So we wrote just a few days ago that some 41% of Americans expect the Rapture to occur within the next forty years. Well Oakland's very own Family Radio Worldwide has a new ad campaign out, with bus stops and billboards across the Bay Area and throughout the US proclaiming the precise date the world will end.
So mark your calendars folks: May 21st, 2011.
To be fair the billboards don't say the world will end, only that Christ will return that day. (You have to visit their website for the exact date all life is to be extinguished in a divine conflagration; It's October 21st, 2011 for those of you who wish to get your things in order). So at least we can mark that off our "things to know" checklist.
Ok, enough jokes. Mocking pretribulationists isn't exactly good sport (they make it so easy) and as funny as the concept is - even to religious folks who believe it will happen eventually - there are real people behind this campaign who sincerely believe the message being promoted.
Unlike the vast majority of Christians who take to heart that whole "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son*, but only the Father" passage, Harold Camping considers divining this secret fair game (And like any good apologist has concocted several work-arounds to Matthew 24:36), allowing him the opportunity to freely proclaim the worlds destruction.
Twice.
This is actually the second time Family Radio has announced the worlds end. On Sept 6th, 1994 dozens of Camping's followers gathered within the Alameda Veterans Memorial Building, the culmination of two years of prophesied destruction. He has since admitted to a rounding error as the cause behind the goof; no doubt he's double checked his arithmetic this time around. (Alright so the no jokes thing was a lie. I guess this means I'm out of the running come May 21st.)
It is sad though. All that money spent, all those heightened expectations ready to be dashed. There is a long (long, long) history of failed rapture predictions and they always happen the same way. A small group gathers, many selling off their possessions. The day passes without notice, a small few become disillusioned and the majority remain their faith bolstered as their mind kicks into overdrive rationalizing away the massive personal failure and they emerge from the event as passionate as ever and ready to hand cash over for the next big ad-campaign. (Assuming they have any after they try to buy back their stuff.)
PS: If any of you reading this believe the Rapture is coming and are worried about who will take care of your pets when your whisked off to Heaven, don't worry. Us atheists have your back.
*Small aside, though many theologians point to this passage as proof of the nuttery of those who make wild predictions of the worlds end, those same folks tend to get mighty upset when you point out it's been a historical thorn in their side as well; kinda screws that Trinity thing up they like to work with. (How do you not know what you know?)
Comments
LOVE that... Thanks Tucker! Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer calculated the date of the rapture ("then multiply by the number of Filipinos in the bible...") and like Harold Camping, Homer got it wrong the first time too...
Hi, I'm the Oakland Christianity Examiner. You caught me before I quoted Matthew 24:36... No need to do that now as you already covered that. However, I do believe in the Trinity and I can explain it to the best of my knowledge, you seem like someone open to possibly learning something about this. Where people make the mistake is that they think that it means that we're saying three people are the same, and to be honest some of us are saying that... However, that's not accurate in my opinion. What them being "one" means to me is quite different: They are separate persons, but they work together for a common cause. Their belief system is the same, they're all without sin, they're all on the same page. You won't find Jesus telling God that He disagrees with something that He said, that is my take on it and I think you'll find that my take makes the most sense of anything you've heard about the subject.
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