Yesterday was a sad day for Christians. Not because the infamous "end-of-the-world" prediction was wrong, although we do hope each day could be the day we'll join the Lord in the air. No. We're sad because atheists rejoice, agnostics remain complacent, and thousands of people around the entire world may lose their faith in God. The positive aspect is that people are talking about Jesus and about eternity. God does work in mysterious ways.
According to Harold Camping, a Christian radio host from California, the long-awaited Rapture of the Saints was scheduled for May 21, 2011. He stated with certainty that approximately 3% of the world's population would be lifted to Heaven at 6:00 p.m. local time; that is, the Rapture would not happen in an instant but would roll around the earth, so to speak. Then massive earthquakes, greater in magnitude than the recent devastating Japanese earthquake, would begin on the Pacific Rim at 6:00 p.m. local time and would hit New York City at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. The actual annihilation of the earth, of the entire universe, would take place six months later, on October 21, 2011.
This is the web site of Family Radio as it appeared yesterday:
This is the web site of Family Radio as it appears today:
Various news outlets state that Camping cannot be located for comment.
Camping has made a Rapture prediction before, in a 1992 self-published book titled 1994? which set the date in September of that year. When nothing happened, Camping said he must have made a mathematical error.
A civil engineer, Camping has always been fascinated with numbers. His premise was based on the appearance of numbers in the Bible, stating that God would only have included various numbers for a purpose. He has studied the Bible for decades to develop his equations and to be certain his calculations are correct.
Pure hubris. The Bible is clear. Documented in Matthew 24: 36 (King James Version), Jesus states, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Didn't Camping see that verse during all his years of study?
I have no doubt that Harold Camping genuinely believed his prediction and believed that he was doing the work of God: warning non-Christians that the end is near.
Well, folks, he certainly got that right. The end is near. The day is at hand. As documented in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (KJV),
16For 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:
17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
...and also documented in Matthew 24:30-31 (KJV),
30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Will you be left behind?
God's Plan of Salvation
Thanks to Wikipedia for information on Harold Camping
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