Doomsday – it’s one of those topics that Hollywood producers and get-rich-quick authors have latched onto recently, at least in the apocalyptic sense, if not always religious.

Of course, the end of life as we know it has always been a popular subject. But it seems to me as if every other movie being made these days is about the imminent destruction of earth via aliens, zombies, global warming, you name it.

In the midst of watching an old episode of “Lost,” I read an article in the Des Moines Register citing May 21 as the end of the world.

Forget 2012. 

The leader of the movement, Harold Camping, claims to have extracted signs and codes from the Bible that point toward this date. The first instinct most people have when confronted with this view is to either laugh, sneer or brush off such beliefs as Christianity at its most fanatical. While I can’t agree with Camping or the other believers, I do think they deserve a certain amount of recognition.

As a Christian myself, I believe Jesus will return someday and the world will never be the same. Those spreading the message of imminent disaster are actually kind of inspiring. Here are a bunch of people so committed to their beliefs that they are willing to brave ridicule and scorn in order to save souls. That’s what the end of the world is all about for Christians: returning to our faith, casting off the earthly temptations that weigh us down, living life like we might die tomorrow.

However, that being said, the Bible does tell us that no one knows when the Lord will return. The believers who warn of the end, or the Rapture, have good intentions. People should be prepared to die tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean we ought to live in fear of death.

What these people are trying to say is that we need to assess our spiritual health and make adjustments. And this is a valid judgement, for Christians and non-Christians alike. Our world isn’t in the best of shape right now, and it could only improve if hundreds of thousands of individuals contemplated the state of their souls. Just think of the changes we would see.

So yes, I respect these preachers of the end times and the Rapture. I simply disagree with their date. If we are to go by what the Bible states, then we should not ignore the admonition that nobody can name the time of Christ’s second coming. We can certainly guess, but we have no powers beyond that, as mortals.

“For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night” [1 Thessalonians 5:2], “but of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” [Matthew 24:36]. These passages directly disprove Camping’s assertions that the world will end May 21. Working out complex mathematical sums will not yield answers to the mystery of the son of God’s return. It simply doesn’t work that way.

And while doomsday themes might make for intriguing movies and best-selling novels, they are but guesses at a future no one can imagine. It’s as baffling as “Lost,” and in the end we all die. If we’re lucky, we see the light.