Judgment Day - May 21st, 2011 at Participating Universes

[Vendog]

From Yahoo

OAKLAND, Calif. – A California preacher who foretold of the world's end only to see the appointed day pass with no extraordinarily cataclysmic event has revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.

Harold Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before catastrophe struck the planet, apologized Monday evening for not having the dates "worked out as accurately as I could have."

He spoke to the media at the Oakland headquarters of his Family Radio International, which spent millions of dollars_ some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.

It was not the first time Camping was forced to explain when his prediction didn't come to pass. The 89-year-old retired civil engineer also prophesied the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but said later that didn't happen then because of a mathematical error.

Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, it dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a "spiritual" Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ's judgment, he said.

The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God's judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there's no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on Oct. 21.

"We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said. "The fact is there is only one kind of people who will ascend into heaven ... if God has saved them they're going to be caught up."

Josh Ocasion, who works the teleprompter during Camping's live broadcasts in the group's threadbare studio sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader's business, said he enjoyed the production work but never fully believed the May 21 prophecy would come true.

"I thought he would show some more human decency in admitting he made a mistake," he said Monday. "We didn't really see that."

Follower Jeff Hopkins said he spent a good deal of his own retirement savings on gas money to power his car so people would see its ominous lighted sign showcasing Camping's May 21 warning. As the appointed day drew nearer, Hopkins started making the 100-mile round trip from Long Island to New York City twice a day, spending at least $15 on gas each trip.

"I've been mocked and scoffed and cursed at and I've been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of my car," said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in Great River, NY. "I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face."

Camping's hands shook slightly as he pinned his microphone to his lapel, and as he clutched a worn Bible he spoke in a quivery monotone about some listeners' earthly concerns after giving away possessions in expectation of the Rapture.

Family Radio would never tell anyone what they should do with their belongings, and those who had fewer would cope, Camping said.

"We're not in the business of financial advice," he said. "We're in the business of telling people there's someone who you can maybe talk to, maybe pray to, and that's God."

But he also said that he wouldn't give away all his possessions ahead of Oct 21.

"I still have to live in a house, I still have to drive a car," he said. "What would be the value of that? If it is Judgment Day why would I give it away?"

Apocalyptic thinking has always been part of American religious life and popular culture. Teachings about the end of the world vary dramatically — even within faith traditions — about how they will occur.

Still, the overwhelming majority of Christians reject the idea that the exact date or time of Jesus' return can be predicted.

Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels about the end times, recently called Camping's prediction "not only bizarre but 100 percent wrong!" He cited the Bible verse Matthew 24:36, "but about that day or hour no one knows" except God.

Camping offered no clues about Family Radio's finances Monday, saying he could not estimate how much had been spent advertising his prediction nor how much money the nonprofit had taken in as a result. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.

Wow already posted but slightly different info.

[Ashmada]

Silly goose.
There can't be a rapture on october 21, we've got a Ragnarok scheduled for august 15.

Unless hvitekrist has a thing for charred half-eaten remains, won't be much left for him to rapture by october.

[Kuya]

The rapture is not just the faithful being taken from our lives. It also means suffering and death for the rest of us who weren't smart enough to pick the right imagenary friend.

[Dantrag]

What strikes me more than people's obsession with the world ending is how so many people view the Rapture as a bad thing.

It's the whole, "Beginning of the end" type deal. Oh well, x amount of time for me to suffer through famine. Assuming I even make it past the initial w/e is supposed to happen. I never really held God(s) in much regard even as a kid. So, if there is one. He's pretty much an asshole. Simple as that.

[Ashmada]

The rapture is not just the faithful being taken from our lives. It also means suffering and death for the rest of us who weren't smart enough to pick the right imagenary friend.

That's one of the reasons Ragnarok is clearly superior to rapture: non-discriminatory. Believers or not, a gruesome death awaits us all. On aug. 25.

[foopy]

The rapture is not just the faithful being taken from our lives. It also means suffering and death for the rest of us who weren't smart enough to pick the right imagenary friend.

[Dryr]

That's what I'm saying, so many people here afraid that they'll get left behind.

Has anyone ever read those or other rapture books? They are written by religious authors, but they still focus on main characters that are just average joes. The devout (people that read the bible every day) just disappear one day, meanwhile 9-5 suckers that choose to spend what little energy they have at the end of the day trying to have fun and be happy are left to try and cope with their wives/friends/family being gone. Basically, religious authors see the rapture as an punishment not just for evil people, but for anyone who isn't devout in the religion.

They kind of skip over who is responsible for not converting the billions of people who weren't born in to the religion...

[Tyrath]

Oh geez, here we go again already? There as a nice 17 years between his last 2 failed predictions. Why 5 months now? x.x

[ronin sparthos]

Oh geez, here we go again already? There as a nice 17 years between his last 2 failed predictions. Why 5 months now? x.x

Limited time to do "research" within the Bible with the 2012 Doomsday fast approaching.

Better to fit in your new prediction before it rather than compete obviously.

[Acturus]

Oh geez, here we go again already? There as a nice 17 years between his last 2 failed predictions. Why 5 months now? x.x

Dude probably won't live to see 17 more years. Might as well get while the gettin's good.

[Zhais]

Limited time to do "research" within the Bible with the 2012 Doomsday fast approaching.

Better to fit in your new prediction before it rather than compete obviously.

Well, he didn't really change his prediction much. The rapture 'still happened' just not as 'he expected'. So therefore his original prediction is still right in his mind, and everything is going according to plan.

[bigrougabagel]

something Self reinforcing delusion something

[Kerberoz]

You really think people who believe in the rapture are going to be suspicious of this guy, no matter how retarded his predictions get?

[Jaybar]

He even got the number of "Chosen" people wrong by a factor of 1388!

[Dimmauk]

Spoiler: show

[Jaybar]

Heaven? More like New Earth. Nigga's gotta get it straight.

[wop]

Must've missed this somehow but,

http://io9.com/5804233/street-entrep...-bargain-50000

Street entrepreneur sells Rapture jetpacks for a bargain $50,000


http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...rapturejet.jpg

[Shenrien]

If space is Heaven, then Astronauts are angels.

[Kerberoz]