Cancel those June vacation plans!
Because the end of the world will happen this May 21st! How do we know this certain to be absolutely unquestionable fact? Because Harold Camping of the independent Christian Family Radio Worldwide ministry has poured over the Bible calculating the date. Yes, its another "We are really sure this time, honest! Sincere too, don't forget sincere!" end of the world prophecy, one that is receiving attention from the mainstream media as of late and is the latest end-times rage. In Harold's case this is his second prediction, the first one for 1994 didn't pan out, fool me once...
I always found end of the world beliefs fascinating, it's an idea is probably as old as our species and I wonder if its the result of the simple fear of death and the individual instinct to survive (after all the believer isn't among those destroyed, but one of the survivors who then will survive forever), evolutionary baggage our large ape brains take to imaginative new levels.
However, what drives people to make these wild yet very specific predictions that have such a high potential risk of failure and infamy? Especially when their religion is purposely vague about when the end will be. Desperation? An overreaction to nagging doubts about the truth of the religion they devoted their lives to? More likely it the need for fame and attention, or the age old need by some to have control and authority over others, so they use religion as a means to an end for control, in either of these two cases the prophet is often inundated with adulation, prestige, and money for them and their ministry. Not surprising Harold Camping claims all churches are apostate, and Christians should study at home instead, but be sure to be listening to his broadcasts (and don't forget to donate lots of money)!
The phenomenon is doubly strange to me when it happens in Christianity, partly because it is so common in Christian history, partially because the Bible makes this rather straightforward statement:
But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. - Mark 13:32 KJV
I mean that is Jesus himself saying "Oy! Nobody and I mean NOBODY but God knows when the end will come, did you GET THAT!?". I figure, alright, that is obvious enough for about any Christian who is literate and actually read the Bible, but I would be wrong. It be one thing if it was some guy wandering the streets of New York with a cardboard sign and smelling like Jim Bean screaming "The End is Nigh!" but many of those who come up these predictions are actual Christian leaders (and who often claim expertise in the Bible) to some degree how do they miss that? I mean the Bible even repeats it just to bring the point home..
But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. - Matthew 24:36 KJV
So that's not once, but twice the book that I assume these guys believe is the Word of God says "Hey! Only God knows when the end is and He's NOT TELLING!" So what the hey? I guess some people can't accept statements at face value by the very god they claim to venerate. How else can they come up with convoluted ways to explain away those verses? I suspect that for some, Christianity has to be this mysterious, difficult puzzle solvable to only a few special people, so they create these labyrinthine methods to procure "secret information" from their sacred texts and "eureka!" some grand new prophecy is discovered! Fame and fortune or a sense of superiority of course, has nothing to do with this.
For extra fun here is some interesting past predictions for the end of the world, and I actually had to cut down the list severely, the whole thing would be insanely long if I included every prediction of note. Care to guess what their collective record is? Think Detroit Lions 2008.
Brief list of End of the World or Rapture prophecies:
992 - Date for the end of the world as predicted by Bernard of Thuringia according to his calculations. This prediction caused alarm in Christian Europe when he made it in 960, turned out the only thing that ended by that date was his own life.
999 - Specifically December 31st, the day of the Last Judgement based on the Aprocrypha stating such would occur 1000 years after the birth of Jesus. How seriously Europeans of that year actually took this is in question, much later historical claim made by Voltaire and Gibbon that there was panic may be entirely fictional, and possibly meant to cast people of that age as overly superstitious.
1186 - The year astrologer John of Toledo predicted the world would end because all the known planets at that time would be in the constellation Libra. The Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos panic and boarded all his windows (bet they're glad he was king) and the Archbishop of Canterbury called for a day or penance.
1524 -On February 1st of this year according to London astrologers would be the end of the world by flood starting with the city. 20,000 are reported to have fled, while others stocked up on months of provisions. Meanwhile in Germany, people built boats to survive on, one Count von Iggleheim, even built a three story ark when astrologer Johannes Stoeffler predicted the same thing. When the floods failed to arrive, Stoeffler changed the date to 1528, the London astrologers were smarter, they changed it to 1624, a date far enough away that no one alive could ridicule them when the prediction failed to pass.
1533 - Michael Stifel, a mathematician and student of the Bible predicts the world will end on 8:00 am of October 3rd of that year according to his careful study of the Book of Revelation. When the appointed end did not come, Stifel failed to predict the mob flogging he received.
-- In that same year self-appointed Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman claimed Strasbourg Germany would be the New Jerusalem, where Christ would return and the world would be consumed by flame which would purge "the ungodly". No surprise his prediction flopped and he ended up dying in jail; however two of his more ambitious followers, Jan van Matthijs and Jan van Leiden were undeterred and stated that the new holy city was really Münster. This lead to the Münster Rebellion where the city was under Anabaptist rule for 18 months in their attempt to create a communal theocracy. To them the city was the new Zion, where the godly march forth from and conquer the world. Safe to say, that failed too when the expelled bishop, Franz von Waldeck, retook the city.
1700 - Renowned theologian Jonathan Edwards was obsessed with the end of the world, and constantly calculated its coming much to the chagrin of the lonely Mrs. Edwards. He concluded the rule of the Antichrist would end with the papacy falling in 1866 and the Millennium would begin in 2000 (well the third millennium did start in 2001, hmm...).
-- All around smart guy Isaac Newton was even prone to postulating his own crazy prophecys, showing even the smartest can fall prey to end times worries. He developed a grand scenario where the Jews would reclaim Jerusalem in 1899, following by the Second Coming in 1948, maybe he meant Truman's "miracle" re-election comeback.
1736 - William Whiston, a British theologian and mathematician predicted a world ending flood for October 13th of that year. People filled the Thames with boats waiting for the end that day, which turned out to be sunny.
1761 - Intrepid devout believer William Bell took notice that there was exactly 28 days between two earthquakes earlier that year, and somehow concluded that 28 days later (on April 5th, yes pun intended) the entire world would collapse from an earthquake. Once again the Thames filled with boats holding believers (surely by then a tradition). Turned out that day was earthquake free in jolly ol' England. Bell spent the rest of his days in the looney bin in Bedlam.
1814 - Joanna Southcott predicted at the age of 64 she would give birth to the new messiah and the world would end. She travelled to London at the request of some of her devotees to "seal" the 144,000 elect for salvation for a starting price of twelve shillings each (no doubt a bargain). The promised post-menopausal birth on October 14th of that year didn't pan out and she died that December. Not to be deterred, her followers were told a new date by their leader, John Turner, which was 1820. When his prediction failed he was replaced by his congregation by professional lecher John Wroe, who subsequently changed the date to 1977; despite the advent of disco, the world did not end.
1843 - William Miller, founder of the Millerite church, studied the Bible for 15 years to come up with his date for April 3rd of that year for the end of the world, he is quite the trooper. His followers, numbered in the thousands, gathered on the top of hills to await their immanent rapture. When April 3rd came and went, Miller moved it to July 3rd, and his followers again awaited in vigil for the end, which of course didn't come. Miller being undeterred changed the date to March 21st 1844, going for the hat trick of fail. Then Miller stated it would be October 22nd of that year and this time he was really, really sure.. seriously. So the faithful sold their homes, possessions, and quit their jobs and again waited, the result of which is now known in history as "The Great Disappointment", which signaled the end of the Millerite religion for most believers. Miller never was deterred though, he waited until the end in 1849, his end that is. The legacy of this last event was the birth of the Advent Christian Church, which is a whole other story.
1874 - Charles Taze Russell, who laid the foundation for the Jehovah Witnesses, predicted that Christ started "ruling from the heavens" on this year and would move his operation to Earth on 1914. He viewed World War I starting that year as a sign of the Armageddon was on and that an attack on a restored Israel by the world (you know, the Israel that didn't exist until 1948) was imminent. When the world didn't end that year, the prediction was changed to Jesus ruling the world "invisibly", how convenient, and the end date then was moved to 1925. In 1925 it was moved to 1975, the supposed 6000th anniversary of Adam's birth, when that didn't pan out the JW's stated it be on the 6,000th anniversary of Eve's birth, which was most handy as no one knew when that was.
1919 - Meteorologist Albert Porta noticed there would be a conjunction of six planets, from this he predicted such a conjunction would cause the Sun to explode in a giant comic fart and destroy the Earth on December 17th of that year, just in time for Christmas.
1974 - To show that astronomers are not immune from silly predictions, two wrote a book this year called The Jupiter Effect claiming when an alignment of planets occur on March 10, 1982, all sorts of bad will fall upon the Earth. Well nothing happened that day (well the high tides were 40 micrometers above normal), and the duo published a followup book called The Jupiter Effect Revisited claiming the event actually happened in 1980 which caused St. Helens to erupt; safe the say a sequel book predicting events that occurred in the past didn't sell as predicted.
1981 - Members of the cult called Assembly of Yahweh gathered at Coney Island in white robes awaiting the Rapture scheduled for that afternoon; despite all their bongo drumming and chants, the sun dith set with them still on the Earth.
1988 - Edgar C. Whisenant wrote a book called "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988" and predicted the rapture for September of that year, he should have come up with an 89th reason because it didn't happen. Not to be deterred by reality, he wrote another book claiming it will happen in 1989, and guess what happened, just guess!
1991 - Followers of the Hyoo-go (Rapture) movement put out a full page ad in the October 20, 1991, issue of USA Today saying the rapture will happen in one week. When it didn't occur some believers were so upset they attacked their preachers with knives! One church founder was later charged with stealing $4 million from his congregation.
2000 - Richard Noone, author of the 1997 book "5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster" proclaimed that because the Antarctic ice mass would be 3 miles thick by May 5, 2000, a day he states the Earth will be aligned with the heavens, the world will be encased in frozen doom. Perhaps global warming saved the Earth after all.
2001 - Reformed evangelist Jack van Imp predicted the Great Tribulation will start in 2001, maybe that was just his satirical take on the Bush years.
2006 - Glenn Beck predicts on CNN on August 9th, that August 22nd that year Israel may be wiped off the map starting Armageddon. Beck later stated he was merely quoting Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis who believed that Ahmadinejad's "final answer" to the US about his country's nuclear development on the 22nd held some prophetic connotations including a possibility of Armageddon.
-- The House of Yahweh cult predicted that the world would end in nuclear Armageddon on September 12th based on the seven years of the book of Daniel, which was really 14 years using their own special brand of fuzzy math, counting down from the Oslo Accords.
-- Dr. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda predicted Christ would appear on December 17th in Puerto Rico, he didn't show.
2008 - According to self-proclaimed apostle Ronald Weinland of "Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God"who wrote the book "2008: God's Final Witness", that year people would die by the hundreds of millions and the US will no longer exist. Not surprisingly, he has since changed the date to May 27th, 2012.
I always found end of the world beliefs fascinating, it's an idea is probably as old as our species and I wonder if its the result of the simple fear of death and the individual instinct to survive (after all the believer isn't among those destroyed, but one of the survivors who then will survive forever), evolutionary baggage our large ape brains take to imaginative new levels.
However, what drives people to make these wild yet very specific predictions that have such a high potential risk of failure and infamy? Especially when their religion is purposely vague about when the end will be. Desperation? An overreaction to nagging doubts about the truth of the religion they devoted their lives to? More likely it the need for fame and attention, or the age old need by some to have control and authority over others, so they use religion as a means to an end for control, in either of these two cases the prophet is often inundated with adulation, prestige, and money for them and their ministry. Not surprising Harold Camping claims all churches are apostate, and Christians should study at home instead, but be sure to be listening to his broadcasts (and don't forget to donate lots of money)!
The phenomenon is doubly strange to me when it happens in Christianity, partly because it is so common in Christian history, partially because the Bible makes this rather straightforward statement:
But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. - Mark 13:32 KJV
I mean that is Jesus himself saying "Oy! Nobody and I mean NOBODY but God knows when the end will come, did you GET THAT!?". I figure, alright, that is obvious enough for about any Christian who is literate and actually read the Bible, but I would be wrong. It be one thing if it was some guy wandering the streets of New York with a cardboard sign and smelling like Jim Bean screaming "The End is Nigh!" but many of those who come up these predictions are actual Christian leaders (and who often claim expertise in the Bible) to some degree how do they miss that? I mean the Bible even repeats it just to bring the point home..
But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. - Matthew 24:36 KJV
So that's not once, but twice the book that I assume these guys believe is the Word of God says "Hey! Only God knows when the end is and He's NOT TELLING!" So what the hey? I guess some people can't accept statements at face value by the very god they claim to venerate. How else can they come up with convoluted ways to explain away those verses? I suspect that for some, Christianity has to be this mysterious, difficult puzzle solvable to only a few special people, so they create these labyrinthine methods to procure "secret information" from their sacred texts and "eureka!" some grand new prophecy is discovered! Fame and fortune or a sense of superiority of course, has nothing to do with this.
For extra fun here is some interesting past predictions for the end of the world, and I actually had to cut down the list severely, the whole thing would be insanely long if I included every prediction of note. Care to guess what their collective record is? Think Detroit Lions 2008.
Brief list of End of the World or Rapture prophecies:
992 - Date for the end of the world as predicted by Bernard of Thuringia according to his calculations. This prediction caused alarm in Christian Europe when he made it in 960, turned out the only thing that ended by that date was his own life.
999 - Specifically December 31st, the day of the Last Judgement based on the Aprocrypha stating such would occur 1000 years after the birth of Jesus. How seriously Europeans of that year actually took this is in question, much later historical claim made by Voltaire and Gibbon that there was panic may be entirely fictional, and possibly meant to cast people of that age as overly superstitious.
1186 - The year astrologer John of Toledo predicted the world would end because all the known planets at that time would be in the constellation Libra. The Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos panic and boarded all his windows (bet they're glad he was king) and the Archbishop of Canterbury called for a day or penance.
1524 -On February 1st of this year according to London astrologers would be the end of the world by flood starting with the city. 20,000 are reported to have fled, while others stocked up on months of provisions. Meanwhile in Germany, people built boats to survive on, one Count von Iggleheim, even built a three story ark when astrologer Johannes Stoeffler predicted the same thing. When the floods failed to arrive, Stoeffler changed the date to 1528, the London astrologers were smarter, they changed it to 1624, a date far enough away that no one alive could ridicule them when the prediction failed to pass.
1533 - Michael Stifel, a mathematician and student of the Bible predicts the world will end on 8:00 am of October 3rd of that year according to his careful study of the Book of Revelation. When the appointed end did not come, Stifel failed to predict the mob flogging he received.
-- In that same year self-appointed Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman claimed Strasbourg Germany would be the New Jerusalem, where Christ would return and the world would be consumed by flame which would purge "the ungodly". No surprise his prediction flopped and he ended up dying in jail; however two of his more ambitious followers, Jan van Matthijs and Jan van Leiden were undeterred and stated that the new holy city was really Münster. This lead to the Münster Rebellion where the city was under Anabaptist rule for 18 months in their attempt to create a communal theocracy. To them the city was the new Zion, where the godly march forth from and conquer the world. Safe to say, that failed too when the expelled bishop, Franz von Waldeck, retook the city.
1700 - Renowned theologian Jonathan Edwards was obsessed with the end of the world, and constantly calculated its coming much to the chagrin of the lonely Mrs. Edwards. He concluded the rule of the Antichrist would end with the papacy falling in 1866 and the Millennium would begin in 2000 (well the third millennium did start in 2001, hmm...).
-- All around smart guy Isaac Newton was even prone to postulating his own crazy prophecys, showing even the smartest can fall prey to end times worries. He developed a grand scenario where the Jews would reclaim Jerusalem in 1899, following by the Second Coming in 1948, maybe he meant Truman's "miracle" re-election comeback.
1736 - William Whiston, a British theologian and mathematician predicted a world ending flood for October 13th of that year. People filled the Thames with boats waiting for the end that day, which turned out to be sunny.
1761 - Intrepid devout believer William Bell took notice that there was exactly 28 days between two earthquakes earlier that year, and somehow concluded that 28 days later (on April 5th, yes pun intended) the entire world would collapse from an earthquake. Once again the Thames filled with boats holding believers (surely by then a tradition). Turned out that day was earthquake free in jolly ol' England. Bell spent the rest of his days in the looney bin in Bedlam.
1814 - Joanna Southcott predicted at the age of 64 she would give birth to the new messiah and the world would end. She travelled to London at the request of some of her devotees to "seal" the 144,000 elect for salvation for a starting price of twelve shillings each (no doubt a bargain). The promised post-menopausal birth on October 14th of that year didn't pan out and she died that December. Not to be deterred, her followers were told a new date by their leader, John Turner, which was 1820. When his prediction failed he was replaced by his congregation by professional lecher John Wroe, who subsequently changed the date to 1977; despite the advent of disco, the world did not end.
1843 - William Miller, founder of the Millerite church, studied the Bible for 15 years to come up with his date for April 3rd of that year for the end of the world, he is quite the trooper. His followers, numbered in the thousands, gathered on the top of hills to await their immanent rapture. When April 3rd came and went, Miller moved it to July 3rd, and his followers again awaited in vigil for the end, which of course didn't come. Miller being undeterred changed the date to March 21st 1844, going for the hat trick of fail. Then Miller stated it would be October 22nd of that year and this time he was really, really sure.. seriously. So the faithful sold their homes, possessions, and quit their jobs and again waited, the result of which is now known in history as "The Great Disappointment", which signaled the end of the Millerite religion for most believers. Miller never was deterred though, he waited until the end in 1849, his end that is. The legacy of this last event was the birth of the Advent Christian Church, which is a whole other story.
1874 - Charles Taze Russell, who laid the foundation for the Jehovah Witnesses, predicted that Christ started "ruling from the heavens" on this year and would move his operation to Earth on 1914. He viewed World War I starting that year as a sign of the Armageddon was on and that an attack on a restored Israel by the world (you know, the Israel that didn't exist until 1948) was imminent. When the world didn't end that year, the prediction was changed to Jesus ruling the world "invisibly", how convenient, and the end date then was moved to 1925. In 1925 it was moved to 1975, the supposed 6000th anniversary of Adam's birth, when that didn't pan out the JW's stated it be on the 6,000th anniversary of Eve's birth, which was most handy as no one knew when that was.
1919 - Meteorologist Albert Porta noticed there would be a conjunction of six planets, from this he predicted such a conjunction would cause the Sun to explode in a giant comic fart and destroy the Earth on December 17th of that year, just in time for Christmas.
1974 - To show that astronomers are not immune from silly predictions, two wrote a book this year called The Jupiter Effect claiming when an alignment of planets occur on March 10, 1982, all sorts of bad will fall upon the Earth. Well nothing happened that day (well the high tides were 40 micrometers above normal), and the duo published a followup book called The Jupiter Effect Revisited claiming the event actually happened in 1980 which caused St. Helens to erupt; safe the say a sequel book predicting events that occurred in the past didn't sell as predicted.
1981 - Members of the cult called Assembly of Yahweh gathered at Coney Island in white robes awaiting the Rapture scheduled for that afternoon; despite all their bongo drumming and chants, the sun dith set with them still on the Earth.
1988 - Edgar C. Whisenant wrote a book called "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988" and predicted the rapture for September of that year, he should have come up with an 89th reason because it didn't happen. Not to be deterred by reality, he wrote another book claiming it will happen in 1989, and guess what happened, just guess!
1991 - Followers of the Hyoo-go (Rapture) movement put out a full page ad in the October 20, 1991, issue of USA Today saying the rapture will happen in one week. When it didn't occur some believers were so upset they attacked their preachers with knives! One church founder was later charged with stealing $4 million from his congregation.
2000 - Richard Noone, author of the 1997 book "5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster" proclaimed that because the Antarctic ice mass would be 3 miles thick by May 5, 2000, a day he states the Earth will be aligned with the heavens, the world will be encased in frozen doom. Perhaps global warming saved the Earth after all.
2001 - Reformed evangelist Jack van Imp predicted the Great Tribulation will start in 2001, maybe that was just his satirical take on the Bush years.
2006 - Glenn Beck predicts on CNN on August 9th, that August 22nd that year Israel may be wiped off the map starting Armageddon. Beck later stated he was merely quoting Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis who believed that Ahmadinejad's "final answer" to the US about his country's nuclear development on the 22nd held some prophetic connotations including a possibility of Armageddon.
-- The House of Yahweh cult predicted that the world would end in nuclear Armageddon on September 12th based on the seven years of the book of Daniel, which was really 14 years using their own special brand of fuzzy math, counting down from the Oslo Accords.
-- Dr. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda predicted Christ would appear on December 17th in Puerto Rico, he didn't show.
2008 - According to self-proclaimed apostle Ronald Weinland of "Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God"who wrote the book "2008: God's Final Witness", that year people would die by the hundreds of millions and the US will no longer exist. Not surprisingly, he has since changed the date to May 27th, 2012.