It's the End of the World, As We Know It ...

...and I feel fine!

Yesterday was supposed to be the end of the world, or the rapture, depending on which loony bin you belong in. I am blogging today, so I think we're good ...

Seriously though, no one knows. I understand that only God (The Father) knows, and even Jesus doesn't know. He says to be prepared for the end, and to make sure your heart is ready, but no one knows.

So why are all these people trying to predict something that is so unsure? Honestly, I don't even know what I believe, when it comes to this subject. All this pre-tribulation and post-tribulation stuff ... I am not even sure it is biblical? And if it is, whose translation was it? And was it supposed to be literal?

Here is what I believe ... I believe that we are born, and we die. When we die, we will go to Heaven or Hell, depending on one thing, and one thing alone: did we accept the grace and forgiveness that was offered to us, for free, by Jesus' dying on the cross? There are a lot of people that say they are Christians, and they are good people, but that is the one and only deciding factor ... believing and accepting. Nothing else. Nothing you do, nothing else you say, nothing you are.

What does this have to do with the end of the world? A song I liked, from far back, was by a Christian New Wave band called Quickflight, fronted by a local guy, Ric de Groot. The song was called Atheist. I don't really remember all of the words, but the song is comparison between the Christian and the Atheist, from the Christian's point of view. The first part states, Okay, what if you, the atheist, are right, and there is no God, no Heaven, no Hell, and everything I am doing is a waste of time. I die trying, and that's it, I am dead. The second part states, but what if you are wrong, and there IS a God, and a Heaven, and a Hell, and if you die tonight, not accepting God's grace, where are YOU going? This basically means, I might be wasting my time and energy on living for a God that doesn't exist, but on the other hand, you might be wasting your eternal life on denial and stubbornness.

When I heard this song, and listened to it many times, it was a positive thing for me, because "I was right". Now, many years later, I am still right...

So, even though I try to not think about the end of the world, or even the end of my own world, I am comforted by the thought that I have eternal life. I'm not done down here yet, and I feel like there is a lot to do, both for myself and hopefully for others, but that doesn't mean that I am not ready.

Here now, I think of the word from the immortal song by Larry Norman, I Wish We'd All Been Ready. Never watched the Kirk Cameron series of Left Behind, but I did watch the older Thief in the Night series. They scared me then, and they just plain worry me now...

Let's hope that the end isn't 2012, either! Saw the movie, and that looks scary :)