Rapture Jokes

The Date: May 21st, 2011
The Time: 10am to 5pm

All day I had been making rapture jokes along side of my co-workers. We were having a lot of fun joking about the end of the world, and even teasing each other about it. Being a comedian & a youth pastor I probably had the best jokes out of everyone, mostly because I knew what I was talking about.

The Time 5:00pm
After work I bump into a local pastor who I haven't seen in a while. I sat with him at his table in the resteraunt & we talk a while.

The Time: 5:50pm
We're walking out the door of the resteraunt together. Harold Camping had predicted that the rapture would take place at 6pm that day.

Our Conversation:
Local Pastor: Well, guy, it's been good seeing ya! Hope to see you again, soon!
Comedian Eric Johnson: Don't worry. You could see me in another 10 minutes!
Local Pastor: Hahahahahahahaha! That was a good one!
Comedian Eric Johnson: Hahahahahaha!! Thanks, Pastor! See ya in a few!

The Time: 6:02pm
I'm driving home from work & I'm reflecting on the day's events, or should I say at this point lack of event. I'm thinking about all the jokes I cracked, how I sat with the local pastor & how both of us were even cracking jokes & then the Holy Spirit hit me:

"...in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth..."

I quickly examined myself & discovered that I had done wrong in the eyes of God. The Rapture is apart of the Truth, & here I was making a mockery of it, scoffing at it infront of non-believers!

The Holy Spirit began convicting me, quickly sending me the message that if I don't take the Rapture seriously infront of non-believers, they will never take it seriously. My laughter & my jokes is actually HURTING them because I'm showing them that Christ's return is nothing to take seriously.

I thought on this all weekend. Finally Monday afternoon I go & grab my Bible. I look up in II Peter where the apostle Peter talks about "in the last days scoffers will come..." and I discovered something: Peter wasn't so much as talking about the world as he was talking about the church!

I read the whole book of II Peter about 4 times. Just kept reading it over & over & over. Just about everything that Peter has to say in this book applies to the whole "May 21st - Rapture Prediction" thing we got going on right now.

In II Peter 1:12-19 we're encouraged & instructed to pay close attention to scripture. Then in verses 20 through 21 Peter says something really cool:

"Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophets own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God." (Emphasis mine.)

Harold Camping used math formulas to make his May 21st prediction. That's both human understanding & initiative.

Peter goes on in chapter 2 to talk about false prophets, & he goes on to describe what kind of damage a false prophet does, & how to recognize one.

Then in chapter 3, Peter warns us starting in verse 3:

"Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say "What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created."

First off, who has the promise that Christ will return? The church. Jesus made the promise to the church, not the world. The world can not talk of having a promise given to them. Only the church can.

Secondly, who believes that the world was created? Surely it's not the athiest! It's not the science community! It's not Hollywoood! It's not the media! It's believers! Peter is talking about Christians. He's talking about mockers & scoffers within the church, not outside of it!

He ends the chapter & book with these words:

"I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing....."

What wicked people is Peter talking about? He's talking about the false prophets, mockers, & scoffers. He's talking about people in the church who can cause us to "lose your own secure footing...."

Folks, it's not people in the world who can cause us (Christians) to lose our secure footing, it's people in the church.

And likewise, it's people in the church like you & me who can cause those outside of the church to never get a footing in the first place, much less a secure one.

Let's be careful.