The End of the World?

I don’t write a lot about my faith, simply because it isn’t something that is easy to define using labels.

Today is the day that Family Radio has chosen as the date of the Rapture- the date that the son of God is supposed to return to whisk away his true believers to be spared the horrors of the End of the World. They claim that the natural disasters are proof of the end times… and have spent a lot of money trying to convince people that this is it.

Yes, I believe in God. I still sort of identify myself as Catholic because that’s what I came from, but I certainly don’t believe a lot of the things they say I should. I believe that all people are equal, regardless of sexuality and should be treated the same in the church. That loving someone of the same gender shouldn’t label a good person a sinner. That’s just wrong. (I also believe that if someone doesn’t believe that you should respect their decision, and not hound them into believing. Using fear to make people believe in God is wrong. Faith should be about love, compassion and acceptance, not fear. And this would be why Jerad, who was an athiest, and I got along infamously- we respected that the other was entitled to their choice, even if we didn’t completely understand.)

Anyhow, I don’t want to get into a discussion of why I believe- I just do. I have my reasons, and it isn’t simply “because that’s what I was taught.” This is about Family Radio. This isn’t the first time they’ve said it was going to be the End of the World. Which makes it interesting that anyone is even treating this as fact- it’s a fringe group that’s been wrong before. In the Bible it says that no one will know when the end times begin, except for God. So…. anyone predicting a date is wrong. Especially someone who’s been wrong before (I believe that they fall under false prophets).

I am a positive person. I want to plan for the future, live my life as I see fit. I don’t see the point of living with dread or regret that the End of the World may be coming. After all, if you believe in God – you’re fine. And isn’t that the point? That you’re supposed to have faith and that faith will be what protects you in the end? I don’t see how worrying and regretting about things you haven’t done will help you all.

Just live your life. What happens, happens. You can’t change that, nor can you really prepare for it. All you can do is have faith, and live your life. Besides, when you buy into garbage like this, it just makes everyone who identifies themselves as Christian look stupid (and thanks to people who are hell bent on converting anyone who isn’t Christian, denouncing all Muslims, persecuting gays…. we already look pretty stupid. And yes, I did deliberately choose hell bent).

Originally published at American Whitney. You can comment here or there.