If you've driven on a highway recently, you've probably seen one of these signs "predicting" Judgment Day. It was apparently calculated by a Protestant minister with the following logic:
"In 2 Peter 3:8, Holy God reminds us that one day is as 1,000 years. Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God that would come when He destroys the world on Judgment Day. Seven thousand years after 4990 B.C. (the year of the Flood) is the year 2011 A.D. (our calendar)."
It should also be noted that this same minister predicted the end of the world back in 1994, which obviously didn't happen.
My friend Msgr. Soseman has written a great reflection on this topic, which is found below. Enjoy!
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I have a confession to make: I have never understood all of this talk about the "rapture" or all of this concern for the end of earthly time.
The end of the world has been forecast, I understand, for Saturday at 6 p.m. local time, in each time zone in the world. This is the second time that this particular minister has forecast the world's end. His first prediction was for a date in 1994, from what I understand, and that obviously never happened. I guess his followers will know well in advance if he was proven right, as 6 p.m. New Zealand time comes a long time before 6 p.m. San Francisco time, and evil places like Minneapolis and Billings will find their end an hour or two before Las Vegas and San Francisco. (I would suspect that if Our Lord planned to end the world in accord with local time zones, he would perhaps consider STARTing, not ending, in California).
For a Christian, there never needs to be overt concern regarding the end of the world. We know that the earthly world will end for us at our deaths, which could take place, of course, at any time. We need to live our lives ready to meet our maker, to embrace our encounter with the four last things: death, judgment, heaven (likely via that purification from the effects of our sins which we call purgatory) or hell. We need to stay close to our Lord, and not have fear, but instead be ready to see Him face to face when death should come for us.
A convinced Christian should not worry about the general judgement, what in some Protestant circles is called the rapture (although their debate on pre-mid and post-millenialism is always a bit mystifying), which was predicted for this Saturday. This is what has been called, in general Christian circles, the apocalypse, the end of the world. Regarding that, we know not when it will come.
It could happen in five seconds.
four
three
two
one
Nope, hasn't happened yet.
Or it could be ten thousand years away.
Some of the early Christians felt that the end of times was imminent, just as some Christians do today. Just as we should be prepared for our own deaths, we need to be prepared for the end times whenever they should come. We prepare in the same way. Living our lives in communion with our Lord, enjoying the good things he provides for us on this earth, but always turning from sin, turning from evil, and embracing a relationship with HIM.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who died in his early twenties, felt that if we were living a good, moral, life, in Communion with Our Lord, we should never be perturbed, even if we heard the world was ending. Famously, when the Jesuit novices got into a discussion about the end times, the question arose what each would do should he hear the world had a half an hour left whilst he was playing a game of billiards. Some said they would run to the chapel, others said they would go to Confession, others that they would seek out their loved ones. St. Aloysius said he would keep on playing billiards.
St. Aloysius once said that it is better to die as a child of God than as king of the entire world. We can, indeed, conquer worlds. We can, indeed, seek great success in our job with our family. We must ask ourselves, however, whether we are, indeed, living as a child of God, even while we conquer the world.
An ancient prayer is worded in honor of the Blessed Trinity: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
The world referred to, is not the earth, it is not the world around us which will never end, instead, of course, it is the heavenly world, our eternal existence. This should be our prime concern, unity with our Lord, who is God from before time and will be in the ages of ages, in a world which never ends.
So, whether the world ends in five seconds
four
three
two
one.
Nope,
or at 6 p.m. local time Saturday in Frisco, or in 10,000 years, love our Lord enough to desire to be with him at all times!
