I'll just write a brief post on an issue I hadn't paid much attention to, because I thought it wasn't worthy of any attention, but it seems it has made a pretty big impact on people, and threatens to bring ridicule upon Christian testimony.
Harold Camping has said that the Bible declares the Lord is coming on 21st May 2011 (that's 25 minutes away at the exact moment of writing this sentence - I'd better hurry). There are a couple of things I don't understand!
Why did Paul not know that - he lived in the expectancy of the Lord's coming (Philippians 3 v 20; 1 Thessalonians 4 v 13-18), what makes Harold Camping think he has more insight than Paul? Paul anticipated the possibility of being alive when the Lord would come - was Paul expecting to be about until 2011?
Why did the Lord say that no one knows the day or hour of His coming (Matthew 24 v 36)? What makes Harold Camping think that he has more knowledge than the Lord Himself?
The New Testament teaches that the coming of the Lord for His people is imminent - that is, it must happen sometime, but it may happen anytime.
Maybe the Lord will come tomorrow, maybe He'll come in the next 20 minutes (it's 11:40 now)! If the Lord doesn't come tomorrow it doesn't discredit the Bible one bit, because it never said tomorrow was the date - it just tells us it is going to happen - He is coming, and when He does come it will usher in a time of awful judgment for this world - the door of salvation is open, enter while you can (Luke 13 v 23-30; John 10 v 9).
