Posted on 10/05/2011 1:51:56 PM PDT by Cronos
Yes, this again.
There are fewer billboards this time, but the people who brought you the popular Rapture "scare" of May 2011 are back with a more subdued sequel titled "Wait, Wait, We Meant October."
You may recall the excitement earlier this year when Grand Rapids received a visit from the followers of Family Radio Worldwide, a California-based Christian group led by 89-year-old Harold Camping, who were traveling the country to loudly and colorfully proclaim Judgment Day's imminence.
It didn't happen. OR DID IT!? The conspicuous lack of a world-ending earthquake left Camping and his followers scrambling to explain why life somehow continued as normal after May 21. Here, according to Family Radio's website, is what they've settled on:
What really happened this past May 21st? What really happened is that God accomplished exactly what He wanted to happen. That was to warn the whole world that on May 21 God’s salvation program would be finished on that day. For the next five months, except for the elect (the true believers), the whole world is under God’s final judgment. To accomplish this goal God withheld from the true believers the way in which two phrases were to be understood. Had He not done so, the world would never have been shaken in fear as it was.
What does that mean? The statement goes on:
Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011, on the last day of the present five months period. On that day the true believers (the elect) will be raptured. We must remember that only God knows who His elect are that He saved prior to May 21.
In the months since the non-Rapture, Camping turned 90, suffered a stroke, and was awarded an Ig Nobel prize for his dubious contributions to human knowledge.
As his revised date approaches, Camping seems less confident -- the Christian Post notes Camping's proclamations about Oct. 21 have been heavy on the probablys. So if you find yourself unable to muster the same enthusiasm for Rapture 2011 this time around, you're definitely not alone.
Good! It’ll be the 22nd. here, Saturday, and it’s pub night - party harty - but then, we do that anyway.
If they adhere to Camping’s preaching they’ve already abandoned Christianity. Please do not imply Camping is a Christian. He’s a charlatan.
Not to hijack a thread or nothing, but, if Sarah declares on Oct 21 - it WILL be Judgement Day in many quarters!!
The bears are getting truly desperate.
I’m not implying camping was a true Christian.
But many a Christian is weak in Christian education and many who were/are weak and biblically “ignorant” (lacking in knowledge) were led into believing Camping, concerning his predictions.
I believe He forgives them and He wants them not to lose all faith but to find their way back to Him.
I don’t think anyone does but if you can show otherwise don’t be shy about telling us where.
That's true of anyone who seeks forgiveness. But are they seeking forgiveness? Intuition tells me if they're strong followers of Camping they harbor beliefs apart from - if not antithetical to - Christianity.
We laugh and make jokes about this but it truthfully is so sad. The problem is that people get a warped idea of what the rapture is and all these “false alarms” make them bolder in their mocking. Some day the Rapture spoke of in the Bible , of which only God knows the day and hour, will take place and I believe there will be those that were not prepared due to people causing confusion like this.
This man really needs to shut up. He cannot possibly know and the Bible states the same.
It is one thing to encourage people to come to Christ for now and whenever each person’s “end” comes. It is another to claim you know the day God picked for the Rapture.
I understand Christians in some third-world countries, including North Korea, were slaughtered for proclaiming their belief to the villages in which they lived. A large part of me thinks this man is responsible for their deaths.
But I was going to go to Glamis, Ca. for Halloween! Dang!!!!!!!!
Saw a bumper sticker that said "God's back, and boy, is He mad!". Now this. I'm starting to get worried.
sorry, it’s going to need to be postponed again. I’m on vacation that week.
The Mayans did do human sacrifices but not on the same scale as the Aztecs. In fact I would guess (though I’m not an expert on pre-Columbus American history) the Aztecs learnt it from the Mayans — the Mayans were the ones who extracted the heart quickly to sacrifice.
I feel sorry for the folks who believe this and then get so disappointed they abandon Christianity completely.
Well said.
no worries, but I wonder if she will declare.
The problem is overly focusing on the Rapture (with all the Left Behind books being as bad) and not focusing on God in our lives now. God at each service in communion with us and when we pray to Him. We ought to live each day as our last instead of focusing on when the last day will be.
I just know that if I don’t make the November mortgage payment on time, Harold will have been wrong again. And so will everyone else predicting a Total Disaster Any Minute Now.
As I used to say to the anti-nuclear nut who lounged on the lawn at my college, “Why doesn’t the bomb ever fall *before* the accounting exam?”
Yep, you nailed it.
Great ... my 50th birthday and I’m responsible for the end of the world. I’m gonna ask my wife for my birthday cake at lunchtime.
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