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 This time around, there are no RVs or signs carrying the "awesome news" of the end of the world.
October 21st, 2011
06:00 AM ET
The End, again? If it is, we thank you for your timeBy Jessica Ravitz, CNN (CNN) - In case you are reading this, might we suggest you read really fast? The world may end any minute now, if the latest doomsday prediction is on target. We realize October 21 didn’t get the shout-out that May 21 did, so our apologies if this comes as a surprise. But if you had heard the complete message the first time, you would have known. “The warning is out,” Dennis Morrell, 44, of Jacksonville, Florida, reminded us a couple of days ago. “There’s nothing else you can do.” Earlier this year, and with the backing of the Christian broadcasting network Family Radio, billboards touting May 21 as Judgment Day dotted the landscape. RVs plastered with the fateful date crisscrossed the country as believers wearing T-shirt announcements and waving fliers sounded the alarm. That was to be the day when a select 2% to 3% of the world’s population, predetermined by God, would be raptured up to heaven. Everyone else, the story went, would endure months-long judgment amid chaos, destruction and unspeakable suffering. A massive earthquake would ravage the land, bodies would be tossed about and terror would reign for the duration. Five months or exactly 153 days later, it was said, the world would disappear – which brings us to today. This was the schedule laid out by God’s word in the Bible, the faithful said. It was the plan deciphered and shared by Harold Camping, now 90, the founder of Family Radio, based in Oakland, California. Camping, who has an engineering degree, had spent more than 50 years combing through his Bible and crunching numbers embedded in scripture. Sure, he’d made a similar end-of-the-world prediction for September 6, 1994, but who hasn’t been tripped up by biblical verses? With additional studying, calculations and new signs that would be revealed later, he said earlier this year that he had no doubts this time around. “I know it’s absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true,” he told CNN before May 21. “If I were not faithful that would mean that I’m a hypocrite.” Problem is, May 21 came and went, and the world remained the same. Soon the billboards disappeared. The T-shirts and hats worn by believers got tossed. The RVs were quietly parked, tucked away in storage yards, possibly sold. Camping came forth, two days later, with an explanation - and his last news conference. October 21 would still be the end, he said, but a “loving and merciful” God had opted to spare humanity the five months of turmoil. A couple of weeks later, Camping had a stroke. He is said to be recuperating at home after a hospital and rehab stay and has only made a handful of radio addresses in the months since. Family Radio declined our requests to interview him. Fred Store, a 66-year-old retired electrician and longtime Family Radio listener, dedicated seven months of his life to sharing the “awesome news” that was the May 21 message. He led a caravan of believers, five RVs strong, on a tour of the United States for Family Radio. He was in Boston in May when he expected to be raptured up to heaven. When nothing happened, “We were caught by surprise. ... But we realize now that it’s very possible that we misunderstood some of the things we thought were true,” Store said this week from his home in Sacramento, California, where he has put up a number of caravan friends. “I believe that October 21 is the end, and I trust in God. Whatever way he chooses to end things will be perfect.” On the Family Radio website, the May 21 events, or nonevents, have been clarified. “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. ... For the next five months, except for the elect (the true believers), the whole world is under God’s final judgment,” the statement reads. As for that massive, body-flinging earthquake anticipated by believers, well, it turned out to be less literal. “We always look at the word ‘earthquake’ to mean the earth, or ground, is quaking or shaking violently. However, in the Bible the word ‘earth’ can include people as well as ground. ... Therefore we have learned from our experience of last May 21 what actually happened. All of mankind was shaken with fear. Indeed the Earth (or mankind) did quake in a way it had never before been shaken.” No one was raptured on May 21, but that’s just because “universal judgment” will come on the last day. “The elect” or “true believers” are still guaranteed their day of rapture, and everyone else will be “annihilated together with the whole physical world.” For Paul Anatiychuk, 36, of Charlotte, North Carolina, the way this played out has been a relief, a blessing. A husband and father of two children, ages 8 and 9, he wasn’t sure if his own family members would be saved. The thought of leaving them behind on May 21, to suffer what would come over the next five months, troubled him. “God tortures them while we’re hanging in the clouds?” he said this week. “It didn’t completely fit.” Now, Anatiychuk said, he can take solace knowing that when he’s saved, sinners will simply die. “Of course (the world) has to be destroyed and burned up by fire,” he said. “But it’s going to be very quiet.” Finding a way to save faith, and face, is part of the process when a prophecy fails, said Lorenzo DiTommaso, an associate professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal, who has been studying apocalyptic worldviews for a dozen years. He said those who become disillusioned aren’t quick to talk, and the rest find a new way to spin what has transpired. When nothing happened on May 21, Camping was left with a choice, said DiTommaso, whose book, “The Architecture of Apocalypticism,” is scheduled for publication next spring. Camping could have admitted he was wrong. He could have said the calculations were off and needed further analysis. Or he could have spiritualized the apocalypse, which is exactly what he did, DiTommaso said. That tack, that way of looking at the apocalypse, has a long history, he said, and dates back to early Christian theologians. Tyconius, in the late fourth century, took this approach, as - more notably - did Augustine in the early fifth century. Augustine “preferred to understand the millennium predicted in the Revelation of John in spiritual and metaphoric rather than literal terms,” DiTommaso said. He “sought to diminish the emphasis on hard calculations.” The obvious advantage of this sort of interpretation for a man like Camping, who has prided himself on his numbers, is that he can “divorce himself a little bit from the fact that he was so darn wrong.” What Camping will say - if anything - come Saturday, assuming there is a Saturday, is anyone’s guess. But DiTommaso said a new explanation, perhaps a new doomsday date, may be on the horizon. It would be just another in a long line of end-time predictions across the ages. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see another attempt” by Camping, he said. “If he were an artist, this is his masterpiece, his life work.” soundoff (2,353 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I think it's funny that the father of the family mentioned knew he would be saved, raptured up into heaven, but wasn't so sure about his wife and kids, thinking they would be tortured for 5 months while he is living a blissful existence up there. Seems a bit prideful to me, which is a mortal sin the last time I checked.
The "seven deadly sins" are not from the Bible. They were sort of invented in the middle ages. Of course, most Christians don't know that, because they are actually almost completely unaware of what is in the Bible so many of them profess to "love."
I dont have a Caravan...does this mean i cant come along if I drive a Rav4?
Gee, I walk, like Jesus did. Am I excluded too?
To,
Jessica Ravitz,
CNN Writer/Producer
Dear Jessica,
Why even bother covering such a trivial item in CNN?
Thanks
Good question. CNN was past it's use-by date in the 80's. I pass by now and then to see how unaware they are of big stories....covering the same tired old crap while other news orgs are reporting up to the minute news. they are obviously a liberal, social engineering site pushing socialist values on unsuspecting dumbo's.
Pay heed, all ye:
God Hates Figs!
Mark 11: 12-14
Matthew 21: 18-20
Not as much as he hates baby goats cooked in their mother’s milk
Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21
Can we kill this guy who keeps tormenting the world with this slop?
Supposedly he was nailed up on a tree about two thousand years ago, and his body was never found.
Thats just silly...how can you nail something out of someones imagination to a tree? I meant this old idiot human
Noooooooo....Libya was just freed too
Why does it alway have to be this country that has the lunatics...
it is not just your country that has them, your's is just one of the few that allow them out in public!!!
How quickly you forget the mass shooting in Norway.
Notdone... how true how true. Our first amendment is the freedom to be stupid.
Curiously, Camping's own radio network has programming scheduled over the weekend and beyond!!! Guess they are not going to be saved, as well someone has to be at their office on Monday to process all the donations arriving in the mail from the truly sad people that support these shepards!!!!!
Happy Second Semi-Annual End of The World Day Everyone!
ROTFLMAO
the bible also says no man or machine will predicte the end of the world
how about a super moron like you...
James your mom said it is time for you to come in now,you have been out in the sun too long....
No man or machine?
Citation needed.
Exactly, I believe it says that it "will come like a thief in the night". Other than that, making predictions based on the Bible hasn't exactly proven to well, work.
Noman is killing me by force
Why cover these kind of nonsence? Why publish it? This is no news. It makes those lunetiks invent one story after the other.
One should not cover the story of the guy who fed the bear, nor the kayaker who brushed with the whale. Because that will motivate more idiots to do more nonsence and DIE.
What's wrong with reducing the population of idiots?
Darwin strikes again....
People dragged small children all over the country while telling them they were going to die in four days, three days, two days. There ought to be a law against that kind of idiocy.
I think God sent Camping a warning with that stroke..... stop trying to speak for God and just shut your trap.
Good one!!!
If that miserable, little stroke is the best that god can do to someone who swindled 80 million dollars out of the faithful and made a mockery of his name, I don’t think the rest of us have anything to worry about.
It’s hard to believe in an omnipotent all knowing god when certain people are not incinerated by lightening bolts
1Thessalonians5:1-3 There's nothing to crunch about it. It's Bible truth
ann what have I done, its you back in action, forgive thy for your sins
You must have forgotten to read the previous chapter because it is stated in verses 15 to 18 that the dead will rise first and meet thier Lord in the sky and then the living among us will meet hime there. No zombies walking about yet, must be the good book got it wrong or we are still safe from the "truth".
It's Bible truth
-
Is that like jumbo shrimp or military intelligence?
The end of next year, the aliens will return to reclaim their planet and force us all back into slavery, perform experiments on us (still ongoing) and so forth. So there is some truth to this "Return" stuff except for the minor detail of what exactly is "returning". Next year is it..be prepared for the truth to come out.
what's there to experiment
Good grief, you sound lke the "sci-fi" version of Camping.
This is all BS. The guy is old, and nuts. I'm sure the world will be ended just for him (close one when he got stroke). Haha
Please, someone rapture them already. I'd gleefully endure any mayhem 'down here' with the rest of the 'sinners' if it meant the world would be free of these guys. They just keep changing their story to fit whatever happens, and people are actually going along with it. What has to be broken in their heads to let them fall for this?
Faith is a mental illness.
Do you realize you have faith? If you like I can explain it to you?
The Bible – World's best selling fiction novel.
MATHEMATICIANS IN LOVE had a better plot and charcters.
Baby Jesus made me do it !!!... LOL !!
Damn... I am going to have to hit these guys in the head with my "The God Delusion" book..
highway, I like your way.
Problem is not the Christian bible folks. Its how the ignorant preachers of the world use it to their own advantage and then wreck havock among the people that follow them.
Without the Bible, they wouldn't be able to.
very true highway... and yeah, they would find a way to abuse power and people's fears even without the bible. Humanity's been doing that since the beginning of man on earth. People in power playing on the fears and insecurities of those who don't while citing sources to state that they know what they're talking about and that the masses should follow them
That would be WREAK havoc, but I agree with your statement.
I had a Havoc once, but I wrecked it. They are unstable at high speeds.