Post by Morgan Sierra on May 20, 2011 15:25:26 GMT -6
Judgment Day is Here...Again
Well, the Big Day is here again. If you don't know what I am talking about then you obviously are not a fan of Harold Camping, the former civil engineer turned radio evangelist from Oakland, California. Saturday, May 21, is the date that he predicted the Rapture would take place.
The Rapture, or Judgment Day, is supposedly the day when Jesus will return to the Earth, when people will be judged by God and the Saints will be gathered in the air with Christ.
According to the Bible, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Paul writes:For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air...
This is also supposed to be the beginning of a five month period of tribulation where the lost souls who are left behind after the Rapture will suffer in great torment until the end of the World occurs. This end date has also been predicted by Camping and will supposedly occur on October 21, 2011. Of course, this is not the first time such a prediction has been made.
In the mid 1800s a Baptist minister named William Miller predicted that the Rapture would occur sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. The alloted time came and went without incident, however, one of his followers, a man named Samuel Snow revised the prediction to October 22, 1844. The former Millerites took the new proclamation seriously and many of them quit their jobs, gave away all of their material possessions and gathered together in a large field to await the Second Coming. When they woke the next morning and found that the only thing gone was another day they were crestfallen and disillusioned.
Other citizens who had gotten caught up in the religious fervor did not take the news so placidly. In the aftermath of the failed prediction, Miller's followers were attacked and harassed and his churches were vandalized and burned. Instead of heralding the Second Coming this incident would go down in history as the Great Disappointment.
Another group which has made numerous attempts at predicting the Rapture is the Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, at times it seems as if their entire religion is based on foretelling and failing at Biblical prophecy. The Watch Tower Society and its adherents would eventually make failed predictions in 1914, 1916, 1925, 1938, 1941, 1942 and 1975. Their critics have labeled them as nothing but a bunch of false prophets because they have changed their dates so frequently, however the Society defends itself by stating that their predictions are not infallible since the Lord often works in mysterious ways.
In 1988 a man named Edgar C. Whisenant published a book called 88 Reasons why the Rapture is in 1988. It wasn't. In 1989 he published another book titled The final shout: Rapture report 1989. Once again he was wrong. He later went on to make more failed predictions for 1992, 1995, and several other years.
In 1992 a Korean group called "Mission for the Coming Days" put out a pamphlet called An Emergency News that predicted October 28, 1992 as the date for the rapture. The group was first organized in 1988 by Jang-Lim Lee, a former Bible translator and minister of the Presbyterian Church in Seoul, Korea, and they had members in more than a hundred cities in several different countries. They also put out a book called Jesus is finally coming are you ready for the rapture? Unfortunately, their prediction was no more accurate than the earlier ones.
And now here we are, just a short period of time away from this most recent Rapture prediction for May 21. How did this particular date happen to be chosen? According to the 89 year old Camping he did so by using a complicated series of mathematical formulas and calculations based on his work as an engineer and 70 years of studying the Bible. After many years of dogged research his figures finally revealed that the Rapture would occur exactly 722,500 days after the Crucifixion of Christ which, according to Harold, occurred on April 1, of the year 33AD. The actual methodology he used to determine these dates involved another complicated series of calculations based on Biblical prophecies, the Gregorian Calender, the Lunar Cycle, significant digit years and even leap seconds. But, according to Harold, the Rapture will definitely occur on Saturday, May 1.
He is so certain of his prediction this time that his organization, Family Radio Worldwide, placed an ad in Reader's Digest stating: "The Bible guarantees the end of the world will begin with Judgment Day May 21, 2011." Many of his followers are so convinced that, just like the Millerites of 1844, they have quit their jobs, sold their property and used the money to buy billboards and vinyl decals for their cars and trucks which advertise the Doomsday events of May and October. It would seem that Judgment Day is finally here at last...or is it?
Believe it or not, this is not the first time Harold has made such a prediction. Almost two decades ago Camping predicted the Rapture would occur on September 6, 1994. He was just as certain back then as he is now. Since there are still people here on the planet, he was obviously wrong, so why would anybody take his predictions seriously this time?
A lot of people aren't. There are many organizations consisting of atheists, skeptics and even cynical Christians who are planning to host "Rapture Parties" that will begin the first second of May the 21st and last all the way up to the stroke of Midnight...or until everybody is whisked up into the air by the grace of God...whichever comes first. Most people are not taking the event too seriously.
"Well, a significant number of people will die on May 21, ditto go missing," Said one Internet forum member named Paulette. "I doubt if all the Christians (or even all the doomsday Christians) will be gone the next day but that probably wouldn't change my life too much. Maybe some in-laws would be gone... "
Others are in agreement with her. "This Harold guy is a nut!" said another forum member named Casper. "The Bible says that nobody will know when the world will end...it didn't say nobody will know except Harold..."
And what exactly does the Bible say about predicting the Rapture? in Matthew 25: 13, Jesus said, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comes." And again in Matthew 24:44 he says, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes."
That sounds kind of like the Bible is saying that nobody will know when the Rapture is going to take place...not the angels, not the saints...not even Jesus himself. It certainly didn't say anything about making an exception for an eccentric old civil engineer.
When it comes to foretelling the end of the world what it all boils down to is the question of who people want to put their faith in...Jesus Christ, the Son of God...or Harold the...Harold? It looks like the odds are stacked against poor old evangelist. Of course, since he is already 89 years old his own personal Rapture might not be too far off. Maybe for Harold Camping Judgment Day might just decide to come after all.
Well, the Big Day is here again. If you don't know what I am talking about then you obviously are not a fan of Harold Camping, the former civil engineer turned radio evangelist from Oakland, California. Saturday, May 21, is the date that he predicted the Rapture would take place.
The Rapture, or Judgment Day, is supposedly the day when Jesus will return to the Earth, when people will be judged by God and the Saints will be gathered in the air with Christ.
According to the Bible, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Paul writes:For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air...
This is also supposed to be the beginning of a five month period of tribulation where the lost souls who are left behind after the Rapture will suffer in great torment until the end of the World occurs. This end date has also been predicted by Camping and will supposedly occur on October 21, 2011. Of course, this is not the first time such a prediction has been made.
In the mid 1800s a Baptist minister named William Miller predicted that the Rapture would occur sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. The alloted time came and went without incident, however, one of his followers, a man named Samuel Snow revised the prediction to October 22, 1844. The former Millerites took the new proclamation seriously and many of them quit their jobs, gave away all of their material possessions and gathered together in a large field to await the Second Coming. When they woke the next morning and found that the only thing gone was another day they were crestfallen and disillusioned.
Other citizens who had gotten caught up in the religious fervor did not take the news so placidly. In the aftermath of the failed prediction, Miller's followers were attacked and harassed and his churches were vandalized and burned. Instead of heralding the Second Coming this incident would go down in history as the Great Disappointment.
Another group which has made numerous attempts at predicting the Rapture is the Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, at times it seems as if their entire religion is based on foretelling and failing at Biblical prophecy. The Watch Tower Society and its adherents would eventually make failed predictions in 1914, 1916, 1925, 1938, 1941, 1942 and 1975. Their critics have labeled them as nothing but a bunch of false prophets because they have changed their dates so frequently, however the Society defends itself by stating that their predictions are not infallible since the Lord often works in mysterious ways.
In 1988 a man named Edgar C. Whisenant published a book called 88 Reasons why the Rapture is in 1988. It wasn't. In 1989 he published another book titled The final shout: Rapture report 1989. Once again he was wrong. He later went on to make more failed predictions for 1992, 1995, and several other years.
In 1992 a Korean group called "Mission for the Coming Days" put out a pamphlet called An Emergency News that predicted October 28, 1992 as the date for the rapture. The group was first organized in 1988 by Jang-Lim Lee, a former Bible translator and minister of the Presbyterian Church in Seoul, Korea, and they had members in more than a hundred cities in several different countries. They also put out a book called Jesus is finally coming are you ready for the rapture? Unfortunately, their prediction was no more accurate than the earlier ones.
And now here we are, just a short period of time away from this most recent Rapture prediction for May 21. How did this particular date happen to be chosen? According to the 89 year old Camping he did so by using a complicated series of mathematical formulas and calculations based on his work as an engineer and 70 years of studying the Bible. After many years of dogged research his figures finally revealed that the Rapture would occur exactly 722,500 days after the Crucifixion of Christ which, according to Harold, occurred on April 1, of the year 33AD. The actual methodology he used to determine these dates involved another complicated series of calculations based on Biblical prophecies, the Gregorian Calender, the Lunar Cycle, significant digit years and even leap seconds. But, according to Harold, the Rapture will definitely occur on Saturday, May 1.
He is so certain of his prediction this time that his organization, Family Radio Worldwide, placed an ad in Reader's Digest stating: "The Bible guarantees the end of the world will begin with Judgment Day May 21, 2011." Many of his followers are so convinced that, just like the Millerites of 1844, they have quit their jobs, sold their property and used the money to buy billboards and vinyl decals for their cars and trucks which advertise the Doomsday events of May and October. It would seem that Judgment Day is finally here at last...or is it?
Believe it or not, this is not the first time Harold has made such a prediction. Almost two decades ago Camping predicted the Rapture would occur on September 6, 1994. He was just as certain back then as he is now. Since there are still people here on the planet, he was obviously wrong, so why would anybody take his predictions seriously this time?
A lot of people aren't. There are many organizations consisting of atheists, skeptics and even cynical Christians who are planning to host "Rapture Parties" that will begin the first second of May the 21st and last all the way up to the stroke of Midnight...or until everybody is whisked up into the air by the grace of God...whichever comes first. Most people are not taking the event too seriously.
"Well, a significant number of people will die on May 21, ditto go missing," Said one Internet forum member named Paulette. "I doubt if all the Christians (or even all the doomsday Christians) will be gone the next day but that probably wouldn't change my life too much. Maybe some in-laws would be gone... "
Others are in agreement with her. "This Harold guy is a nut!" said another forum member named Casper. "The Bible says that nobody will know when the world will end...it didn't say nobody will know except Harold..."
And what exactly does the Bible say about predicting the Rapture? in Matthew 25: 13, Jesus said, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comes." And again in Matthew 24:44 he says, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes."
That sounds kind of like the Bible is saying that nobody will know when the Rapture is going to take place...not the angels, not the saints...not even Jesus himself. It certainly didn't say anything about making an exception for an eccentric old civil engineer.
When it comes to foretelling the end of the world what it all boils down to is the question of who people want to put their faith in...Jesus Christ, the Son of God...or Harold the...Harold? It looks like the odds are stacked against poor old evangelist. Of course, since he is already 89 years old his own personal Rapture might not be too far off. Maybe for Harold Camping Judgment Day might just decide to come after all.