Two Days Till Judgment Day!

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!  So goes the children's fable, and so goes the "prophecy" of one Harold Camping.   Camping predicts the Judgment will happen on May 21st, of this year - that's TWO DAYS FROM NOW!  I am quite confident that he is just plain WRONG, just as he was 17 years ago.  But how does he come up with this date? 

An "infallible, absolute proof" of Camping's assertion rests on a head-spinning numerological argument about the number of days that have elapsed since Jesus was crucified. The date of the crucifixion is itself somewhat uncertain, but Camping takes it to be April 1 in 33 AD. Come May 21, 2011, Camping says, 722,500 days will have elapsed since that occurrence. And 722,500 is (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17). Those numbers are important, according to Camping, because 5 symbolizes atonement, 10 represents completeness, and 17 is for heaven. (Quoted from Scientific American Blog).  The same article reminds us that Harold Camping predicted the same thing, with 99% certainty, that "The End" was to be in September of 1994.

So are you ready for the Judgment?   Well, since Scripture CLEARLY tells us that NO MAN knows the hour, (Mark 13:32) we must reject such outlandish predictions of already proven false prophets!  However, YOU SHOULD STILL BE PREPARED!  You do not want to be caught without enough oil, as the five foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), or not wearing the proper wedding garment (Matthew 22:1-14).  So, even though "the end" likely is not happening this weekend - ALWAYS BE READY! 

I, personally, have always had an interest in the "End Times Prophecies" or "eschatology" (the study of the End Times), so I read and listen to folks like Camping with some curiosity, but never losing sight of the FACT that he could not POSSIBLY know, with ANY certainty that any given day or hour is THAT HOUR of our Lord's glorious return.   So have some fun playing with the "facts" and numbers - but don't go quitting your job or selling your house, etc.  Live as if Judgment Day is TODAY, but plan as if it will not be within your lifetime.

Back to Camping, he claims:

On May 21, 2011 two events will occur. These events could not be more opposite in nature, the one more wonderful than can be imagined; the other more horrific than can be imagined.

A great earthquake will occur the Bible describes it as "such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." This earthquake will be so powerful it will throw open all graves. The remains of the all the believers who have ever lived will be instantly transformed into glorified spiritual bodies to be forever with God.

On the other hand the bodies of all unsaved people will be thrown out upon the ground to be shamed.

The inhabitants who survive this terrible earthquake will exist in a world of horror and chaos beyond description. Each day people will die until October 21, 2011 when God will completely destroy this earth and its surviving inhabitants. (Source).

So, the world does not come to an end on May 21, 2011 - but, according to Camping, it will on October 21, 2011.  Are your affairs in order?  Again - don't go by what this false prophet says - but BE READY!