Killing the Buddha has a story about Tom Evans, media representative for Harold Camping’s Family Radio. Near the end, Evans mentions the reasons he believes that the end times are upon us:
For him, though, the signs are too big to ignore: the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948, the rise of the gay pride movement, and the splintering of Christianity into so many denominations all signal that the end is very nigh.
The gay pride bit caught me off guard. Really, that’s a sign of the end times? That’s the final seal?
Sure enough, Scott Bailey found this clip of Camping talking about homosexuality and the apocalypse.
Also, notice how emphatic Camping is. “It is going to happen. There is no possibility that it will not happen.” As Jason Boyett points out in his 21 Things You Should Know About Harold Camping, Camping had established May 21, 2011, as a likely date for the apocalypse way back in 1994. He’s got years invested in this.
Evans has a lot invested to, as he frames the situation at the end of the KtB article:
What will he do if he wakes up May 22? Grab coffee? Come in to work?
“No, it’s far more serious than that,” he replies. “I’ve said if you boil everything down it’s really trusting the Bible. If you can’t trust the Bible, then you got nothing. There’s no truth.”
These folks are putting everything on the line. I’m not sure Camping is going to survive long after the failure of his prediction. He might lie down and die like William Miller did after the Great Disappointment. Someone should probably keep a close eye on folks like Evans.
Seriously? You think these people will seriously worry about failure? Camping already has a bunch of failed predictions behind him — this is not his first predicted date. He’s just a huckster. And his dupes are far too stupid to have the self-awareness necessary to learn anything when they are disappointed.
They’ll just collectively pick a new date (or even stop going for a particular date) and pretend nothing ever happened.
More likely, he’ll claim on Sunday that it was a “spiritual rapture”, and if he gets really lucky and some newsworthy disaster with a dozen or hundred deaths happens, even better. He’ll then claim it was God’s work to get back at all the people who doubted the coming rapture.
I like that, Spiritual Rapture!!! HA HA HA!!!
I hope the FBI and the CIA are watching these guys and their followers very carefully. These religious zealots have so much at stake, it’s not a stretch to think they might do something to “help” God along with “His” plan to destroy the world.
I’m not afraid the world will end on Saturday; I’m afraid Camping’s followers will try to make the world end on Saturday. Talk about terrorists … who personifies the title “terrorist” better than a creepy old man instilling fear in millions of people?
Given that the Secret Service apparently has guys watching Fox News to spot new threats against the president from Fox News, I think they’re aware of these guys.
Do you think we should have a good bye post?
Something where we call all say goodbye to the soon to be raptured theists.
I like that idea. From now on, every so called christian in the world is not a “real christian” as if he were, he would have been raptured.
“I’ve said if you boil everything down it’s really trusting the Bible. If you can’t trust the Bible, then you got nothing. There’s no truth.”
Okey dokey. Insects do not have four legs, bats are not a type of fowl, rabbits do not chew their cuds, and you cannot breed animals with stripes by putting sticks near their watering trough. Therefore you cannot trust the Bible. Therefore pal, you got nothing.
Well, considering the fact that this prediction has already failed, it’s May 21st on the other side of the world, right now, I don’t know what these jokers will do when the 21st arrives here. I just hope, we don’t see a lot of Heaven’s Gate copycats. While it is enjoyable to point and laugh at the deluded sods, some of these people have given up everything, including homes, jobs, money, everything, because they believe so much that they will not be here in the next 24 hours.
When Monday rolls around, and they have to go crawling back to their former jobs, the banks, the mortgage companies, it won’t be funny. It will be a very sad day for them, because their delusion led them to being destitute.
I heard it was supposed to be 6pm on the 21st.
6pm on what time zone? or is it going to be like New Year’s?
If so, Australia is fucked up and I have a chance to repent…
It’s going to be like new years, 6pm local but since we know that America is the only place where you have TrueChristians™ then we shouldn’t be surprised no one was raptured in heathen lands like Australia (unless Ken Ham went back to be raptured from his native land).
Actually, A rolling time-zone by time-zone earthquake will hit the world, in each zone @ ^pm. So actually it’s supposed to start in Tonga, so we’ll know about it tonight.
No guys, seriously, here’s the link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/the-rapture-is-not-saturday-its-tonight/239177/
I’m sure on May 22 it’ll turn out that it was a metaphorical earthquake, the meaning of which is obvious to any true follower of Christ and Harold Camping.
I’m sorry, but to say these guys are putting everything on the line seems a bit generous. I mean, stating the certainty of this event (non-event?) isn’t putting much on the line. In the situations where the credulous have been put on the spot and asked to make a prediction for (what happens to be) The Day After Tomorrow, they’ve found ways of evading even venturing forth a hypothesis for what it might be like, for them and for the world at large. Anyone can put on the arrogant show these guys are, because when May 22nd rolls around, all they have to do is re-tract their words, re-explain themselves, re-rationalize the present world and their religiously mangled interpretation of it, and go back to normal life. You can’t do that if you lose all of your possessions to charity. You can’t do that when you have literally no material assets. What would it take to convince me these guys are really serious and not just covering for their future back-peddling selves? Someone putting their life savings on the line, or some other such display of ‘knowledge’ (since belief is too soft for the certainty they have already displayed), like a legally binding document stripping them of every single one of their possessions, or the ability to promote future apocalypses. I’m not saying I wish these people well, but I would like for them to be accountable for the religious-end-times bullshit they feed into the public. And the same goes for all of the other religious cults. Put the money where the prophecy is. Prove you’re serious or stop, just stop.
haha, “I’m not saying I wish these people *harm*” is how that line should have gone. Oh ye of little proof-reading.
Doomsday church: Still open for business
I got interviewed on-camera today by our local Portland CBS affiliate: somehow they found our CFI-sponsored “Left Behind” party at a local pub, and called me and asked for an interview. Without even asking me, on this evening’s news they issued an open invitation to all of Portland! So this should be interesting: are we going to get a bunch of non-Harold Camping believers showing up thinking we’re just mocking the May 21st crowd? I think some will be a bit surprised that we’re mocking ALL “Rapture” believers! But we promise to be nice to them at the same time . . .
Well, it’s been the 21st here in Australia for the 17 hours. Lovely sunny day, I’ve made a CD in preparation with Blondie’s “Rapture” to kick it off, followed by Dylans “Knocking on heavens door”, Tavares “Heaven must be missing an angel”, “Rock & Roll heaven” from the Righteous Bros, Boz Scagges and The Big “O’s “It’s over”, then “Too much heaven” by the Bee Gees, “Highway to hell AC/DC, “That old devil called love” Alison Moyet, Avril Lavinge “What the hell”, “The end of the world” – Skeeter Davis, “Feels like heaven”, the Fiction Factory (how apt) “That’s all”, Genesis, INXS “The devil inside”, “Something happened on the way to heaven” from Phil Collins, “Fool if you think it’s over”-Chris Rea, “Heaven must be there” from the Eurogliders and wrapped (or rapt) it with Billy Preston’s 1969 song “That’s the way goad planned it”. What a collection. The street is over and we’re still waiting. Gonna watch 2012 tonight.
I’ll certainly be listening to REM’s ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine)’ tonight as the universe crumbles around us.
Jees, I forgot “Heaven can wait”-Meatloaf and “Here you come again” Dolly Parton!!
understand that the SON does not know the exact date on which the following prophesy will occur—”only the FATHER”. so, anyone who claims to know the exact date has been misled.
yes, HE will come to snatch up all who are “in CHRIST”, but first all who have passed away. “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air. And so we will be with the LORD forever.”(1Th 4:16-17 NIV)
so that you will not be misled today, study the Bible today.(Mat 24:36; Mar 13:32)
Understand that quoting bible verses to atheists is no more useful than quoting Harry Potter verses. Take your filthy evangelizing elsewhere.
Yeah, we really need to start policing that no evangelism policy.
Btw…I have a long layover at Heathrow this summer. I was thinking we could grab lunch (or tea, or whatever you guys grab over there). How bout it Custy? How far are you from there? :)
Britain is a tad bit bigger than the M25 circle, John. It’s about a four hour drive from me.
Nick have you ever done the math on how long you will have to actually wait in line to get into heaven? I saw a comment where the guy had done the math and you could die today and it will be 500 or more years before your soul can pass though the gates of heaven. Why do you want to stand in a line that is so much longer then any bathroom line could possibly be?
I love how all the fundies with a hardon for the Apocalypse scoff at Camping when the only major difference between them and him is that they won’t set an actual date for when God will destroy the world.
“That guy Camping is crazy. You can’t know when the Apocalypse is going to happen. But it definitely will. Real soon. We’re living in the end times.”
That’s weird Nick. If the Father, Son, and Spirit are one God, then how can one know something that the other one doesn’t?
By your reasoning, that 100% disproves that the Trinity is one. It’s got to be three separate entities. So you don’t worship a single God, you worship three.
And ignorant Nick, many of us have read the bloody (literally) Bible and probably know it better than you (those of us who were born-again believers, pastors, and missionaries pretty much had to know it, que no?) so don’t tell us to read our Bibles. It’s when we REALLY read it in depth that we couldn’t believe it’s fairy tales any more.
OMG, they were right after all!