The end was near. That was what they were saying, that the end was near. News agencies carried headlines to the effect that “Doomsday writer says, based off the Bible and Egyptian pyramids, Planet X will collide with earth on September 23.” Fox News website along with others carried the following:

Doomsday writer says, based off the Bible and Egyptian pyramids, Planet X will collide with earth on September 23. Is the end near? According to Christian writer David Meade, the answer is yes. Meade theorizes a so-called Planet X, AKA Nibiru, will hit the earth on September 23, 2017. Meade believes recent events like the solar eclipse and hurricane Harvey are signs of the coming apocalypse. Through codes in the Bible and a “date marker” in the pyramids of Egypt, Meade was able to pinpoint the date of September 23. NASA has repeatedly said Planet X is a hoax.”

Well guess what…the end didn’t happen on September 23. You are surprised by this fact I am quite sure. What is amazingly amazing is the fact that there are those that will set dates, those that claim there are signs happening now of the end coming, etc. Mr. Meade is not the only person to predict the end of time. The list is long, undistinguished, and unfulfilled, but consider a few of the more popular ones:

William Miller, whose followers were called Millerites, first predicted the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would occur before March 21, 1844. When this date passed a new date was predicted, April 18, 1844. After this failure, the date became known as the Millerites’ Great Disappointment

Jehovah’s Witnesses leader Charles Taze Russell prophesied that Jesus would return and set up His kingdom in 1914. When nothing happened, he decided that the kingdom was set up in Heaven and that Jesus came invisibly. Other failed dates which they predicted as the end: 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, and 1975.

Harold Camping, a former evangelist, predicted that the world would end on May 21, 2011 with a series of earthquakes After the world was still very much in tact on May 22^nd, Camping changed the date to October 21, 2011. And when the world still wasn’t destroyed then, Camping apologized for his “sinful” statements.

Even David Meade is now saying that September 21^st is just the beginning of the end and October 15^th, “that’s when the action starts”. He then makes references to some doctrines of premillennialism which are found in certain “scholars” imagination but are not founded in the Bible.

So where does that leave us? Oh, make no mistake, the world will end with great noise and fire, 2 Peter 3:10. The Lord Jesus Christ will return (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:7b-10), the material universe will be done away (Hebrews 1:11-12), and eternity will begin (John 5:28-29). This event will be unexpected, Matthew 24:37-39.

It is not a matter of setting dates for the end of time because “of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Mark 13:32. What does matter is if the world ended today, is one ready to meet their Maker? Those obedient to Christ will hear “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” and the disobedient will hear “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”. What a person hears on that day is ultimately most important.

-Jerry D. Sturgill