"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of Yahweh, and that He may send Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which Elohim (God) has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:19-21, NKJV).
They're at it again - announcing the end and telling us that the Tribulation began on 21 May 1988, 'Judgment Day' is coming on 21 May this year when the 'rapture' will take place to be followed by 153 days of death and horror leading to the end of the world on 21 October.
Quite apart from the fact that the Day of Judgment is at Yom Kippur and at a different time of the year, the fact that the Day of Judgment and the end of the present world system occur at the same time, quite apart from the fact that the Great Tribulation lasts 3½ years and not 23, quite apart from the fact that Yahweh doesn't use the Roman calendar but the Hebrew one, Project Caravan (as the American evangelistic groups calls itself) is so far off base on so many things that you might wonder why I am even bothering to mention them. The trouble is, this is no small nutty sect - this is a well respected Radio Ministry called Family Radio with 66 stations across the USA with an international listenership which has been around since the 1950's. Tens of thousands of people listen to them and believe them.
End-time number-crunching has, of course, been going on a for a very long time, and the more people there are who engage in this, the more there are who get it wrong and the more the Name of Christ is dishonoured and mistrusted amongst unbelievers. And you can't blame them. I know that when I was an unbeliever, it was precisely this sort of nonsense that turned me off converting for years.
The problem is, the moment there's a major catastrophe, war or revolution in the world on any substantial scale, the end-time predicters feverishly get to work in a bid to scare people into the Kingdom. Quite apart from the fact that Yahweh does not want people converted this way, it dissilusions and destroys the faith of such converts when the prophecies fail to come to pass, making it extra hard for bona fide witnesses of Messiah to reach them later.
It is a most serious matter to predict the day Yah'shua (Jesus) returns especially as the Bible says no one but the Father knows when it is. The best we can say is at what time of the year it will be at so that if Yah'shua (Jesus) were to actually return this year (Roman or Hebrew) it would be 28 or 29 September, with the Judgment following around 7 or 8 October. How do we know that? Because of the festivals of Yahweh.
You may safely ignore these fleshy, lawless soothsayers and rather warn people to pay no attention to their unspiritual ravings. I absolutely guarantee there will be no rapture on 21 May and that the world will not end on 21 October. That doesn't mean we won't have any troubles in the world, or that dramatic events won't necessarily happen on or around these dates (because they're going on all the time), but it does mean that no one is going to be whisked away into the sky (unless it's a mass UFO abduction) or that you and I won't still be about our business on 22 October, because we will, even if the world has substantially changed by then because of (say) an economic collapse.
You do need to be get prepared for tough times, though, as I have been saying now for some time. You do need to get a good storage of food and other essentials to last you anywhere from 3 to 12 months, and you do need to get out of debt now, convert the better part of your liquid assets (if you have any) into silver or gold, lead a simpler lifestyle, and - above all else - you absolutely do need to get right with Yahweh!
There are going to be plenty more people like the folks from Family Radio over the coming years and you are going to have to be very careful whom you listen to and believe. Just because someone is enthusiastically waving a Bible round and preaching from it doesn't mean they have the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God). Those who are lawless, not obeying the mitzvot (commandments), are going to be misled by deceiving spirits in abundance, no matter how 'fundamentalist' thet may be.
Of course these false prophets have a convenient escape route - if they are still around after 21 May they can say they weren't one of the elect, only that will apply to all of them, including their followers. But will they question what spirits they were following? Will they even conclude that they were not listening to the authentic Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and that they were therefore not walking in Christ? I doubt it. If I know these people, they will - like the Jehovah's Witnesses before them - just conclude that they got some of their mathematics wrong, but that otherwise they were on track and all is well. The world of the charismatics is littered with false prophecy but they never repent - they keep on merrily sinning all the while 'praising the Lord'.
This will never do and we have to tell them so. They are waltzing into spiritual oblivion as they are tossed too and fro by every charismatic wind. This is not the way the Almighty works and He will not be returning to such a people, but only to those who submit to Him in everything. Those who are prepared are those who have been systematically walking in discipleship, not those who suddenly get it into their heads at the last minute that they were the 'elect' after all.
Please don't fool around with the Gospel and please don't listen to or follow those who do. So long as you are trusting Yah'shua (Jesus) and obeying the commandments, and bringing forth the fruits of the authentic Ruach (Spirit), Yahweh will take care of you. In the meantime, stay put, commune with Him and prepare for the Final Gathering!
