The Bible Reveals
WE CAN KNOW
May 21, 2011
is Judgment Day!
Upon hearing the information that May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day, many in the churches immediately refer to a Bible verse such as:
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
“You see,” they say after quoting this verse, “the Bible tells us that no man can know.” They might even add, “Not even Jesus Himself knows the time; therefore, your date of May 21 is all wrong.” As is often the case after quickly making this statement and dismissing the information regarding the date of the end of the world, this individual will go on his or her way content that this will never happen. “After all,” they think, “the Bible says we cannot know the timing of the end.”
Of course, we do acknowledge that the Bible has this verse within it. However, the question is: does the rest of the Bible support the idea that we cannot know the timing of the end of the world? Or, is there more information in the Bible that would allow for God’s people to learn the date of the end of the world?
First of all, we need to quickly mention that Jesus Christ is God Almighty. And since Jesus is Almighty God, there can be no question that He knows when the end of the world will be.
Job 24:1 …times are not hidden from the Almighty…
The purpose of this pamphlet is to show from the Bible that since we have now reached the last days of earth’s history, it is (and always has been) God’s plan to reveal information from the Bible concerning the end of the world, including its exact timing. For instance, we see this idea in the following passage of Scripture:
Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
According to this verse, God shut up the words and sealed the Book (the Bible) until the time of the end. Because the Bible’s information was sealed up, no man could know the timing of the end of the world. But the strong implication of Daniel 12:4 is that the seals would be taken off once the time period of the end is reached. Furthermore, once the end of time does come about, “knowledge shall be increased.” Matthew 24:36 declares that no one knows “but My Father only.” God has always known the timing of the end of the world. Since God Himself is the author of the Bible, it was no problem for Him to place this information and hide it within the Bible where it would lie dormant until the proper point in history was reached. Since we have now arrived at the end of the world, God is now revealing these things to His people.
WHY THE CHURCHES WILL NOT UNDERSTAND
If you speak with your pastor about this date of May 21, 2011 being Judgment Day, it is almost certain that he will be opposed to this fact. It is amazing how much in unison the churches are in declaring “no man knows the day or hour.” However, none should take comfort from their unified stand because, without question, the churches of our modern day have greatly fallen away from truth. The churches of the world disagree and teach contrary to one another on numerous points of the Bible’s teachings (which means that they must have errors in their conclusions). Therefore, it ought not to be particularly comforting for the churches to finally have unity of agreement on the point of “no man knows the day or hour.” Rather, it ought to be alarming, especially as we realize that in our day God’s judgment is upon the churches of the world due to their unfaithfulness:
1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God…
The horrible truth is that the Lord Himself has abandoned the churches of the world. The Bible teaches us that the church age is over (it ended in 1988 A.D.). The Lord has left the churches in spiritual darkness. They cannot see the awful truth that we are now at the very end of the world. The Lord vividly describes the spiritual leaders of the churches today in Isaiah:
Isaiah 56:10-11 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark…they are shepherds that cannot understand…
God Himself indicates that many who profess to be His people will not see the warning signs of the coming end. The Lord uses Old Testament Israel/Judah as types and figures of the New Testament churches and congregations.
The Bible points out that God was angry with Old Testament Judah and forewarned them of His intent to judge them, but Judah dismissed and ignored these warnings until they were destroyed—much like the churches of today are doing:
Jeremiah 8:7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
Now at the end, the New Testament churches are repeating the same errors that Old Testament Israel committed. They are dismissing the warnings of God (from the Bible), exactly as Israel dismissed the warnings of God through the prophets whom the Lord sent to them.
GOD ALWAYS FOREWARNS HIS PEOPLE
It is now time for us to look at other information in the Bible that your church or pastor probably would not want you to consider; but in order to prove that we can know the timing of the end, we must first see what the rest of the Bible has to say about it. For instance, God makes this statement in the book of Amos, chapter 3:
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Spiritually speaking, a prophet is anyone who declares the Word of God. An individual believer therefore fulfills the role of a prophet as we share the Gospel with other people. The Lord is telling us in Amos 3:7 that He discloses information to His people. He says that He will indeed “do nothing” without first revealing “His secret unto His servants.” As we review the Bible’s history, we actually do see this important truth in evidence again and again.
Let us take a look at the flood of Noah’s day:
Genesis 6:3,5,7 And the LORD said…his days shall be an hundred and twenty years…And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…And the LORD said, I will destroy man…
In this account, we find that God gave the world 120 years before He would destroy it. This time was necessary as the Lord selected Noah to build the ark and to accomplish the task of warning the world during those 120 years. The Bible identifies Noah as a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). His work of constructing the ark all those long years would certainly not have gone unnoticed. The building of the ark was a great testimony of faith in God, and the ark’s existence and development also served as a constant condemnation of the world itself:
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of…righteousness…
It was in this 120th year (4990 B.C.) that the Lord once again gave Noah more information concerning the timing of the flood. Only this time, God gave very specific information.
Incredibly, prior to the flood’s occurrence, God told Noah the precise year, month, and day of the coming deluge:
Genesis 7:1,4,10-11 And the LORD said unto Noah…For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights…And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month…
It is no coincidence that in our present day God’s people know that the end will come in the year 2011 (exactly 7,000 years after the flood), in the month of May, and on the 21st day. This parallels exactly what the Lord had told Noah. Remember also that May 21 in 2011 is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Hebrew calendar, the equivalent date to when the flood began and when the Lord shut Noah and his family into the ark. Also, we should remember that Jesus refers to the flood as an example of His own coming:
Matthew 24:38-39 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Christ’s coming will be as it was in the days of Noah. The question that anyone honestly seeking truth must now ask is: did anyone know anything about the approaching flood before it came? Or, did no man know the day or timing of the flood? The Bible’s answer is: yes, God’s people knew. Noah knew. Noah’s wife knew. Noah’s three sons and their wives knew. The world around them also knew about it since Noah was a preacher. However, without doubt, they wrote Noah off as a lunatic. As a result, they all perished in the flood. A key point that the Bible makes is that all kinds of people hear this warning that God sends out, but only His elect people respond to it and take action. Therefore, concerning the horrible death toll of the flood of Noah’s day, it is important that we take note of this verse:
2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
The Lord stresses that the flood of Noah’s day destroyed all of the people who were “ungodly.”
This is an extremely important fact. All of God’s (saved) people were informed of the flood and delivered from death. Each of the righteous knew that it was coming and were able to get into the ark, along with Noah. We can be sure that God also warned the rest of the people of the world of Noah’s day, but they did not believe the things that Noah was declaring to them. In other words, we see the Biblical principle stated in Amos 3:7 in view. The Lord forewarned His people. The rest of the people heard, but ultimately ignored God’s warnings. As a result, they were caught off-guard and perished. This is the reason why the Bible says that Christ will come like “a thief in the night.”
The fact that God forewarned Noah and his family, by itself, should cause us to pause and realize that the Lord will likewise reveal the timing of the end before Judgment Day comes. However, there is much more for us to consider with God’s workings in Biblical history.
Let us take a look at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Before destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord visited Abraham and revealed His plan of judgment upon those cities. Significantly, we read:
Genesis 18:16-17 …the men…looked toward Sodom… And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
God did not hide His plan to destroy Sodom from Abraham. The Lord thought it good to share this information with His servant. Once informed, Abraham began to intercede (pray) for the righteous within the city. Abraham’s nephew Lot lived in Sodom. The Bible tells us that Lot was a righteous man (that is, God had saved him and made him righteous through Christ—see 2 Peter 2:7-8).
God could not destroy the righteous with the wicked. So the Lord had to act. God warned Lot concerning the coming judgment:
Genesis 19:12-13 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters…bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place…the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.
Lot and a few members of his family escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah only because the Lord Himself gave him advance warning, information that Lot attempted to share with his sons-in-law but they did not take him seriously (Genesis 19:14). We also need to consider that Jesus says that His coming will be as it was in the days of Lot:
Luke 17:28-30 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
The truth is that in the days of Lot, God warned His people in advance of the awful judgment upon Sodom. Also, others being warned did not take action on the advance information that they had been given. The historical fact that God forewarned Abraham and Lot once again demonstrates that the Lord will likewise reveal the timing of the end before Judgment Day comes, and yet there is still more Scripture for us to consider.
A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
Many professing Christians wrongly think that Jesus will come “as a thief” to bless them and then give them their reward of eternal life. But where do people get the idea that a thief comes to bring blessings? The Bible tells us exactly what it is that a thief comes to do:
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…
Jesus does not come unexpectedly like a thief for His elect people (typified by Noah, Abraham, Lot, etc.), but He comes as a thief for all of the unsaved of the world:
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Since the Lord is describing “sudden destruction” coming upon them and declaring that “they shall not escape,” it is very clear that the “ungodly” are in view. It is for them that Christ comes “as a thief” to kill and destroy. But notice the next verse:
1 Thessalonians 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Obviously, we see that God’s people will not be taken by surprise. How could they be since the Lord does nothing without first warning His people? God warned Noah. God warned Abraham. God warned Lot. How could anyone think that God would warn His people in these lesser types of Judgment Day and not follow His own pattern and warn the world of about 7 billion souls living at the time of the actual Day of Judgment? Additionally, we find that Jesus commanded all to “watch” for they knew not what hour He might come. Christ comes as a thief only to those who are not watching:
Revelation 3:3 …If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
That is, Christ commanded the true believers to keep looking (watching) in the Bible. His people were to keep studying the Word of God. This is because at the proper time He would open up our eyes to understand the words that were sealed. Since any keeping watch would understand these things, Christ would not come “as a thief in the night” for them. Jesus comes “as a thief” only for those who insist that we cannot know the time of Christ’s coming. By insisting that it is not possible to know the time, the churches are indicating that they are in darkness and have no intention of watching. It is deadly serious for anyone to stubbornly insist that we cannot know the timing of the end. This is because when Jesus does come upon them, it will be like “a thief” and they will be suddenly destroyed and not escape the awful judgment of God. This is all very sorrowful; however, the Lord gives each one of us strong encouragement through the Biblical example of the Ninevites. The people of Nineveh also heard God’s warning of an approaching judgment.
THE CASE OF THE NINEVITES
God sent the prophet Jonah to Nineveh in order to bring an incredible message containing one single sentence:
Jonah 3:4 Jonah…cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
It was only a few words! That was the entire message that Jonah was commanded by God to bring to the inhabitants of Nineveh. A message that basically contained two elements: time (40 days) and judgment (overthrown). Of course, this true historical account of the Lord sending Jonah to warn the Ninevites underscores, once again, God’s pattern in the Bible of forewarning people prior to bringing His wrath upon them. It is absolutely amazing what we find in the very next verse:
Jonah 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God…
Look at this from man’s perspective. The Ninevites were Assyrians. Jonah was not an Assyrian. He did not naturally speak their language. Not only was he from another nation, it was an enemy nation. Suddenly this strange man appeared proclaiming, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
Can you think of any other responses that the Ninevites might have had instead, such as mockery, or laughter, or total disbelief? In our modern world, we would think, “Only a gullible fool would believe such a message!” Yes, we can easily think of many reasons today why a person would not believe something so ridiculous, but the Ninevites believed. What could have possibly convinced the Ninevites that this horrible news was true and was really from God? Certainly, it was not the volume of evidence. Jonah did not come with an encyclopedia of studies of teachings from the Bible and lay them at the doorstep of the city of Nineveh. No! He only spoke a single sentence—the flimsiest of evidence—and yet they believed:
Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas…
You have now heard about Saturday, May 21, 2011 being Judgment Day. Perhaps you have heard much Biblical evidence; and yet, still, you do not believe God. Do you require more and more proof? The Ninevites did not have the luxury of such an abundance of information that we have today. They only had one meager verse of Scripture to go on. Today we are able to give people quite a lot of information coming right out of the Bible. (For more information concerning Judgment Day coming on May 21, 2011, although not affiliated with Family Radio, EBF recommends their free book, “We Are Almost There!” Write: Family Radio, Oakland, CA 94621 USA or read online: www.familyradio.com ). However, mounds of information will never convince anyone. Jesus pointed this out when He said:
John 8:47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
Please take note of the deadly seriousness in which the Ninevites believed God and urgently acted upon it:
Jonah 3:6-8 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes…saying…let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way…
DISCERNING TIME AND JUDGMENT
As we have examined Biblical history, we have seen how the Lord has repeatedly informed His people of approaching times of judgment before the judgment actually occurred. This is so consistent throughout Biblical history that this certainly can be said to be a Biblical principle, as Amos 3:7 says, “The Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants.”
In the Bible, the Lord divides mankind into two groups. He refers to those He saves as “wise” and to those He does not save as “fools.” He also describes them as the “righteous” or the “wicked.” The distinction between the two has nothing to do with intelligence or human wisdom or human merit of any kind. Simply put, one is wise (and declared righteous) if God has saved them and given them the Spirit of Christ. Those who are not saved are as fools or wicked because they do not possess Christ’s Spirit (Wisdom). If we keep the Bible’s definition of wisdom in mind, it will greatly help us in understanding the following verses:
Daniel 12:9-10 …Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end...none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Most definitely, it was the Lord’s intention to seal up His Word (the Bible) until the time of the end. But then notice, God points out how “none of the wicked” will be able to understand. Understand what? Well, He is referring to understanding the Word of God that will be unsealed at the time of the end. None of the unsaved of the world will understand these things, just like the people of the world of Noah’s day did not regard the warning of the flood and just like Lot’s sons-in-law dismissed the warning given to them to flee the city. Likewise today, none of the unsaved understand; however, “the wise” will understand. The “wise” understand only because of God’s great mercy. The Lord expresses this truth once again in these wonderful verses:
Ecclesiastes 8:5 …and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.
Proverbs 28:5 Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.
Finally, whether or not we know that May 21 in 2011 is Judgment Day rests on whether or not God has opened up our eyes to understand these things. If He has, we will know that May 21, 2011 is the Day of the Lord’s Wrath. If He has not opened our eyes, then we will not know. The Bible tells us that the majority of people in the world are not chosen to salvation. This is why Christ comes unexpectedly for billions of people. They do not understand spiritual things. Since they do not have God’s Spirit, they are not going to take warning and they are not going to understand. Sadly, they will surely perish:
Ezekiel 33:4-5 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head…But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
God’s people know (like the Ninevites) that these dates are true and trustworthy only because this information comes right out of the Bible. Many people are going to trust their churches or their pastors who will assuredly say that they do not have to worry about a date. But none of these things are trustworthy. The truth is that the only trustworthy thing in the world is the Bible. This is why as we get ever closer to this date of May 21 in 2011, the big question for each person is, “Do you trust the Bible or do you trust something else?”
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Psalm 119:42 …for I trust in thy word.
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Acts 17:30-31 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained…
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