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If you're reading this, the Rapture hasn't happened yet.
If it had happened, you might have been taken up to heaven with 200 million other members of the elect. (Or is that 144,000?) The alternative is even spookier: being left behind to face five months of tribulation leading up to the end of the world and Jesus' judgment. (Or is that seven years?)
The prediction that the end times would begin in earnest on May 21, 2011, was made years ago by Harold Camping — the preacher who heads Family Radio, a worldwide religious broadcasting concern. His prophecy is based on calculations so kooky that other end-time prophets say he's giving them a bad name.
The real question is: Why has there been so much buzz over Saturday's scheduled Rapture?
"Obviously, what could be a bigger news story than the end of the world?" University of York historian Nicholas Guyatt, author of the book "Have a Nice Doomsday," told me. "It's absurd to think the world is going to end on Saturday, but even if there's an infinitesimally small chance that it's true, we should be interested."
One thing that sets Camping apart from most end-timers is that he sets actual dates. That runs counter to the usual Christian interpretation of the end times, which focuses on a passage in Matthew in which Jesus says "you do not know the day or the hour." It also runs counter to the lessons learned from centuries of failed doomsday predictions.
"Even among evangelists who believe in the Rapture, most of them know we're not supposed to be trying to set dates," said Jerry Jenkins, co-author of the popular "Left Behind" apocalyptic book series. "For one thing, it's going to make us look foolish on Sunday."
Doomsday prediction has believers preparing, skeptics scoffing. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
Jenkins jokingly acknowledges he's "one of those kooks who really believes it's going to happen one of these days." The 16-novel series he wrote with minister Tim LaHaye provides a fictional account of the end times, going all the way to the Second Coming. The tale is based on an interpretation of the end times known as pre-tribulation dispensationalism — which starts with some believers instantly disappearing in the Rapture while leaving others to fight it out with the Antichrist and his minions.
"It'd be a horrifying and chaotic event," Jenkins said. "I'm still a little confused whether Camping thinks that's going to happen, or whether there'll be an earthquake."
Nonsense from numbers
Jenkins and many others are also confused over how Camping came up with his prediction. This year-old posting from Church of God News runs the numbers: Saturday supposedly marks 7,000 years since the Noah's Ark flood, and 722,500 days since Jesus' crucifixion. By Camping's numerology, 722,500 represents (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17), or the square of atonement times completeness times heaven.
"Now the above is utter nonsense," the Church of God News' Bob Thiel wrote. That sounds about right.
Jenkins says such number-based predictions "happen fairly frequently" in the end-time game. "It's sort of seasonal," he said.
In fact, Camping himself predicted years ago that the world would end in 1994. When the prediction failed, Camping said he got his initial calculations wrong and corrected the figures to come up with Saturday's doomsday date.
Barbara Rossing, a New Testament professor at the Lutheran School of Theology, Barbara Rossing, gets the last word on the outlandish end of the world prediction.
Guyatt noted that prophets have been predicting the end times, and getting the dates wrong, for hundreds of years. One of the best-known examples in America is the "Great Disappointment" of 1844. Baptist preacher William Miller predicted that the "Second Advent" would come on Oct. 22 of that year (after a couple of abortive predictions for earlier dates). He attracted as many as 50,000 adherents by the time the big day came. Nothing happened, of course. The result? Derision, church burnings, vandalism, even tar-and-feathering. Miller continued to await the Second Advent until his death five years later.
Miller's theology contributed to the later rise of denominations such as the Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, but those churches did away with the date-setting.
Bart Ehrman, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the newly published book "Forged," notes that the scriptural foundations for modern-day end-time scenarios are shaky. "In the Apocalypse, there's no reference to the Rapture at all," he told me. "The idea of the Rapture comes from the writings of Paul." And many of the details have been "completely made up by theologians, they're not found in the Bible," he said.
Ehrman said he could come up with his own scenario for the end times that would make more sense than Camping's. "What I'm looking for is some very wealthy believer," he joked.
Ah, the money angle. "The thing that's confusing about [Camping's prediction] is that he doesn't seem to be making money off this," Jenkins said.
Funding the Apocalypse
Lots of money is being spent on promoting the Rapture, however. Family Radio's financial records indicate that the nonprofit organization had $122 million in net assets in 2007. The figures for the following year, 2008, show $41 million in expenses, resulting in net assets of $86 million. The 2009 report shows expenses of $37 million and net assets of $72 million. And judging by the billboard ads, bus ads and direct-mail campaigns promoting the Rapture, the spending rate must have risen substantially since those reports were filed. After all, if you're going to heaven on Saturday, why wouldn't you spend it all?
Ehrman noted that this sort of pre-doomsday spending spree has happened before, when he was teaching Bible classes in the 1980s. One of the books that came out back then was "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988."
"I had students in my classes whose parents literally sold the farm because they didn't need it, and then it didn't happen," he recalled.
Some Family Radio listeners, such as Staten Island retiree Robert Fitzpatrick, have spent tens of thousands of dollars of their own money to promote the Rapture. That worries Jenkins. "There are very well-meaning people who are telling me they're getting rid of their life savings," he said. "I wonder who's going to take care of them when it's all over?"
Gerry Broome / AP file
Allison Warden shows off her car, emblazoned with messages about Saturday's scheduled Rapture. Warden, of Raleigh, N.C., has been helping organize a pre-Rapture campaign using billboards, postcards and other media in cities across the U.S.
The big spending spree is one big reason why this particular date has gotten so much traction. But end-time tales do not live by billboard ads alone. Guyatt says this time in history is particularly well-suited for doomsayers.
"Whenever anything really bad happens, it kind of gives their case a little support," Guyatt said. "So if you think of the turbulent times we've had over the past decade — 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan — it kind of feeds on that. Maybe it's not formal, but we have an affinity with the view that the world is becoming a more dangerous place, or maybe our days are numbered."
And every Twitter tweet, Facebook update, Rapture party invitation — for that matter, every blog post — turns up the wattage ever so slightly on the doomsday spotlight. "What's given this traction is the billboards and the media," Guyatt said. "At some point the ball is rolling, and we help tip it a bit further, because of you, because of us."
How imminent is 'imminent'?
Leave it to the veteran end-timers, who have been through all this before, to provide perspective. "I applaud the discussion," Jenkins said. "I think people should be thinking about this."
Jenkins' writing partner, Tim LaHaye, has said on many occasions that events such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami are signaling that the end is near. The way Jenkins sees it, the end of the world could well be imminent, but "our definition of 'imminent' is clearly not the same as God's."
"If he waits one more day in his mercy, it could be a thousand years in our time," he said.
So what will Jenkins be doing on Saturday?
"We're just going to carry on with the usual activities," he told me. "One of our granddaughters is going to have a ballgame."
More about the Rapture rumblings:
- Rapture prophet says he'll be watching the action on TV
- Digital Life: Post-rapture video reveals stunning lack of zombies
- The Last Word: Only hours to go until the (fake) Rapture
- End of Days? Believers enter the final stretch
- End of the world? How about a party instead?
- Slate: 144 scenarios for America's apocalypse
- Pet sitting offered during Rapture
- Doomsday facts (or fictions)
In some parts of the world, it's already Saturday. I'll be blogging about the Rapture hype over the weekend, and you can follow the updates by checking CosmicLog.com/Rapture. You can also connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. And for something completely different, check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
The Jonah thingy has to do with Jesus' resurrection. Read the whole thing and don't take it out of context.
(Three days in the belly of the great fsh, and three in the grave) I know someone will argue the three days in the grave but Is. 53rd chpt. says that God would see the travail of his (jesus) soul and be satisfied. When did the travail of his soul start? The travail of his soul started in the garden. Read it and get goosebumps. There's your three days.
This schmuck inflicted emotional pain and suffering on me. I want a million dollars.
Actually, I do hope somebody has the time and money to go after him. I know that collecting millions of dollars by lying to millions of people is absolutely THE American way, but I'm getting sick of it. This so called preacher should be the featured pig at a pig roast.
Whatever the case maybe, within 100 years, which is a rather short time in the scheme of things, all but a few of us will have met their appointe fate. It may not be a rapture but it is an end of time for the vast majority of us.
Someone earlier said "I challenge any atheist to justify the claim that there is meaning and joy in life apart from God. If not for God"
Well, I don't need to justify anything to someone who follows made up religions, but I accept their pitiful challenge. Not that it will do any good in their mind, but it might help others who feel pressured by religious idioms and feigned authority.
First of all, people don't need religion to have joy.
Babies are joyful before they know anything about religion.
As human beings, we find joy in many things.
It is built in and not a religious belief.
Then there is the cloud of 'meaning'.
People make up the need for meaning.
Often some of the happiest people are those who are simple minded.
They aren't clouded by complicated issues and mental stress or a need to prove themselves.
They just live their lives and seem very happy doing so.
So the purpose of life is simple.
The purpose of life is to live.
The meaning ... is in it's living.
My dogs are happy without knowing anything about religion.
They feel joy when things are joyful and sad when things are sad.
They don't need religion to tell them their meaning. When they 'poop' on the carpet, they know it is wrong. How so?
It is wrong because they have made me unhappy.
It is the same for people.
The old saying "when Momma ain't happy, no ones happy" holds true.
We often find happiness in making others happy.
Why? Because we are social by nature.
And religion is about making people feel guilty, not happy.
Of course if you accept the religion, then you get to feel happy again.
You can even 'happily hurt others' as long as it is under the command of religion.
If one of my dogs steals anothers 'treat', they don't need a commandment to tell them it is wrong.
The other dog will let them know it is wrong.
The fight that ensues is instinctive.
Once we possess something, we deem it wrong for others to take it.
That is not 'religion'.
That is survival.
A worker bee will give it's life to protect the hive.
It has no promise of an afterlife.
What it has is a social conscience.
All social animals have codes of conduct without religion.
It is a product of survival and of evolution and of group cohesion.
If a member gets out of line, there are members or leaders to correct them.
And when the group is happy, everyone is happy.
Visit a comedy club if you need some evidence.
So yes, Virgina!
There is happiness and meaning outside of religion.
And I for one am much happier and even joyful since I broke away from the made up beliefs of religion.
So my evidence is myself.
And also my dogs.
They bring me joy every day, just by living their lives.
Here, here well said if I do say so myself...
You are free to believe as you desire.
sprdg i am no way judging you. yes there is happiness, Love, Charity, Goodwill, compassion without religion. i don't care much for religion, prophets, priests, popes, rabbis, monks, pastures, preachers or what ever fancy name people give themselves to make them the holy men who were suppose to run to and give our ten percent too. The good Lord is not about money nor does he need it.
Sprdg no matter what i tell you, you will not find the Lord. It is up to you to find the Creator in your own way. See you were like me once to smart and intelligent to fall for trickery. i use to say religion was for felons who used it and thumped away to justify their wrong doings. kind of a way for them to atone for ther evil ways. or the weak who used it to hide behind in time of battle.
I see you have love for your dogs you mention nothing of the love for children or family that worries me about you. You see I know the God of the Jews is a true God. unfortunately like a spoiled child they through away their own birth right when God sent them a very valuable gift. They threw the gift away because it was not made of gold or a valient warrior who would rein them supreme. The Good Lord sent them a true gift of love. you see God needs us also, He especially needs you because you are smart and intelligent and by nature you are a happy soul. When death comes near you will see for now you are blind. i wish i could quote you something good from the bible but i don't read it very much also and i have a good friend who is very spiritual who ensures me their are still good people on this earth. he don't understand why i wont go to his church but i have my own reasons.
I am glad you have your dogs they are faithfull companions kind of like Angels, they follow without question unfortunately they don't have free will like a human. Good luck my friend Love Fhogan
God gives you free will in your choices...He does, however tell you the consequences. As for "the day and hour..." Tell me, what day and hour is it in Sydney, Australia at this moment? The Bible certainly DOES tell you when.
The world does not end-it is remade and Jesus Christ comes back here to rule on earth...AFTER Armaggeddon. Seven years before that is the Rapture...ZING! we're out of here.
Now, You think Camping is nuts, try this: Ezekiel 38 and 39 tell of a terrible war. The only place I can fit it into the the timeline is for the event to take place BEFORE the Rapture of December 21, 2012. The scenerio will go like this:
Radical Islam, led by Russia, will suddenly attack Israel (I "see" this event happening in the pre-dawn hours of November 25th EST,THIS YEAR). The Revised Holy Roman Empire (the European union)will capitalize on Russia being away from home attacking Israel, and use our 800-1000 nuclear bombs against the Russian homeland. We have that many in the hands of our European allies. President Obama will launch everything we have against China. (note: on June 15, 2001, Russia, China, and Iran signed the SHANGHI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION, a mutual defense agreement...just 3 months before 9-1-1!!). So, what did they know, and when did they know it!
1/3 of the world's population (3 billion +,-) will be killed by the blasts, or radiation sickness, so stock pepto bismol and pedialite, and lots of water and toilet paper. This event will be so horrible, those left will throw away their national identies for a "ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT". The currency will be one used worldwide. Obama won't have to worry about losing no stinking elections, and Our debt to China will no longer exist. Obama will rule one of the 10 nation/states of the new world order. It will consist of the former countries of Mexico, Canada, and the USA. Do you now understand why President Obama refuses to defend our borders?
Christians will still be on earth, those not killed. How badly they suffer individually will be dependent on what they've been doing as to spreading the gospel. They will be provided for supernaturally, IF they're busy doing the Lord's work of witnessing to all you who want to be saved. Then, about 13 month later, the trumpet will sound, and all Christian believers will be taken up to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air (Dec 21, 2012,+,-).
After the Rapture has taken place, the seven year tribulation will begin (did you see Hitchcock's movie "The Birds"?) The tribulation period will be your worst nightmare, so, learn all about Jesus, get your heart right, and earn an escape out of here...remember, Jesus knows your heart, so forget your usual BS routine.
All through the tribulation, Israel still exists as a soverign nation (as does Jordan, and possibly the USA). The final battle of Armaggeddon is an all out attack to wipe Israel out. If you are desperate to learn more, you will seek it yourself.
No, I'm not a preacher..preachers are overwhelmed with budgets, sermons, funerals, weddings, the Christmas program, Easter celebrations, counseling, hospital visits, etc. etc. Too many of them get you off their backs with a "short answer" like "no one knows the day or hour..."
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch the World Series!!
ROFLMAO, that's something like saying: "The US, led by Venezuela".
you are creating fantasies that have absolutely no connection to reality in order to support your interpretation of ancient religious texts
I couldn't have said that any better myself if I really, really, REALLY tried! Thank You SprDg.
 The only things these morons need to worry about is all the time they have wasted on such nonsense. When will humans realize that what floats in their brains and the voices they say they hear is nothing more than your own conscience telling them what fools they are. The world is no paradise thanks to these idiots, what a world we would have without religion and the morons that follow them. This world would be better off if it had been the end, because it will only be the end of humans, not the planet, not the animals just humans. To think how much better off these life forms would be if humans didn't exist. Like John Lennon said: Imagine!!
I hope that those who really believed Harold Camping and thought the rapture would occur today remember one thing.
Jesus said in the Bible that NO ONE will know when God and Jesus decide to return to earth - and that INCLUDES Harold Camping and others like him who have said that the rapture will occur on this day or that day.
In the meantime, Harold can do the Christian thing, and return all the millions he received in donations.
And remember, it's MORE IMPORTANT to life your life according to Jesus teachings every day - than it is spending your time, energy and money trying to predict what day Jesus will return to earth.
I do believe at some point we are going to have to look into new laws designed to protect followers of these religious movements from being defrauded of all their worldly possessions. Many of these followers are being talked into giving up all of their worldly possessions in the belief that they will never need these worldly possessions ever again. Of course, the reality is that the sun always rises again and the vast majority of these people will still have to go on with life. As funny as this might be to some of us, government still has an obligation to look after the vulnerable among us, especially the weak and infirm. I don't know if we can prevent these religious organizations from making these extreme predictions, but we should be able to require these religious organizations to place any money collected as a result of these predictions into escrow, just in case these prophesies or predictions don't come true (most won't come true). - Rick Carter
"Science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human failability. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political, or religious that comes ambling along..."
- Carl Sagan
Yawn. Aahhuummm!
Ummmm, ok what day is it.
Num, num, oh, it's Sunday.
Something was supposed to happen. Um, what was it?
OH! OH YEAH! The RAPTURE!
I guess I had better check to see.
Um, nope. Nada. Nothing. One small news clip about the 'end-ers.
Oh well. Time to take the dogs to the park.
They just love to romp and play.
And I love watching them have fun.
Oh, the delusions of faith!
Some tell us: "Have faith; believe the Bible; the rapture and the beginning of the world's end will be tomorrow." Some tell us: "Have faith; believe the Bible; the repture and the beginning of the world's end won't be tomorrow." If someone really wants to study what could happen to the world, how, and when, they have to get their head out of the mindless nonsense in the Bible. The world ,as it is, is the only foundation of knowledge and observation is the only way to know it. It's not as easy as the pathetic practice of sucking up drivel out of a holy book, but it works. Science, however, doesn't leave any room for "supernatural" fantasies; things act according to their characterists and never against them. Build ethics by observing human life. There's plenty of the (link) Teachings of Jesus that are anti-life and absurd.
If you want to look at the lunatic nonsense involved in this whole "rapture" rubish, look up (link) rapture and (link) eschatology in Wikipedia. People like this want to run the country! There's a lot more religious nutters around than just Camping's bunch. There's no escape from the need to think; there's no guarantor of truth; religious faith is a vice!
Well here it goes people. I would like to enlighten all and i hope this makes sense to everyone. You see we will all experience the apocolypse, the begining even the hyphen in the middle. I would like to believe that the Lord almighty left the bible for us to follow as an example of leading a life of wisdom, good, will, compassion, charity, love and hope.
You see Genesis is our birth, we are born innocent, new borns no nothing of war, rape, theft, gang associations, vendettas, or sufferage. they only know love and the need to be held.
Then one day in their infant lives they take a bite of the forbidden fruit of sin. This is inevidable except in the infant Jesus who lived his life without sin until he tricked satan into letting him into hell to save souls which he assended into heaven with those saved souls. anyways once we bite the forbidden fruit we spend the rest of our lives trying to get back in grace with the Lord. You see once we our blackened by sin the lord will not look upon us, his presence is near because without the Lords presence is sheer hell. The Lord inspired the Bible to guide us back to his grace, churches were meant for us to gather and interpet the bible with the elders who are most wise. A church is not the Lords home for the Lords home is everywhere and the most strongest in all our hearts and souls. One single leader, Prophet, Priest, Pope Pasture, Reverand or any single human is not more Godly than an other human. Who ever says so is a gosh darn Fool and who ever follows is a fool. A church is solely a gathering place where people can congregate and learn from the wise elders to get into grace with the lord and do his will ( which is for you to be happy). God gave us commandments to follow also the bible. In our deaths will be the appocolypse, the day of reconing those who the Lord will be able to look upon will live in Heaven forever those he does not will live out of his presence and endure sheer hell.
To rap it all up the bible is like a maintenance book on a human life on how to live love and be in the Lords graces. You can say im fool of poo but it is true no one knows the day of their death like no one knows the day of the rapture. Jesus will come for you like a thief in the night you will never know when.
oh yes i left grammatic and spelling errors on purpose, i am no way saying im a educated person i just like to think i am wise.
Good luck all love Fhogan
Mark the date December 21st 2012 as the most possible time for coming earth changes.
The end of the Mayan calendar is viewed by many new age proponents as the beginning
of a dimensional shift. Who knows? Google should provide more for the curious.
12/21/2012 was the equivalent of the mayan Y2K bug, if they were still around, they would have just added another ring to their calendar
The Mayan calendar indeed stopped at Dec 21, 2012, but does anyone have proof of the reason? Is it possible that within this Mayan tribe their only scribe (the one who writes the calendar) could have been killed, died, or just got tired and stopped writing? Just a thought. I think (and hope) that in the gospel of Matthew (and several other places in the Bible), Jesus stated that there will be wars and rumors of wars and that no one will know the date and time. It is promised that we will receive the gift of eternal life. I, for one, believe this and I also believe in reincarnation, which for me is the only thing that makes sense. After all, reincarnation is a form of eternal life. Wouldn't you agree?
'jesus' didn't say anything (yes - I used lower case on purpose). Your little 'jesus' didn't even exist. It's (the bible) is just a bunch of crazy stories thought up by a bunch of flaming @!$%#s in the desert with nothing better to do but write them down. By the way they were ALL written down years and years after the so-called 'facts'. And do not even get me started on ANYONE using the phrase 'the one true god'. Every religious person since the beginning of time has stated their 'god' was the one true one. On the very face of it that can not, can not, be true. And the world is 6000 years old? Then how did the Sumerians invent glue over 7000 years ago (yes there is a valid, proven scientific test to determine such things even if you don't believe in it - truth is truth in any event). I just wish there were some way I could eliminate ALL religion from humanity and maybe the world would be a gentler, kinder and more intelligent place to live. At the very least it would be a more sane place to live.
Why does anyone care when the world will end ? Everyone dies (everyone). When you die the world ends for you. Life is short, it will happen fairly soon for all of us, so why worry about the final days of this planet. There are a lot worse ways to die than being killed in an earthquake or by a tidal wave. Those at the end might be the lucky ones, it will probably be quick, some take a long and painful time to die.
These people that followed Camping are braindead Children of the Corn. The radical right wing cracked teanuts saw how easy it was to get these Jesus freaks to vote for them by promising them that they would ban abortion and have creationism taught in all schools. I hope these people realize that Harold Camping, known as the evangelical king, probably calculated Rapture Day correctly-except that it was based on "facts" form the bible which is based on fairy tales. Maybe these braindead evangelicals will finally realize that they are being fleeced by their pastors, preachers and right wing teanuts and stop supporting these groups.
Jesus is dead, has been dead for over 200 years and is not coming back-no matter how much you put into your pastor's collection pot to tell you otherwise.