Doomsday?
In the last few days we have repeatedly heard of the great and tragic calamity which was perpetrated against a so called Doomsday Cult which had risen up in Uganda Africa in recent years. More than nine-hundred adherents to that "Cult" were killed, apparently by their leaders.
Today, people like to use the word cult as though it were a slanderous term. Actually any division of some movement is, by definition, a cult or a sect. Roman Catholicism, Presbyterians, the Assembly of God, the various Baptist groups, etc., etc., are all cults of Christianity.
Apparently that group in Uganda were expecting the "end of the world" to occur at the onset of the year two-thousand. When that did not happen, they took other drastic measures which resulted in the death of nearly a thousand people.
But what difference is there in the belief of those unfortunate souls and the cults which constitute much of Christianity? I have been an avid follower of Christ for many years now, and I have had discussions with many people in various cults. Almost all, with whom I have discussed the return of our Lord insist, that we cannot know when Jesus is coming. They offer me Matthew 24:35,36, as proof of their assertion. So let us consider that passage.
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
It is apparent that anyone who uses this passage to apply it to the time of the second coming of Jesus also imply that the coming of Jesus and the destruction of heaven and earth occur at almost the same time. But what do we do with such passages as 1 Cor. 15:24-28, where we are told that when the Lord Jesus comes, "Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."
Those unfortunate souls in Uganda were grossly deceived by a corrupt and apostate leadership. They were apparently taught a gross error about an important Bible truth. However, it looks as if the rest of us Christians would do well to acquire a better understanding of the things of God and of his plans for ourselves.
When Jesus comes He will surely execute severe punishment upon the ungodly of this world. However, He "must reign" for a thousand years. Only then, and that not immediately, the great cataclysm of which Jesus spoke in Matt. 24:35,36, shall take place.
DOOMSDAY? Someday, but not in this millennium!