A rapturous shrug

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Of course it didn't happen, and now Harold Camping is fine-tuning his message to get out from under the onus of being wrong again about the rapture. I hope that his followers have gotten the right message from all this and will pick up their lives without being shaken in their faith in God. And tune out Harold Camping and anyone else who is a false prophet.

But I'm not here to bash Harold Camping. I find eschatology itself to be a profoundly difficult subject, and I assume the end will come when it comes. If Jesus did not know the hour when it would come, how can I? The end will come when it comes.

A former pastor once mentioned "pan-millennialism" as a way of understanding it all—as in, "it'll all pan out in the end." That's where I've come down. I believe Jesus will return as the conquering lion at some point, all in God's plan, to usher in a new heaven and a new earth, as Scripture states. That may come today; it may come in a million years. I don't know.

I do know that "sufficient for today is its own trouble" (Matt. 6:34), and I have prayers to bring before the throne of grace this morning, as well as a life to lead as I struggle to live according to the Lord's leading. I can only manage today's struggle, and hold on in my heart to the faith and love He has given me. For that I am grateful today, and I aim to love my fellow man as I love myself in what I say and do today. I will stumble, that I know; but He is faithful to forgive, and to set my feet aright as I continue moving forward in the days He has given me.