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US preacher warns end of the world is nigh: 21 May, around 6pm, to be precise
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-preacher-warns-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-21-may-around-6pm-to-be-precise-2254139.html
3/27/11
(But he has been wrong before). Guy Adams reports from California
The end of the world is nigh; 21 May, to be precise. That's the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is confidently predicting the Second Coming of the Lord. At about 6pm, he reckons 2 per cent of the world's population will be immediately "raptured" to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.
If Mr Camping were speaking from any normal pulpit, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another religious eccentric wrongly calling the apocalypse. But thanks to this elderly man's ubiquity, on America's airwaves and billboards, his unlikely Doomsday message is almost impossible to ignore.
Every day Mr Camping, an 89-year-old former civil engineer, speaks to his followers via the Family Radio Network, a religious broadcasting organisation funded entirely by donations from listeners. Such is their generosity (assets total $120m) that his network now owns 66 stations in the US alone.
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Those deep pockets were raided to allow Family Radio to launch a high-profile advertising campaign, proclaiming the approaching Day of Judgement. More than 2,000 billboards across the US are adorned with its slogans, which include "Blow the trumpet, warn the people!". A fleet of logoed camper vans is touring every state in the nation. "It's getting real close. It's really getting pretty awesome, when you think about it," Mr Camping told The Independent on Sunday. "We're not talking about a ball game, or a marriage, or graduating from college. We're talking about the end of the world, a matter of being eternally dead, or being eternally alive, and it's all coming to a head right now."
Mr Camping, who makes programmes in 48 languages, boasts tens of thousands of followers across the globe, with radio stations in South Africa, Russia and Turkey. After 70 years of studying the Bible, he claims to have developed a system that uses mathematics to interpret prophesies hidden in it. He says the world will end on 21 May, because that will be 722,500 days from 1 April AD33, which he believes was the day of the Crucifixion. The figure of 722,500 is important because you get it by multiplying three holy numbers (five, 10 and 17) together twice. "When I found this out, I tell you, it blew my mind," he said.
Recent events, such as earthquakes in Japan, New Zealand and Haiti, are harbingers of impending doom, he says, as are changing social values. "All the stealing, and the lying, and the wickedness and the sexual perversion that is going on in society is telling us something," he says. "So too is the gay pride movement. It was sent by God as a sign of the end."
Mr Camping, who founded Family Radio in the 1950s, grew up a Baptist. Many of his strongly held views – he does not believe in evolution and thinks all abortion should be banned – are relatively commonplace among America's religious right.
Critics point out that this isn't the first time Mr Camping has predicted the second coming. On 6 September 1994, hundreds of his listeners gathered at an auditorium in Alameda looking forward to Christ's return.
"At that time there was a lot of the Bible I had not really researched very carefully," he said last week. "But now, we've had the chance to do just an enormous amount of additional study and God has given us outstanding proofs that it really is going to happen."
Mr Camping's argument has convinced Adam Larsen, 32, from Kansas. He is among scores of "ambassadors" who have quit their jobs to drive around America in Family Radio vehicles warning of the impending apocalypse. "My favourite pastime is raccoon hunting," Mr Larsen told CNN. "I've had to give that up. But this task is far more important."
3/27/11
(But he has been wrong before). Guy Adams reports from California
The end of the world is nigh; 21 May, to be precise. That's the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is confidently predicting the Second Coming of the Lord. At about 6pm, he reckons 2 per cent of the world's population will be immediately "raptured" to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.
If Mr Camping were speaking from any normal pulpit, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another religious eccentric wrongly calling the apocalypse. But thanks to this elderly man's ubiquity, on America's airwaves and billboards, his unlikely Doomsday message is almost impossible to ignore.
Every day Mr Camping, an 89-year-old former civil engineer, speaks to his followers via the Family Radio Network, a religious broadcasting organisation funded entirely by donations from listeners. Such is their generosity (assets total $120m) that his network now owns 66 stations in the US alone.
Related articles
•More Americas News
Search the news archive for more stories
Those deep pockets were raided to allow Family Radio to launch a high-profile advertising campaign, proclaiming the approaching Day of Judgement. More than 2,000 billboards across the US are adorned with its slogans, which include "Blow the trumpet, warn the people!". A fleet of logoed camper vans is touring every state in the nation. "It's getting real close. It's really getting pretty awesome, when you think about it," Mr Camping told The Independent on Sunday. "We're not talking about a ball game, or a marriage, or graduating from college. We're talking about the end of the world, a matter of being eternally dead, or being eternally alive, and it's all coming to a head right now."
Mr Camping, who makes programmes in 48 languages, boasts tens of thousands of followers across the globe, with radio stations in South Africa, Russia and Turkey. After 70 years of studying the Bible, he claims to have developed a system that uses mathematics to interpret prophesies hidden in it. He says the world will end on 21 May, because that will be 722,500 days from 1 April AD33, which he believes was the day of the Crucifixion. The figure of 722,500 is important because you get it by multiplying three holy numbers (five, 10 and 17) together twice. "When I found this out, I tell you, it blew my mind," he said.
Recent events, such as earthquakes in Japan, New Zealand and Haiti, are harbingers of impending doom, he says, as are changing social values. "All the stealing, and the lying, and the wickedness and the sexual perversion that is going on in society is telling us something," he says. "So too is the gay pride movement. It was sent by God as a sign of the end."
Mr Camping, who founded Family Radio in the 1950s, grew up a Baptist. Many of his strongly held views – he does not believe in evolution and thinks all abortion should be banned – are relatively commonplace among America's religious right.
Critics point out that this isn't the first time Mr Camping has predicted the second coming. On 6 September 1994, hundreds of his listeners gathered at an auditorium in Alameda looking forward to Christ's return.
"At that time there was a lot of the Bible I had not really researched very carefully," he said last week. "But now, we've had the chance to do just an enormous amount of additional study and God has given us outstanding proofs that it really is going to happen."
Mr Camping's argument has convinced Adam Larsen, 32, from Kansas. He is among scores of "ambassadors" who have quit their jobs to drive around America in Family Radio vehicles warning of the impending apocalypse. "My favourite pastime is raccoon hunting," Mr Larsen told CNN. "I've had to give that up. But this task is far more important."
The earth also just goes through natural cycles. Climate changes, things shifting around under the surface. I do think all the pollution helps move the climate change along, but if you look back in history there have been gazillions of natural disasters. Plus, Brice is right...we hear about all of them now. I don't think this is anything new.
Teko, I think you're right when you mentioned people not taking people of faith seriously when things like this are spread about. It simply doesn't help.... in fact, makes them look along the lines of foolish. And certainly, would you not think your "leader" was a false profit when he spews garbage like this and it doesn't come to fruit? I'd get my shoes and cruise May 22, 2011 if the end doesn't happen, but I'd pack my stuff today.
I too think we are seeing things at an accelerated pace, but we can thank the media for that. We can get news, up to the minute, from anywhere on the globe these days. (I remember a day when the news had a snippett of world news, but was mostly pertaining to just the U.S.) And when you look at the part of the world in turmoil right now, they've all been going at it for thousands of years. The last 40 to 50 years have been extra nutty, but I personally think thats because we project ourselves as a nation/world figure into all of these things. For Americans, it becomes more real when we are involved.
I too think we are seeing things at an accelerated pace, but we can thank the media for that. We can get news, up to the minute, from anywhere on the globe these days. (I remember a day when the news had a snippett of world news, but was mostly pertaining to just the U.S.) And when you look at the part of the world in turmoil right now, they've all been going at it for thousands of years. The last 40 to 50 years have been extra nutty, but I personally think thats because we project ourselves as a nation/world figure into all of these things. For Americans, it becomes more real when we are involved.
I'd like him to show me where in the bible it says the world will end and Jesus will come back on May 21, 2011 at 6pm? I haven't found that yet in my bible!
However, I do think we are seeing more and more signs of Jesus returning very soon. When? I can't say for sure, but I do believe things are happening at an accelerated pace.
At any rate, we should always be ready as if Jesus returns tomorrow. But He expects us to be wise, not foolish. Watch for the signs, yes, but don't quit your jobs and abandon your families. We need to take care of that which God has entrusted us.
However, I do think we are seeing more and more signs of Jesus returning very soon. When? I can't say for sure, but I do believe things are happening at an accelerated pace.
At any rate, we should always be ready as if Jesus returns tomorrow. But He expects us to be wise, not foolish. Watch for the signs, yes, but don't quit your jobs and abandon your families. We need to take care of that which God has entrusted us.
No one knows the day so if ya got someone giving a time and a date, it is not from above pure and simple and I think that everytime someone does this, the world laughs and no longer takes anyone of faith seriously and it causes them to mock it for no reason. Jeesh. I do believe that something disasterous is happening, but not the end of the world, at least not for everyone anyways.:(
I gotta be honest, I am so tired of hearing about End of Times. I'm with Brice..if it's gonna happen it's gonna happen and I can't do a thing about it. As for these folks quitting their jobs to drive around and preach about it...good luck to them if it doesn't happen...hope they can find other jobs.
It's been a damned weird and trying year around my ranch too, but this is not the end of it all. It's just not.... none of us are getting out that easy. The deal with predictions is, you keep predicting things, eventually you are going to come close.
Nostradamus has predicted quite a few things that haven't come true. It seems as if I posted on another thread, pertaining to the end of times predictions. In essence, we've all lived through different "ends of time". Right now is the end of times from a second ago. Maybe I am just naive.....
And the good news is, if it is the end of times, there isn't a whole heck of a lot we can do about it.....
Nostradamus has predicted quite a few things that haven't come true. It seems as if I posted on another thread, pertaining to the end of times predictions. In essence, we've all lived through different "ends of time". Right now is the end of times from a second ago. Maybe I am just naive.....
And the good news is, if it is the end of times, there isn't a whole heck of a lot we can do about it.....
As one who will more than likely get sent to the' other place' out of curiosity does he say how the world is going to end .. I must admit there have been many many strange nasty things happening this year ..and I can see why folks may believe it.Will it be a nuclear explosion ., not surprising with the middle east surrounding Israel..and assuming they will want to take the US out aswell .interesting though, I may have to pack my bags ready ...
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