“If you are reading this blog,” the website suggested, “then you were not saved by Jesus in the Second Coming, and have been left behind during the End of Days.” Holy shit! So now what should I do?
Of course, as an athiest I expected to be left behind on such a momentous day. But how are those who do believe but were somehow passed over by Jesus supposed to prepare themselves for the “End Times”? The website advised people to stock up on “water, canned goods, and appropriate clothing.”
Appropriate clothing? What clothing, exactly, is appropriate to wear for the end of the world? What would Danielle Steel and Carl Nolte wear at a time like this?
It seems that some Christians really believed that this past Saturday, May 21, 2011, was the day of rapture. You know, Judgment Day (and no, I’m not talking about one of those Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator movies). Arnie’s going to soon be facing a tough judgment day of his own.
The most vocal and definitive player in this religious doomsday prediction has been American Christian radio host and president of Family Radio, Harold Camping. The 89 year-old Camping, through his Family Radio Network, which runs 66 radio stations across the country and is worth at least $120 million, has been telling his listeners and followers that May 21st was the big day.
This past Saturday, he promised, two or three percent of the world’s population would be swept away to heaven, leaving the rest of us to suffer massive earthquakes that were to begin at around 6 p.m. in each of the world’s time zones, starting with New Zealand. The rest of humanity, he said, would wallow in five months of anguish until “final destruction” and the end of the world on Oct. 21.
What a sweet old man this Harold Camping is.
It seems that an astonishing number of people believed him, including many of his followers who listen, um, religiously, to his Christian radio network. There are stories about people who quit their jobs, gave away their money, and did other really stupid things in the belief that they’d be in heaven by now. In fact, many gave away their money to Camping’s Family Radio Network. Oops!
One such follower of Camping is Bob James, president of Embedded Work, LLC, a “value-added technology distributor.” James wrote on his website that “the Bible states in no uncertain terms that Jesus Christ’s return is set for May 21, 2011. This is the day of the Rapture when Christ will gather His people to Heaven. It is also the start of Judgment Day, the time when God will bring an end to this world because of mankind’s sin. The world will remain in the Day of Judgment for 5 months (153 days) and God will annihilate it October 21, 2011.”
That’s some statement coming from the head of a technology distribution company. I assume that Mr. James is nowhere to be found these days, as he was surely one of those two to three percent of people who were swept away to heaven on Saturday.
But if Bobby is still earth-bound, if he wasn’t swept up to heaven, then the bible, the true word of God, was wrong, and Jesus didn’t return to earth on Saturday. And if the bible is wrong, then God, whose very words are reflected in the bible, must be wrong. And if God is wrong, what does that mean for those who believe in the infallibility of God and in the absolute truth of the bible. Oops!
Judgment Day has come and gone and nothing seems to have happened. Well, nothing but tons of publicity and money for Harold Camping and his Family Radio Network. Anyone seen Mr. Camping lately?
In fact, he did emerge from his Alameda, CA home on Sunday after the rapture failed to materialize. “It has been a really tough weekend,” he said, adding that he was “flabbergasted” that he wasn’t in heaven yet. Oh yes, Harold Camping, you are, indeed, not in heaven, but in a hell of your own making.
Cheer up, Mr. Camping, Mr. James, and all of those who expected to be lifted to heaven with Jesus this past Saturday. After all, it’s not the end of the world. Oh, sorry, you were hoping that it was. Oops!
I'd choose to believe the Mayan's prediction of 2012, which is based on astronomy, over some fictional book WRITTEN BY MAN. Seriously.
Posted by: Tracy | 05/23/2011 at 01:23 PM
I agree that the biblical prediction...the one Harold Camping and Bob James were so certain of...was written by man and not some mythical, mystical, omnipotent being. But who do you think crafted the Mayan's prediction? Seriously?
Posted by: Doobster | 05/24/2011 at 01:00 AM