled. I asked those who had heard about this May 21st prediction to raise their hands, about 20 to 30% of the hands went up.

I was able to make this statement with certainty because Jesus himself says in the Gospel of Mark” Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” If Jesus revealed that no one knows the day or hour, anyone who claims to know is speaking untruthfully and contradicts Sacred Scripture.

Family Radio, the fringe group making these claims, distorts the context of the Bible. Family Radio’s founder Harold Camping views the Bible as a code to be deciphered. After careful study of numbers, dates and “hidden” codes, Camping has reached the conclusion that the rapture will happen on May 21st and the end of the world on October 21st. This distorts the Christian understanding of Sacred Scripture. The Bible is not a code to be deciphered, the Bible is the story of God’s unconditional love for mankind. The Bible does not hold hidden meanings, the Bible reveals to us clearly and without error what God wants to communicate to us.

Apart from this distortion and disrespect of the Bible, the idea of a rapture as understood in modern times is a 19th century development within Christianity. The Catholic Church has no teaching on the rapture as many fundamentalist groups do because it is a later development not found within the Christian tradition. As Catholics we believe there will be an end of the world where all will be gathered around Jesus Christ for judgement, but there has never been any teaching of a rapture, tribulation etc. We do not wait for a rapture, we simply wait for the end of times.

For two reasons I can confidently assert nothing will happen tomorrow. First, no one knows when the world will end. Second, the rapture as understood by some modern Christian groups is not part of the Christian tradition and will never happen.

Have a Happy May 21st and give thanks to God for another beautiful day!