This Page is begun on May 21, 2011. In the light of a sub-plot of news for the last few weeks this is an interesting day. The main news is occupied with the: concerns about Israel and Palestinians in international considerations; morals of a leading world banker, and an actor (the former governor of California); uprisings in various Islamic countries by citizens seeking better governments; death of terrorist, bin Laden, with uncertainty about future terrorism; erratic stock market and slow recovery from years of world recession. Other world problems aggravate. The point is made for me, that in my long life there have appeared inveterate, personal, community and world problems that are generally threatening to peaceful and progressive improvement for earthly life. Society commonly appears disoriented.
One sub-plot in the news scenario is found in the increasing number of printed articles, TV reports, internet observations, even books related to an end time. According to Harold Camping, owner of a chain of Christian oriented radio stations, Jesus will come today. There is to be an earthquake that will make the horrendous tsunami of a few months ago in Japan a lesser event in natural disasters. While writing this Page, I received a call from the San Francisco area, and was told that relatively few persons (but some) are taking Camping seriously. When I lived in San Francisco, I talked personally several times with Camping. I believe in the genuineness of his faith, but deplore the setting of dates for anything that God might do. God is not in any way forced by time, as we interpret it. Time is as certainly a creation as the flowers I see from my window on this spring day. I am writing this on a day that is the day before the above date for the Page. If you read it you will know that the prediction did not come to pass as Camping predicted. Years ago (1990s), he predicted end-time dates that did not respond for his chronology of events.
There is a large world story in the Mayan literature: that the end will occur on December 21, 2012, the first day of winter a year from now. From the documents available about Mayan culture, the 2012 date appears in only one. This hardly qualifies as a serious Mayan prediction. Perhaps it came from a crank, or a person playing with numbers that mesmerized him, or whatever the real story of that writer may have been. (In editing Pages I reviewed this one on 12/18/2012, just three days before the predicted end. The news has given attention to it and the disturbance it has caused in some areas. In this editing on Christmas morning, 2012, Camping has apologized for his projections, and we have survived the Mayan prediction.)
Prediction stories are multiplied. With uncertainties in history, it is with some general wonder that secular historians wondered about with the story of Christ. (Josephus concentrated on John the Baptist.) What a photo we would have if Jesus were revealed in his impact. Writers long after Jesus have fancied contradictory scenarios, from the place he was born, to possible tours in the Far East, to philosophy, to marriage, and a misguided zealot’s death. A tongue-in-cheek article in the Smithsonian magazine (01/2013) discussed the claim of the village of Shingo, in northern Japan, that advertises the place of the burial of Jesus in a local site. There is a sign on the highway guiding tourists to the location. It was in Shingo, they say, that Jesus emigrated, lived, married, had children, and grew garlic for a living. He lived to 106 years.
Scripture may be taken as careful record, putting forth the facts of conduct, events, quotations that characterized Jesus in fact, and the circumstances of his society. Luke noted his research in the matters he wrote about, so to persuade persons, from any era, seeking truth. (Luke 1:1-4) They may be sure that the world fumbles with the facts, and spins affecting meanings. What was the purpose of the writer – to find something that has not been stated before? Christians become noble in searching Scripture so to make up their minds on the meaning of Jesus, his message, and the details of his redemptive story with us. Out of this orientation the Christian lives in peace and confidence, cultivated from Scripture – of rescue from mere humanity in God’s time. God is not a servant of time. Time is his servant, and he uses it as he wills. If I were to predict his future actions in time, he would likely change the date. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020