A bus advertising Judgment Day makes its way through New Orleans on March 8, 2011. Credit: Bart Everson
Posted on 05/20/2011 11:09:10 AM PDT by NYer
.- The claim being circulated that May 21 will mark the end of the world and be a day of judgment by God has no basis in Scripture or authentic Christian teaching, according to Catholic scholar Dr. Jared Staudt.
The professor of theology at the Augustine Institute, located in Denver, said that Biblical teaching and Church tradition show “it's clear that it is not scriptural to seek for a date for the day of judgment.”
“It sometimes can be easy to ridicule groups like this for coming up with such calculations, but we should remember that this is a perennial problem,” Staudt told CNA.
“In the end, I think it is a problem of faith. We have a hard time simply trusting in the Lord and waiting for Him.”
Family Radio, a religious group out of Oakland, California that has been broadcasting for several decades, recently launched a nationwide campaign claiming that May 21 at 6:00 p.m. will signal the beginning of hell on earth for non-believers, and a day when Christians around the world will be “raptured” into heaven.
The group has worked around the clock in recent weeks to push their message, using radio and TV broadcasts, billboards, t-shirts, pamphlets and even bumper stickers. Their website received over 3 million visits in April.
Family Radio president Harold Camping, 89, has been hosting the live, call-in talk show “Open Forum” for 50 years.
During a May 15 show, he speculated that “people will be dying by the millions” in the terror-laden months that will follow Judgment Day, until the final destruction of the earth on October 21.
The group uses multiple verses from the Bible to calculate the end of the world, asserting in a booklet that the “great amount of Biblical signs and proofs absolutely guarantee Judgment Day is May 21, 2011.”
In an May 19 interview, however, Dr. Staudt explained that the group uses literal interpretations of several Bible verses taken out of context.
“Family Radio’s prediction of the day of the judgment is premised on the literal interpretation of 2 Peter 3:8, which states: 'with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,'” Staudt explained.
“Building upon this interpretation, Family Radio then applies it to the surrounding context in 2 Peter, the day of judgment in relation to the flood – 2 Peter 3:6.”
Staudt explained that the group also draws its warning from the passage in the book of Genesis where God warns Noah of the flood arriving in seven days. Since “one day is as a thousand years” God, Family Radio concluded that 7,000 years from the start of the flood, or May 21, 2011, will be Judgment Day.
However, Staudt emphasized, St. Peter also clearly says that “'the day of the Lord will come like a thief,' echoing our Lord’s own words.”
“Jesus said he would come as a thief in the night and also clearly stated that it did not pertain to His mission to announce the time of His Second Coming,” he clarified. “It is clear that Jesus did not want us to know the time of His coming, but rather to remain in watchful expectation.”
“He said that He would come soon – Rev 22:20 – but this is not meant to create fear in the disciples, but rather hope, knowing that Christ is the Lord of history and will triumph in the end.”
Additionally, the rapture “is not part of Catholic teaching,” Staudt said. “We do not separate the resurrection of the just and the reprobate, nor the final tribulation and the Lord’s coming.”
“We are to have a faith filled expectation of the Lord’s coming, but without trying to have control over it,” he said.
“We also have to remember that the Lord comes to us every day in the Eucharist and He also comes to us in our own death. Our lives should be centered on watchfulness so that we have open hearts to Him in prayer and in expectation of the future glory, which He promises us.”
Staudt noted that a primary factor in cult-like groups making misguided claims about the end of the wold comes “from a lack of union with the Church established by Christ.”
“When a group is on its own, it sits down with the Bible and tries to figure things out,” he noted. But these groups do not have the context that comes from hearing the Word of God proclaimed in the liturgy or “the authority of the Magisterium to interpret the Bible in unison with Tradition.”
Rather than respond with ridicule or dismissiveness, however, Staudt reiterated the importance of engaging such groups with charity and truth.
“Throughout the Catholic tradition, the response to a contrary position is always to find the good in what is presented and to seek dialogue,” he said. “In this particular case, one could certainly affirm and even praise the desire to proclaim the biblical message of the need for conversion and forgiveness.”
“However, one could also see the sensational presentation as a trivialization of this message. Regardless of that fact, it is still an opportunity to discuss the topic, which has been brought up in a very vocal way.”
Staudt said it's important to remember that “many people, if not most, have never heard a clear and well founded presentation of the Catholic faith.”
“People are drawn towards cults because they are looking for the truth and also for a sense of belonging,” he observed. “Cults provide simple clear cut answers and usually a well defined way of life. We know that this is simply a parody of what Christ intends and actually offers.”
“We need to use opportunities like the one presented by Family Radio to engage in conversation, to listen, and to gently, yet firmly, proclaim the truth of Christ with which we have been entrusted in His Church.”
I thought the woman in Revelation 12 was the Whore of Babylon. I guess I need to read it again.
They park outside our Cathedral and spew their hatred and leaflet the pews.
We finally got a special parking designation to protect that space so that funeral directors and people related to funerals and weddings could park outside the doors. The big vans of the Catholic-haters used to get there at dawn and occupy the spaces all day with vans painted with slogans like “Whore of Babylon”, “Sinners Burn in Hell,” etc.
Can you imagine the press if Catholics attacked Protestants in the same way? But we rise above that and we pray for them, because they are simply misguided.
I hope that the thought of just how few ‘make the cut’ (according to you) makes you feel good about yourself.
I don’t worry about it. People speculate on the end of the world, but no pope or bishop has ever had people out on their rooftops waiting for it.
Still, I can’t hate these poor folk. They’re poorly educated on any level, have somehow scraped up the money to do this (and I have lived in a place where I knew somebody whose husband had a “church” in his garage where he collected big bucks from about 10 little old Protestant ladies), and probably do believe what they’re saying.
That’s why they need to come back to the Church. When people go off on their own, the Devil is watching and waiting.
I judge not.
The entire Protestant circus train comes off the tracks when you get down to the argument over authority to interpret Scripture. Your argument is that your "private" interpretation is superior to the "private" interpretation of the teaching authority of the institution that, under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, preserved, published and defended the Bible. As so eloquently stated at scripturecatholic.com:
"Scripture reveals this Church to be the one Jesus Christ built upon the rock of Saint Peter (Matt. 16:18). By giving Peter the keys of authority (Matt. 16:19), Jesus appointed Peter as the chief steward over His earthly kingdom (cf. Isaiah. 22:19-22). Jesus also charged Peter to be the source of strength for the rest of the apostles (Luke 22:32) and the earthly shepherd of Jesus' flock (John 21:15-17). Jesus further gave Peter, and the apostles and elders in union with him, the power to bind and loose in heaven what they bound and loosed on earth. (Matt. 16:19; 18:18). This teaching authority did not die with Peter and the apostles, but was transferred to future bishops through the laying on of hands (e.g., Acts 1:20; 6:6; 13:3; 8:18; 9:17; 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim. 1:6).
By virtue of this divinely-appointed authority, the Catholic Church determined the canon of Scripture (what books belong in the Bible) at the end of the fourth century. We therefore believe in the Scriptures on the authority of the Catholic Church. After all, nothing in Scripture tells us what Scriptures are inspired, what books belong in the Bible, or that Scripture is the final authority on questions concerning the Christian faith. Instead, the Bible says that the Church, not the Scriptures, is the pinnacle and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) and the final arbiter on questions of the Christian faith (Matt. 18:17). It is through the teaching authority and Apostolic Tradition (2 Thess. 2:15; 3:6; 1 Cor. 11:2) of this Church, who is guided by the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,26; 16:13), that we know of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the manifold wisdom of God. (cf. Ephesians 3:10).
I hope that this site gives Catholics the biblical and patristic knowledge they need to answer questions about their faith, and helps them rediscover the truth of their faith as taught by Sacred Scripture. I further pray that non-Catholics come to recognize that God's gift of salvation comes only through Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church. I also pray that each one of us grows more deeply in love with Jesus as we become better Bible Christians (or, rather, "Scripture Catholics")."
You can have your “ISM” and be glad... I know that I have a personal relationship with my Savior and Father, FOR I am DECLARED a son of God in Romans 8:14-16. My relationship with my Father is this: God is my Father, I am His son as a saved Saint - Believer. Christ is my savior for He died for all my sins, past, present, future; He rose from the dead: I have faith alone in Christ alone. There is nothing that the Catholics can do for my salvation, nor can they take away my salvation: for it is ALL OF God and Christ; no man can take away my salvation. Praise Christ my LORD and savior.
For amusement, some pretty stout folks have been taken in:
Saint Clement I 100
Saint Martin of Tours 400
(Antipope) Hippolytus predicted 500
Germans went completely off the rails late 900s
1000-MAY: The body of Charlemagne was disinterred on Pentecost. A legend had arisen that an emperor would rise from his sleep to fight the Antichrist.
1033 -— lots of folks
1284 (Pope Innocent III computed this date by adding 666 years onto the date the Islam was founded — not a bad guess, IMHO)
1689: Benjamin Keach, a 17th century Baptist
1792: This was the date of the end of the world calculated by some believers in the Shaker movement.
1794: Charles Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism
LOL! Well, maybe his calculations were off...but Islam, a syncretist fraud that is the anti-Christianity and anti-Judaism, will most likely have something to do with it.
Still, we know not the hour...
I judge not, but remember what our Lord said: Matthew 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and NARROW is the way, which leadeth unto life, and FEW there be that find it.
I judge not: for Christ has already judged this matter, and I am free to reflect and bring it up for edification; so consider youself edified by a true believer In Christ.
So the truth is this: not many, not even a lot, of those souls you mentioned ever reach heaven based on the teachings of Christ Jesus.
The Whore of Revelation basically begins in Revelation 17.
There is nothing that the Catholics can do for my salvation
MY GOD, MY CHRIST, MY SAVIOR and neither me has ADDED (and neither me? As in 'me and God?')
and I am free to reflect and bring it up for edification; so consider youself edified by a true believer In Christ."
And quite a humble character you are too.
So you have a direct line to heaven? You get the inside scoop on who is there and who isn't?
yu got that rite!
Gud thing God don’t giv spellin tests;)
tee hee.
Who’s the woman?
Thorium might help.
Because no passage of Scripture ever had dual meanings did it? Passages only mean one thing and one thing alone, do they?
I marvel at this logic....I am supposed to read this chapter about a *woman giving birth to the Redeemer* and not once—NOT EVER—think of Our Lady Mary.
Stuff and nonsense. As if St. John was that stupid of a writer.
And the connection between the original post and your discourse on Mary and the Revelation to John is ......?
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