Anticipating the end of the world is humanity’s oldest pastime. – David Mitchell

Did you see the recent news reports that scientists have moved the Doomsday Clock one second closer to midnight? The Doomsday Clock is set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an organization founded by American physicists at the dawn of the nuclear age, just a few months after the United States detonated atomic bombs in Japan. 

Earth is moving closer to destruction, this advocacy group said as it advanced the famous Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds until midnight, the closest that it’s ever been. The scientists made their annual announcement citing threats that include climate change, proliferation of nuclear weapons, instability in the Middle East, the threat of pandemics and the incorporation of artificial intelligence in military operations. The clock had stayed at 90 seconds to midnight for the past two years and “when you are at this precipice, the one thing you don’t want to do is take a step forward,” said Daniel Holz, chair of the group’s science and security board.

With all the dire predictions of doom, it’s surprising we’re all still here. We’ve survived the 2012 Maya Apocalypse. December 21, 2012, was the end of the first “Great Cycle” of the Maya Calendar. Many interpreted it to mean the absolute end. The calendar had tracked time continuously from a date 5,125 years earlier, and doomsday predictions emerged. 

While I didn’t store up food rations and water in a shack in northern Wisconsin, I survived the Y2K Bug. In the lead-up to the Millennium, widespread panic spread about the Y2K bug, a computer glitch that threatened to bring societal collapse. The fear was that systems would be unable to distinguish 2000 from 1900 and begin using an incorrect date. Ultimately, it would cause widespread system failures, wreaking havoc across computer infrastructure around the world. Oops! It didn’t happen.

Bible-believers understand this is not how this world will end, or life is going to end, and it’s not how history is going to end. But there are doomsayers even among Christians.

At the end of last year, Hal Lindsey died at the age of 95. He was the father of the modern prophecy movement. His 1970 book, The Late Great Planet Earth, was the bestselling nonfiction book of the 1970s. It was even featured on a primetime television special with an audience of 17 million. Through his series of best-selling books, Lindsey shaped Christian thinking about the end times for a generation. He compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with the then current events in an attempt to predict future scenarios. For example, he cited an increase in the frequency of famines, wars and earthquakes as major events just prior to the end of the world and he predicted it would all happen in his lifetime. 

Lindsey claimed that the Bible could be matched up with contemporary political events, but he had to cut and paste politics with the Bible to make them match up. By emphasizing various passages, he originally suggested the possibility that these climactic events might occur during the 1980s which he interpreted as one generation from the birth of modern Israel in 1948. He taught that his generation was in the end times and the Book of Revelation is a terrifying prediction of events that would all happen in his lifetime. That final prediction was the unraveling of Lindsey’s credibility.

Students of Scripture know that some 27% of the Bible is predictive or prophetic. This means that over one fourth of the Bible, more than one in four verses is prophetic. At least one half of all biblical predictions have already been fulfilled precisely as God had declared. Because of God’s faithfulness in fulfilling these prophecies, we can be certain He’ll fulfill the rest of the prophecies in Scripture. Prophecy in the Bible can be divided into two broad groups: fulfilled and not yet fulfilled. 

Here’s the huge caution for us. While a large percentage of the Bible is prophetic (much of it fulfilled in Jesus’ first coming), Scripture also warns us to not be date setters or to attempt to apply biblical prophecy to current events. When we do, we look silly.  Jesus warned His disciples: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come (Mark 12:32-33). 

We should reject any teaching that contradicts the teaching of our Lord, even if Bible verses are copiously used (or more likely, abused) to support it. Anyone who proposes a date for Christ’s return opposes Jesus Himself. And once a date for Christ’s return is set and announced, the implication is that Christ can’t return before that date, contradicting the New Testament’s teaching of imminency. 

A dangerous change in our focus occurs as we no longer look for Christ’s return but instead look for “signs” preceding His return. Paul’s instructions were to wait for His [God’s] Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10). 

Jesus is coming back. As the Bible promised that He would come the first time, Scripture promises that He will return. None of us know when. When we date set, we’re violating Jesus’ words. 

Too many are so caught up with the nuances of prophecy that they’re distracted from Jesus’ mission to Christ-followers of reaching our world with the gospel. Yet, when we live as if every day could be the return of Christ, our whole perspective is changed. Priorities are different, the way you spend money is different, even the conversations you have are different. It’s what’s known as the doctrine of imminence…that Jesus’ return could happen at any moment. Check it out. It’s what God’s Word teaches. On the prophetic calendar, Christ’s return is next.  

How does God want us to live? We must live prepared for our Savior’s return! Are you living in the light of His imminent return? When Jesus was born, most of the world wasn’t ready. Are you ready? It could be today!