Rapture: relief and regret

Six o'clock Saturday came and went with a mixture of relief and regret.
Unless you managed to stay away from the popular media over the last week, you probably realize that a radio preacher from California made a lot of headlines by predicting the rapture - Christ's return for his followers, followed by the 'end of the world' - was going to take place at 6 p.m., May 21.
According to this misguided Biblical scholar, he somehow figured out that May 21 at 6 p.m. was exactly 7,000 years since Noah's family was shut up in the Ark and God destroyed the earth by rain, saving only Noah, Noah's family, and two of every kind of creature (male and female), from which God re-populated the earth.
Over the years, those of us who have grown up around the Church have heard many such men who have gone to great lengths to interpret the mysteries of the Bible, interpreting visions and signs and numbers and dreams and proclaiming they knew exactly what it all meant.
And of course always, these visions from the Bible were coming to pass in our current time because it all "fit." In high school, I can remember attending this one (at the time) highly thought of "prophecy conference" in which all of Revelation was explained with Russia and China and the United States and Israel and Europe all assigned parts in the revelation.
As convincing as these men were, even in high school I remember thinking that these same scriptures have been interpreted by priests and preachers and would-be prophets for a thousand years, all of them finding ways to apply it to the period in which they lived.
Just a few: Pope Innocent III predicted the end of the world in 1284; in the 1500s an English "prophetess'' known as Mother Shipton predicted the end would come in 1881; the "Millerites" predicted March 21, 1844; and of course the Jehovah Witnesses have predicted end times in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1941, 1975, and 1994.
So far, they've all been wrong - just like Saturday.
An awful lot of people have spent an awful lot of time trying to decipher the "hidden codes'' of the Bible - "codes'' that I just don't think exist.
I base this on the fact that Jesus (the one who is predicted to return) knew the Scriptures as well as anybody who ever lived. He was able to discuss them as a boy with the priests in the Temple and amaze them. He told his followers about his own future in terms of prophecy, referring to things like the "sign of Jonah."
Yet when asked about the second coming, Jesus said He didn't know, that (in Mark 13), "... about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.''
Why would Jesus say He hadn't been able to discern a clue about the Second Coming with his knowledge of prophecy, but somehow far less divine men and women have been given the insight denied to the Son of God Himself?
Somehow, I think the Bible wasn't given to us to confuse us, but rather to reveal God. And somehow I don't think God is hiding in mathmatics or obscure numbers.
My brother tells the story of being in Bible College and playing basketball late one night in the school gym. The janitor came in and while my brother and his friends finished their pick-up game, sat to the side reading his old Bible, waiting to lock up. When my brother was finished, they came over to thank the old man for letting them finish the game and, being Bible students, asked, "What are you reading?"
The old man replied that he was reading the Book of Revelation.
One of the students, possibly a bit full of himself, said, "That book is so full of visions and dragons and numbers and lampstands - do you understand what you're reading?''
To which the old man said, "Yes."
"Well," the Bible student said, "please tell us."
The old man looked up and said, "It means that in the end, Jesus wins."
Which is the bottom line to it all. Whenever the time, we do believe that in the end, Jesus wins.
So while I'm certainly pleased to still be here on earth, with my family and friends - after all, the longer God tarries the more opportunity there is for more people to get it right - there was a part of me that couldn't help but be a bit sad.
I mean, if I believe - as I do - that we were meant for a different relationship and created to live in a different environment, a relationship and environment that can't happen until Jesus comes back; if I believe - as I do - that the Saints who have left us are alive and that we will see them again one day; if I hope - as I do - that one day I'll understand why this life is the way it has been, then how could I not look forward to that day?
Meanwhile, I have no doubt we'll continue to hear prediction and prophecy, interpretation and insight.
One day, one of them will be right.
Because in the end, Jesus wins.
That much I do believe.