Rapture prediction has believers, non-believers looking to Saturday night
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Friday, May 20, 2011, 10 a.m. — For more than a week, Facebook has been abuzz with discussion of The End of The World As We Know It. According to the Rev. Harold Camping of Oakland, Calif., the Rapture — the return of Jesus Christ and the spiriting to heaven those who have been saved — will take place Saturday, May 21.
Those who are not saved will be left on earth and suffer the pain and turmoil of a five-month period of earthquakes, calamities and virtual “hell on Earth” that will end with the total destruction of mankind and the Earth on Oct. 21, 2011.
Camping, an 89-year-old preacher whose preaching and teaching via Family Radio Network reaches all corners of the globe via shortwave radio and the Internet, has the End of the World down to a time — 6 p.m. Saturday, local time.
According to Camping, earthquakes will begin wherever it is 6 p.m. Saturday first — which would mean on the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Camping predicts the earthquakes will be on a scale never seen before, saying in one interview that the devastating temblor that rocked Japan would be “family Sunday picnic” in comparison.
The earthquakes and destruction will follow the time zones around the globe. Camping plans to watch the Rapture events unfold on CNN.
Reaction to Camping’s predictions have run the gamut, from disbelief to belief, and from scorn to the planning of Rapture Watch parties.
The Rev. Kevin Cosby of St. Stephen Church in Louisville told a Louisville TV station he was skeptical, quoting the first book of Thessolonians that says that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”
“No thief ever sends a note to their victim, ‘Expect me at a certain time,'” Cosby told the station.
Louisville Atheists are gathering Saturday night for a Return to Jesus Party at Big Blue Country on Baxter Avenue.
PRANKS, POST-RAPTURE PET CARE. Camping’s Rapture prediction has Facebook users weighing in and sharing links to YouTube videos and web sites, including one that offers post-Rapture pet care — Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA — for pet owners who are Raptured away this weekend and wish to have their pets cared for.
Facebook also has pages to organize post-Rapture looting (since some people will be gone, they won’t need their stuff anymore). In some areas Facebook is being used to coordinate Rapture pranking events that involve leaving old shoes and clothes and personal items in public places as though someone had been Raptured away (there’s been no discussion of why those Raptured would be taken without clothing).
Camping’s prediction comes after his 50-plus years of Bible study. Some believers have sold off possessions, homes and vehicles to prepare for tomorrow’s events.
Camping was wrong on the End of the World once before; he predicted it would happen in 1994, but later said he made a mathematical error. Regardless of the outcome of his prediction, you — and Camping — will likely hear about it first on the cable news networks.
Our interest in the End of The World is one that has fascinated us as humans. It’s led to a long series of movies about the destruction of our planet, and spawned a very successful line of Christian fiction. Our interest in our destruction is rooted in our own fear and fascination with our mortality.
Regardless of Camping’s prediction (and public reaction when the Rapture doesn’t occur), perhaps people like Camping do us a favor by forcing us to examine — even briefly — the sum total of our lives, and the contributions we have made to the world around us, and perhaps prompt us to seek opportunities to contribute in the future.
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