If you are reading this on June 5, 2006, here’s fair warning: Your time may be just about up. The Great Judgment Day and the end of the world are scheduled for tomorrow. If, on the other hand, it’s already June 7 or later, never mind. 

I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t joke about something as serious as the judgment, but it’s hard to be serious about this most recent little adventure in Biblical prognostication. Proponents of the prediction base it on the number 666, which appears only one place in Scripture, Revelation 13:18. That text says, “This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.”

You can judge for yourself whether the doomsayers have discovered the wisdom the text calls for. As near as I can tell, here’s their reasoning: June 6, 2006 reads out digitally as 6/6/06. That’s 666 (if you use your imagination just a bit), so it must signal the end of the world.

You can be forgiven if you don’t quite catch the logic. But this actually is getting quite a lot of press. A note about it was in my hometown paper, the Lincoln Journal Star, on June 3; the LA Times ran a full-length story on May 23; and online chat rooms are filled with buzz about it.  

So, could the world end on June 6? Sure. Why not? God will do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. But no logical or Biblical evidence connects the number 666 with June 6 or with the end of the world.

The sad thing about this is that every time someone “cries wolf” about judgment day, it makes it a little less likely that people will believe a judgment day actually is coming. The Bible is straightforward, though. This requires little interpretation: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV).

It is also unfortunate that many see this text as a threat—as bad news. In fact, it is good news. What makes it good news is the identification of the judge—it is Jesus himself.

Now listen to what Jesus says: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:11-16).

Will judgment day come on June 6? Probably not. But if it does, as my Aussie friends would say, “No worries!” Believers can honestly say, “Bring it on—the sooner the better.” We have nothing to fear from our Friend.