Attempting to predict the second coming of Jesus and the end of the world has captured the attention of people for hundreds of years. In A.D. 960 a German theologian, Bernard of Thuringa, calculated that the world would end in A.D. 992. He was so sure and convinced so many people that panic swept across Europe. It didn’t happen. On New Year’s Eve A.D. 999, thousands of people packed into St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to pray with Pope Sylvester II because they believed that at the stroke of midnight, moving into the year 1000, cataclysmic events would occur, fulfilling biblical prophecies. Nothing happened and the church bells rang in Rome on January 1, 1000 in celebration that God had spared them for another year. In 1874 Charles Towes Russell, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, predicted the second coming of Jesus would occur in 1914. When it didn’t happen, the prediction was changed to “very soon after 1914.” But, as of today, it still hasn’t happened.

Jesus made it clear that God doesn’t reveal his schedule ahead of time. But he was equally clear that we need to be ready for his return and the end of the world all of the time. Just as you want to save money before a rainy day comes or you want to learn the Heimlich maneuver before the person next to you is choking, so you want to prepare yourself for the return of Jesus ahead of time. Because you never know when it’s going to occur.