No one knows

It's been a while since my last post - been too busy with the rest of life. I'm still busy, but I've been musing and wanted to take a minute to write a short post.

There is an old joke about a man who is caught poaching on the king's land, that goes something like this. The king sentences him to death, saying "You will be hung at dawn one day this week. The day of your hanging will be a complete surprise to you."

The man strolls happily to his cell. The guards are amazed. "Don't you care that you're gong to be killed?"

The man replied "The king can't hang me! There is no way the sentence can be carried out without making the king a liar. You see, there is no way I can be hung on Saturday, because it's the last day of the week, and I'll know Friday night that the  hanging will be the following day. So the last day I can be hung is Friday. But on Thursday night I will know and it won't be a surprise. Likewise for each preceding day, until today. I am as good as free!"

And so, the man was surprised when they woke him up at dawn on Wednesday and hung him.

Recently Harold Camping has been in the news for predicting that the world will end on May 21, 2011. Naysayers are, of course, saying nay. The primary verse Christians are using to refute this is Matthew 24:36, which says "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

Now, I don't for one second believe that Camping is right. However, lest we be like the man in the joke,  I think we should realize that just because Camping thinks the world will end that day doesn't mean he knows it will end (even if he thinks he knows). So, if the world did end on that day I don't think it makes Camping right or Christ wrong.

So, I'm not doing anything special that day, but it does make me think - if the world (or at least my life) did end today, would I be ready? Perhaps I should stop worrying about Camping and start working on that.

Posted in: bible,My life,Thought