Still others have capitalized on the fear of people to sell extra supplies to them. Theorizing that food and water supplies will dry up, power plants will be powerless, and the monetary systems of the world will collapse, they have convinced broad sections of the population to participate in a kind of hysteria about the turn of the century.

At the same time, some religionists have cashed in on the fears of men by sensationalizing the whole issue from their pulpits. They appoint themselves as modern "prophets" and insist that all these occurrences have been foretold and that they signal the end of the world. They sometimes infer that people will no longer need their funds and should send all they have to the preachers because the world will end soon. (So, why will the preachers need the money?)

These "prophets" warn that we should expect the end of the world, the second coming of Jesus, and something that premillennialists invented a long time ago called "rapture" (an idea that is foreign to any part of Scripture). They have, however, been able to "milk" it for a long time. It appears that only the Second Coming will convince them that they are on the wrong track, but then..it will be too late.

All those who are getting excited about God timing the Second Coming of Jesus to coincide with the turn of the century are making the same basic mistake. They assume God operates on a human calendar. In fact, time means nothing to God (II Peter 3:8). A day or a thousand years are all the same to one who is eternal.

It is man who has created this calendar which says it will be the year 2000, January first. The "corrected calendar" would have placed the event four to six years ago! And the Chinese calendar would have placed it some three thousand years ago if 2000 was some special number. God has His own timing. He has always done things "at the right time" (Romans 5:8). He also has control of when all things happen, including when Jesus comes again. Jesus said that even He (Jesus) did not know the time schedule God will use (Matthew 24: 36).

In short, we can expect time to continue at least for awhile. Jesus said that God will choose a time when no one expects. If so many are expecting the imminent return right now, He must not be coming just yet. However, we must not be lulled into thinking or living as though Jesus is never coming.

We can also expect that there will be those who deny that He is ever coming. The Apostle Peter in the first century warned of those who will be skeptical throughout the last days (which are those days since Jesus went back to Heaven) when he wrote to his contemporaries (II Peter 3:1-14). We will do best to anticipate that Jesus may come any day. That way we will keep ourselves prepared to meet Him. Otherwise, we might make the same mistake the foolish virgins made in Jesus' parable recorded in the book of Matthew 25:1- 13.