Judgment day, the mocking spirit, and the normalcy bias

So I know you all have seen the billboards proclaiming that May 21, 2011 is judgment day. The guy who started this whole thing, Harold Camping, has predicted that Jesus is coming back to the earth today. As you might be aware, this gutsy prediction has garnered the attention of press, Believers, and unbelievers alike.

There is alot being said about it and, for the sake of speaking truth, as best I know it, I'd like to address two of the reactions I see happening in Believers.

The first reaction I am seeing is mocking of Harold Camping and his associates. Christians are saying all kinds of things about the man. While I do not believe that today is judgment day, we should really be careful that we don't sit in the seat of scoffers. Passing judgment on someone else can be a really subtle turning of our hearts, but it is so dangerous to us.

I can tell you from personal experience that any time I, in my heart, mock or judge another (regardless of whether I am right) I immediately fall into unbelief regarding whatever the judgement was concerning. For example, if I judge someone else in their belief concerning the end times and I mock them, I will inevitably fall into a measure of unbelief concerning the truth- unable to understand things concerning it and feeling a subtle (or not so subtle) resistance to it.

Because judgment reaps judgment, the hardening of my heart. And mockery is really just the same. Judgment with scoffing thrown in. Just because I know the truth doesn't give me a good reason to scoff at those who are deceived. Rather I should be praying that they come into the knowledge of the truth and the Holy Spirit would give them revelation.

Let's be real. This isn't the first time this has happened. This was happening clear back in the apostle's day and I daresay this isn't the last time it will before the day comes.

The second reaction I am seeing to this is kind of an extension of the first.... alot of people saying

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Bible says that NO ONE knows when Jesus is coming back."

True. It does say that know one knows which day is set. However, Jesus and the Apostles give us some very good instructions on discerning the times and the seasons. They say alot more about the day of the Lord and the sign of His coming than they do about us NOT knowing. The Church was expected to know the times and the seasons. Jesus chastises the Pharisee's for this very thing.

Let us not take this verse out of context. Matthew 24, the passage that this verse is in, is Jesus own description of events leading up to His coming. So this verse itself is in the context of discerning the times and seasons. Sure, I don't know the exact day, but I want to take seriously the words of Jesus and rightly divide the times.

In the West, we are just really at a ideological disadvantage. We have this thing called the normalcy bias that says, basically, that because something has never happened, that it never will. This is exactly what Peter is warning the Church about in 2 Peter 3. I really encourage you to go read that entire chapter. It really helps to get perspective on this whole Judgment Day business.

There is a day coming. That much I know. I want to do my best to divide what is truth. But I will not sit in the seat of scoffers. Let's be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who does not stand in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on it he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of living water, who bears its fruit in due season, whose leaf does not whither.

2 Peter 3:1-11

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, ² that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, ³knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. ⁴ They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."

... ⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.