What do an 89-year-old retired civil engineer turned radio preacher, the explorer who sailed the ocean blue in 1492, and a housewife from Chicago have in common?  All of them have predicted the end of the world, and all of them were obviously wrong.

According to published reports, housewife Dorothy Martin created quite a stir when she claimed to have received messages from aliens that the world would end in a great flood before dawn on De. 21, 1954.  If she had read Genesis 9:15, she would have known God’s promise that He would never again destroy life on earth with a flood.

Did you know that Christopher Columbus wrote a book in which he predicted the world would end in 1656?  He did not live to see whether his prediction came to pass because he died in 1506.

Now a retired engineer turned radio preacher named Harold Camping is making headlines with his predictions of the end of the world this year – first announcing May 21 (a date that has come and gone), followed by a recalculation of Oct. 21.

Jesus said, “About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, only (God)” (Matthew 24:36 NIV).  What we can know is that every 24 hours we are one day closer to Judgment Day – which is certain for every one of us.

“People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,” the Bible states in Hebrews 9:27. We usually do not know when we will die. Life is unpredictable.  Approximately 350 people perished in a tornado outbreak across the southern states on April 27, and another 140 people died on May 22 during the terrible tornado in Joplin, Mo.

They had no way of knowing that the day before that they were living their last day on earth. Believers in Christ whose sins have been forgiven are promised that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Christ promised before He left this world that He was going to prepare a place for believers, and He said, “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3 NIV).

Just as the Bible promised that Jesus would be born to a virgin and give His life “to take away the sins of man;” the Bible also promises that “He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27-28).

Two angels told the disciples when He ascended, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11 NIV).

Theodore Epp, founder of Back to the Bible Ministry, gave us these wise words, “Live as though Christ died yesterday, rose from the grave today, and is coming back tomorrow.”