Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.
"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."
The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.
The Mayans and the recent Hollywood movie "2012" have put the apocalypse in the popular mind this year, but Camping has been at this business for a long time. And while Armageddon is pop science or big-screen entertainment to many, Camping has followers from the Bay Area to China.
Camping, 88, has scrutinized the Bible for almost 70 years and says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Good Book. One night a few years ago, Camping, a civil engineer by trade, crunched the numbers and was stunned at what he'd found: The world will end May 21, 2011.
This is not the first time Camping has made a bold prediction about Judgment Day.
On Sept. 6, 1994, dozens of Camping's believers gathered inside Alameda's Veterans Memorial Building to await the return of Christ, an event Camping had promised for two years. Followers dressed children in their Sunday best and held Bibles open-faced toward heaven.
But the world did not end. Camping allowed that he may have made a mathematical error. He spent the next decade running new calculations, as well as overseeing a media company that has grown significantly in size and reach.
"We are now translated into 48 languages and have been transmitting into China on an AM station without getting jammed once," Camping said. "How can that happen without God's mercy?" ...
via Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011 - SFGate.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011
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6 comments:
“[2012 as the end of the World] has not one stitch of biblical authority,” he says. Like "biblical authority" means anything. That's the big laugh to me; Christians are constantly looking down on other religious groups, as though Christianity is any more rational.
For the record, I don't believe in any particular date for the "End of the World," or the doctrines of any religious or cultural group.
The concept of rapture doesn't even show up anywhere in the Bible. It comes from a misinterpretation of several verses in Revelation. As for the date, the Bible says we must "therefore keep watch, because [we] do not know the day or the hour." (Matt. 25:13)
Whatever you believe, I don't think it's very important to stress about when the world will end, or how. Just live your life, because if you let things like that worry you, you're only hurting yourself.
If birds and other animals keep dying, bet those guy are going to get a little freaked. Hell, I'm freaked out just because, not for fear of some dire prediction or holy event, dying animals means dying poeple might be next. Scary enough without any 2012 (or "2011" for Mr. Camping) stuff....
Peace
Stamping Out Harold Camping
Is Second Coming date-setter Harold Camping worthy of death? He already has a zero batting average after his September 1994 prediction fizzle and, according to the Bible, is a false prophet.
Nevertheless that California shaman, who should be ashamed, claims he's found out that Christ's return will be on May 21, 2011 even though Matt. 24:36 says that no one knows the "day" or "hour" of it!
A Google article ("Obama Fulfilling the Bible") points out that "Deut. 18:20-22 in the Old Testament requires the death penalty for false prophets."
The same article reveals that "Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note 'taken away')."
Theologically radioactive Harold Camping and his ga-ga groupies (with their billboards featuring "May 21, 2011") should worry about being "stamped out" if many persons decide to follow the I Cor. 5 command.
The above article concludes: "False prophets in the OT were stoned to death. Today they are just stoned!"
Interesting. So natural selection of prophets during those times would have resulted in those who could say things with great conviction and emotional impact, but whose claims could not be disproved. This would encompass a wide assortment of false stories. What kinds of claims were made by false prophets?
"Behold! I am the prophet Bombasticle! I bring you tidings of both joy, and doom. Tomorrow I will rise to join the gods and all who shower me with gifts tonight will be rewarded 100 fold, for the chosen ones will rise with me in a great golden ship, while all others, yes all others, tomorrow morning, will be devoured by a twenty headed burning screaming demon known as Megakillator! Will you bet your life that his claws of blood rusted metal will not disembowel you as the sun rises?! Great, okay, I'll have that leg of lamb, those three maidens, a loaf of bread and the foot ointment. No, the one reserved for the king. Okay, bye now, I'll be right over in the forest..."
It is funny to me that you think that The Hister is a fine joke indeed. We do not care what you have planned for in the end it just starts over. Lets say that Monsanto spayed tons of their bacterial agent into the ocean and it seemed that the spill just vanished. Then the chemicals rained down on the land and the animals died. What next. Oh yeah humans are animals. Maybe we should have thought of something else to use. The ants go marching one by one. Hurah.
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