Posted on 05/22/2011 9:49:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
That's a Wrapture.
When the world did not end at precisely 6 p.m. yesterday, Doomsday prophet Robert Fitzpatrick's fragile grasp on reality crumbled.
"I don't understand why nothing is happening," said Fitzpatrick, flipping through his Bible for clues to why Rapture failed to show up on time.
"It's not a mistake. I did what I had to do. I did what the Bible said," he said, looking increasingly disheveled and confused as he stood in Times Square before mocking crowds.
A kooky Christian cult predicted that corpses would line the streets and deadly earthquakes would swallow up sinners beginning at 11:59 p.m. Jerusalem time on May 21, 2011.
Fitzpatrick, 60, a retired MTA engineer who became the city's self-appointed siren of the Apocalypse, spent $140,000 of his life savings on 3,219 bus, subway and commuter-rail ads trumpeting the coming "global earthquake" and urging sinners to repent to Jesus.
Fitzpatrick is a follower of Harold Camping, 89, an Oakland, Calif., evangelist who promised that on Judgment Day the righteous would be sucked up to heaven while sinners -- even children -- were to rot among fires, earthquakes and tsunamis engulfing the Earth. People would slowly die off until Oct. 21, 2011, when God completely KO'd the earth and all of its inhabitants.
Even cynical city dwellers got into the spirit of Doomsday, with New Yorkers hawking T-shirts, holding Judgment Day parties and Mayor Bloomberg deadpanning that he'd suspend alternate-side parking if the Earth crumbled.
Fitzpatrick's self-published tome on his predictions, "The Doomsday Code," earned $1,400 in royalties, he said. But his publicity stunt wasn't about getting checks. On Judgment Day, after all, money wouldn't matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I believe as you do. Even though I have devoted my "about page" to the discussion of the rapture and the apocalypse, I have not given a date and time of when the rapture will occur. As I have stated: There is far too much debate over the meaning and scope of the rapture. This is not God’s intent. Rather, in regards to the rapture, God wants us to “encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
That said, one only has to wonder just how close we are to this happening though. With all that is happening in the Mideast and the events that are being centered on Israel.
Oh but it DID end precisely at 6pm yesterday.
Just a select few of us are allowed to know that however.
HUMMMM, gave the Christian haters something to ridicule All Christians. frankly I hope they find out what it’s like to challenge GOD.
What a sad and confusing day for this fool’s followers. That otherwise apparently functional folks are able to be deluded so deeply is amazing. I haven’t read the numbers- were there really more than a couple of hundred who believed this?
Maybe Dumbplayer would more appropriate title.
> “I don’t understand why nothing is happening,” said
> Fitzpatrick, flipping through his Bible for clues to why
> Rapture failed to show up on time.
Maybe somebody tore the following verse out of his Bible.
Mark 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Now, if the Lord Jesus, God in the flesh (!) didn’t know when He was returning, how was THIS clown supposed to know?
“It’s too bad that a Christian didn’t, at that point, offer the man compassion & love & assurance.As to the cynics, it’s all fine and good that they carried on like the heathen that they are but I bet some of them were just a tad bit anxious before yesterday. And at the end, the true end, they will still be mocking and partying and will be caught unaware. Tragic.”
Well said. I feel very badly for those who trusted in Harold Camping to interpret God’s Word. I do believe that there are many churches out there who are prepared to help the disillusioned repent of their misplaced alliance and offer the comfort and fellowship of believers. You are also right to indicate that at the true end, all those who stand mocking now will continue to mock to their doom. This is not the time to make fun of those people, but to feel the sadness that always accompanies tragedy.
That is precisely why this story 'grew legs'. Each of us sense that there are forces at work beyond our control and those of us that have studied the bible see the various signs of prophecy being fulfilled with increasing intensity. Those people may have mocked this man and mock Christians in general, but this 'prediction' had just enough plausability to it that many probably believed it.
Those people may have been mocking and laughing at him yesterday but I bet some of the emotion was a 'whewww, we dodged a bullet' relief for some of them.
I feel sorry for this poor, deluded man. OTOH, I think Camping has a lot of ‘splainin to do - to God.
He will claim he meant Rupture.
Thank you.
My heart ached for this man when the story described his reaction/demeanor when nothing happened. Very, very sad.
We are all susceptible to being led astray and the only way to prevent it is to stay firmly grounded in the Truth, the Bible.
I get no joy from this picture.
My heart goes out to him. Yes, he fell for a lie. But he’s a victim just like if he fell for a Nigerian scam. He’s lost his life savings. That’s so sad. And the people with him - they may never come to real understanding of Jesus Christ because of this.
You didn't do anything wrong, Robert. The world did end yesterday. Just not in this universe.
I’ll be praying for our misled brothers Camping and Fitzgerald, if they are indeed our brothers.
That’s probably the best thing we can do. I do hope that someone that is solid in scripture reaches out to this man. He probably is mortified and vulnerable right now; sometimes though, that is the position we have to be in to be open to the Truth.
Amen, Sister FReeper. While I think the man was goofy because the bible states clearly and repeatedly that no one, not the angels nor Jesus, knows the exact time when it all starts to hit, I am moved and touched that the guy spent $140,000 to try to warn his fellow humans -- including me -- about it. He put his money where his mouth was. An admirable quality.
Typical Global Warming Doomsday Nutcase Obama voter.
I woke up this morning and turned on the television, Obama was on... I immediately knew the end had indeed come....... and that I was in Hell.
I will join you.
God will sort out whether or not they're our brothers; in my heart, every human alive is my brother or sister, and even if I had to kill in self defense, would remain so and my prayers would be even more fervent.
Several years ago I knew a man, a foul, drug-abusing, sexually perverted man, and I was compelled to always be friendly to him in order to keep the local peace and also because my heart told me it was right to be so. I got to know him slightly; he was a military veteran, a lost soul, a sad person, but he was still a man, my brother. He was foul, disgusting, shiver-inducing. I'd bet money that he derided and scorned Christianity, though we never talked about it.
I learned not long ago that he committed suicide, bleeding slowly to death in a place he'd deliberately chosen so no one would find him for weeks. For some reason, his death hurt me, pained me, caused me grief, to an enormous degree, and still does even thinking about it now. I don't really know how to pray for someone's soul, I'm not even sure God would want me to pray for this guy's soul ... but I do pray for it. I do pray that God gave him comfort and hope at the end, and that he now knows God's love and mercy.
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