May 21st came and went and must have left an awfully disappointed group of Harold Camping followers in it's wake.
I'd be tickled pink if the rapture happened right now, yesterday, last week. I wouldn't have to worry about a home, or family or the future. I have everything to gain and nothing to lose. But it simply breaks my heart to see so many people being conned.
Harold Camping Followers Homeless?
Silence follows the day after the proposed Judgment Day on May 21, 2011 as the prediction made by Harold Camping proves to be incorrect. Frustrated followers and dissenters are now unable to access the Family Radio website because it keeps crashing.
People left jobs, spent their money and took off across the country to pass out doomsday literature for Harold Camping's family radio. Now that May 21, 2011 has passed uneventfully, what will it mean for his followers?
According to Mercury News, Rev. Jeremy Nickel of the Fremont Mission Peak Unitarian Congregation said, “For those who were invested in this prediction, their world did end Saturday. They thought they were going to heaven and they didn't. They may have donated all their money. They're going to be in a world of hurt.”
On Saturday, prerecorded gospel talk continued while the Family Radio website was down. Over the last seven years, over $100 million was donated to Family Radio. The Oakland-based Family Radio has 66 stations across the world. Harold Camping's home in Alameda was deserted and there was no answer on his phone.
As followers realized they were not going to experience the rapture, others were mocking the concept. The American Atheists convention consisting of about 200 people met in downtown Oakland on the proposed Judgment Day.
While some people mocked the possibility of doomsday, others offered a helping hand to the disappointed followers who might be upset the prophesy was not fulfilled.
The Calvary Bible Church of Mipitas offered support to Camping's followers. According to the Sacramento Bee, Pastor Jacob Denys indicated the church wanted to reach out to Camping's followers to deliver a message of hope and said, "Do not despair. You are not alone. we offer you help and Biblical counsel."Various spiritual leaders of all denominations agreed no man know when the end will come and people are expected to be prepared everyday by doing good things and living a positive life.
Has the prediction of Judgment Day done more harm than good? Being positive means looking for the good in any situation. The Christian Post reports Dr. Barry Levanthal, provost and professor at Southern Evangelical Seminary, said, “Maybe at least people have thought about the second coming of Christ. God can bring good out of evil, and bring correct direction out of incorrect thinking.”
The professor encouraged believers to follow the Word of God rather than “another person's experience.” He added, “If God is going to lead us to some kind of inner leading, it will never be opposite to what the Word of God is.”
Eric Thomas, professor of biblical studies and theology at Talbot and Biola University, stated, “We need to go to clear teaching to find answers instead of making a side show out of biblical teaching in such an overly detailed and alarmist way that it is so unhelpful. I don’t see any good coming from distorting Scripture. It’s tragic to me. Sadly, Christians should be the ones with the most settled confidence in the face of potential problems but we can be the biggest alarmists and conspiracy theorists.”
Harold Camping incorrectly predicted Judgment Day in 1994. While his second prediction fell flat, people are still considering the possible end of the world. The next doomsday prediction, based on the Mayan calendar, is December 21, 2012.
Christian doomsday prophet Harold Camping had predicted the world would end at 6pm on Saturday
Christian doomsday prophet Harold Camping looks likely to be less than rapturous after his prediction that the world would end on Saturday failed to materialise.
The 89-year-old Californian preacher had prophesied that the Rapture would begin at 6pm in each of the world's time zones, with those "saved" by Jesus ascending to heaven and the non-believers being wiped out by an earthquake rolling from city to city across the planet.
But as the deadline for the Apocalypse passed in the Pacific islands, New Zealand and Australia, it became apparent that Camping's prediction of the end of the world was to end not with a bang but with a whimper.
Only on Twitter did the supposed Armageddon sweep the world, with users expressing their mock disappointment at the lack of dead people rising from their graves.
New Zealander Daniel Boerman tweeted: "I'm from New Zealand, it is 6:06PM, the world has NOT ended. No earthquakes here, all waiting for the rapture can relax for now. #Rapture"
In Australia, Jon Gall of Melbourne was unimpressed by the lack of fire and brimstone. He tweeted: "#Rapture time here in Melbourne. A rather quiet sort of rapture if you ask me.
"Well we have had the #Rapture going for 50 minutes now. So far it hasn't interrupted my fish & chips and glass of stout."
In Brisbane, KillaJeules, was similarly disappointed by the lack of a Hollywood blockbuster ending: "So it's 6:37pm here in Brisbane, Australia. No earthquakes. No beaming up of Christians. No zombie apocalypse. No surprises haha."
Camping, a retired civil engineer, has built a multimillion-dollar, non-profit ministry based on his apocalyptic predictions. He previously predicted that the world would end in 1994. It is difficult to know how many of his followers took his latest prophecy seriously, though his Family Radio Worldwide reaches millions of listeners in the US and around the world.
Some have reportedly sold all their possessions and taken to the streets to warn people to prepare for the second coming of Jesus. In recent weeks, callers to Christian radio stations in the US have debated what to do about non-believing friends and neighbours who will be left behind to endure the wrath of God.
But it looks like it will be atheists and other skeptics celebrating this weekend, with tongue-in-cheek doomsday parties planned across the US.
TV scientist Professor Brian Cox summed up the mood of the non-believers. He tweeted: "I think we should all pretend the #rapture is happening so that when Harold Camping gets left behind later today he'll be livid."
But Kieran Healy had a slightly more comforting message for those disappointed at not joining Jesus: "I guess on Sunday when the #Rapture people feel really upset, we can't console them by saying 'Cheer up, it's not the end of the world.'"
I managed to plant some more green beans and peas yesterday, but I have been so ill, stressed beyond my capability to handle it, that writing anything meaningful has been beyond me.Mark 13:32; "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
Acts 1:7; "He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
Matthew 24:36; "But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
