His followers sold their homes and cars and other possessions to spend millions on the promotion of May 21th as the day Jesus would return.
Scripture clearly teaches that no one will know the day or the hour that Jesus Christ will return (Mark 13:32). Therefore anyone that claims to know the day has clearly not studied the scriptures or is purposely trying to promote a fake date in order to diminish and discredit the authenticity of the scriptures.
Jesus said we are either for him by gathering people to him or we are against him by scattering people from him (Matthew 12:30) and the fruit of our ministry will reveal the difference (Matthew 7:16). If promoting a fake date of the return of Christ result’s in a greater number of people losing faith in the gospel, then the promoters are not gathering people to Jesus but scattering them.
If unbelievers can be made to believe that the scriptures regarding the return of Christ are not trustworthy, then the ability to use current events to point to the hundreds of prophesies regarding the return of Christ becomes a limited tool in sharing the gospel with them. Limiting the ability to preach the gospel at a time in history like never before, a time of great distress (Matt 24:21), is a tragedy.
The scripture warns many times of false teachers in the church and in Matthew 24 Jesus tells us that an increase in false teachers will be a sign of his return.
Fake dates such as this one amount to mocking his return, laughing at the idea that Jesus is going to return. Many different groups used this opportunity to through parties on May 21th, with the aim to build doubt in the fact that Christ is going to return some day.
What I find most interesting is that these are the things that are predicted in the scriptures just before the return of Christ. In Matt 24 Jesus tells us not to be deceived along with a list of signs that will be visible to everyone;
“Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” – (Matt 24:4-8)
The current events around the world today are similar to these things and are increasing in intensity and magnitude just as Jesus said they would. God is sending these signs as ‘birth pains’ so that all people in every nation and culture would be able to understand them. Jesus went on to say that it will be like the days of Noah;
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” – (Matt 24:37-39)
Noah preached for 100 years that it was going to rain, and the people mocked him. Instead of preparing for the rain that was coming, they threw parties each sunny day, eating and drinking and marrying without any concern for what was about to happen and mocking the idea that it would rain. This is the same pattern we see today.
Jesus is coming soon and he gave us these signs to look for so that we would know when we are approaching his return. He did tell us to keep watch and be on the lookout for the day of the Lord.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” – (Matt 24:42)
But nowhere are we called to focus on warning the world about his return. Nowhere in scripture are we told to sell everything and spend millions on the promotion of judgment day. Matt 24 makes it clear that God is going to do the promoting, with the largest promotion in the history of the world so that no one on earth will be able to miss the signs and no one will be able to say – I didn’t see the signs.
As Christians, our mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world so that they would believe in Him and be saved. (Mark 16:15, Jeremiah 23:22).
The power of the gospel is the revelation of salvation to everyone that believes (Romans 1:16). Do not be deceived or become ashamed of the gospel because more and more people are mocking the return of Jesus Christ. This will only increase.
Instead, realize that these things prove the scriptures are accurate and they testify to the authenticity of the Word of God, in which we can be even more bold in reaching the world and strengthened in our faith as these things testify to us that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life - and our hope is in Him.