THE "SECOND" COMING

I think Mr. Camping initially was searching for a temporary "attention getter" and he struck a gold mine. He then recognized that he could make a significant profit in following this subject and he has been subsequently milking this cow for a number of years. He has not finished yet, but is keeping the idea alive by sliding the date. It is true that the news media reported a few people selling or giving away their assets in sincere anticipation of the "second" coming. However, compared to the hundreds of millions who did not react at all, these few hundreds or thousands can be considered to be on the fringe of credibility. I would guess that just about as many people believe that Elvis is still alive, that aliens have landed on this planet, and that Obama is not an American citizen.

It seems to me that we can be better Christians by performing mundane "good" acts daily and letting future events over which we have no control or knowledge unfold without our attention. Besides, each of us has his/her own individual date with rapture/hell within an uncomfortably short period of time.

WW MAY 1, WHAT IF THERE IS NO HELL?

I think the conversations and sermons we have and hear about regarding Heaven and Hell are speculative in fact and strongly based on belief. I think back in far gone "ole" days when man first became cognizant of his/her surroundings a sense of fear or fright developed regarding the vast unknown, which included just about everything. This extended to any concept of life after earthly death. I suggest the concept of Heaven developed many centuries later and subsequently became today's standard reward/punishment scenario.

It has been a concern of mine for some time, that on the one hand God is viewed as unspeakably kind and loving, and on the other hand allows us to be consigned to a Hell of unspeakable horror upon our death if we do not conform to some ill defined minimum level of acknowledgement and love. During our time on earth we are exposed to an overwhelming variety of guidelines for conforming to God's wishes. We allocate to God a harsh sense of justice, with punishment being infinitely greater than sins we commit in a finite lifetime. If an earthly father imposed such punishment upon his children, he would be charged and convicted of child abuse.

Religion is primarily a belief based concept and we can, and do, build our faith, to a significant extent, on moral concepts developed over many centuries. I think pastor Rob Bell has taken his turn at raising questions regarding some of these concepts. As for myself, I have nothing to add.

Henry Jones