How to Face the Future

From a message by Pastor Randy Thornton

The Rev. Harold Camping, 89, predicted that a huge earthquake, beginning around 6:00 p.m. on May 21, 2011, would precede the Rapture.

Pastor Randy Thornton said he fell asleep as he rested on a couch in his home around 5:30 p.m., Saturday, May 21, 2011. He woke up after 6:00 p.m. and realized the Rapture hadn’t happened.

During a sermon titled “How to Face Your Future,” Thornton, 53, senior pastor of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., referred to Jesus’ words about the “Rapture” in Matthew 24:26: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:26 NIV).

In Christian eschatology (the study of “last things”), the “Rapture” is a reference to the “being caught up” referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Camping predicted that on May 21, 2011, Christians would exit the earth. His nonprofit Christian organization, Family Radio, took in $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009 and advertised “Judgment Day.” According to “Wikipedia,” Camping applied numerology to his interpretations of Bible passages to predict dates for the “End Times.” He calculated the Rapture would occur on May 21 and God would destroy the Earth and the universe on October 21. “When May 21 passed without incident, Camping stated he now believes a ‘spiritual’ judgment occurred on that date and that the physical Rapture would occur on October 21, 2011, simultaneously with the destruction of the universe by God,” “Wikipedia” reports. Camping previously predicted “judgment days” on May 21, 1988, and September 7, 1994.

Thornton, who says he believes the Rapture will occur someday (at an unknown time), asked his church, “How do believers in Jesus Christ prepare for what’s ahead?”

He listed two things NOT to do:

1. Do not make the mistake of planning without God.

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city…carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).

“I challenge the men of this church, heads of households, to prepare for the future,” Thornton said. “Pray that we would hear what’s on the heart of God. I believe the Holy Spirit is beginning to call people back into prayer in a new way.”

2. Do not presume about tomorrow (James 4:14, 16). “You need to be able to hear a storm coming,” Thornton said. “Are you going to walk with God, if you lose your job? If you put God first, he will provide. In this nation, we are going to have some great opportunities to follow God.”

He gave four points to consider in preparing to face the future:

1. Have a God-relationship. “God desires a relationship with his people,” Thornton said. “This is no time for namby-pamby, double-marshmallow Christians.”

2. Have faith. “If you’ve given your life to Jesus Christ, it won’t matter what happens in the future,” he said.

3. Obey God’s Word. “Shallow Christianity won’t last very long…where you come to church and then live like hell all week long.”

“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:21-22).

4. Put God first in your finances (Malachi 3:6-12). Don’t break covenant with God by withholding tithes. “Tithing teaches us to put God first,” Thornton said. “When you choose to take from God…what a man sows, he will reap.”

In conclusion, Thornton asked, “How do you prepare for the future?” and referred to this verse: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:11).