I am no less curious today as I was a few weeks ago when I first started the series on Harold Camping, to find out more about this man, his supposed ministry and his followers and what transpired during that time when he had predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. And so it is with that in mind, I want to continue trying to find out what in the world was going on with such a man and the people that knew him best.
I have to say first how interesting it is to find that his Family Radio program studio was housed in between an autoshop and a palm readers business. Doomsday date was miscalculated, says Harold Camping - CSMonitor.com I wonder if he ever used the services of the palm reader to come to his predictions. Certainly. perhaps not. But it does make me wonder that. Did he do that in conjunction with his own bible study. We may never know. The thing is, surely if he was so concerned about getting people to heaven, he would have taken the opportunity to try to convince this person as well.
His prediction of May 21, 2011 spawned at least one end time business for pet lovers whose pets would be left behind when the Rapture hit. For just $135 an online business would guarantee that if the Rapture would occur within 10 years of receipt of payment, that one pet would be saved per residence.
So much for my other two pets, should I have been one of the select that would have been raptured up during that time. I wonder if I had paid the total of $405, would that have covered all three of mine, and by the way, what provisions would have been covered for them?
Really? Interesting enough, there is a website that had been dedicated to that which I will give you here to check it out, if you wish. But, I did find that its founder did announce it as a hoax which he posted on March 21, 2012. For more information on this particular part of the so called Rapture, follow the link to Eternal Earth-Bound Pets a hoax, founder announces - oregonlive.com
(Please note that I have chosen not to go any further with that aspect of this study)
And so how did Camping arrive at the dates that caused all the craziness that went on especially around the time of the coming Rapture?
To be sure, let me first (and again) say that I do not agree with the CSM and their theology. However, I am using their online reports on this subject solely for the purpose of information.on this particular study. And so with that in mind, the following is how he came to his conclusions with regard to biblical dates.
Camping says that because Jesus was crucified on Friday, April 1, 33 AD, and that it takes exactly 365.2422 days for the earth to complete one orbit of the sun, we can conclude that, on April 1, 2011, Jesus was crucified exactly 722,449.07 days ago. Add 51 days to this to get to May 1, and you get a figure of 722,500.07.
Round that down to the nearest integer, and you get 722,500, which is an important number because it is the square of 5 x 17 x 10 . The number five, says Camping, represents atonement. Ten represents completeness, and 17 represents heaven. Multiply all these together – twice – and you get 722,500. Therefore the apocalypse kicks off on Saturday, May 21.
Skeptics of Camping's method might ask why the date of the end of the world is linked to that of Jesus' crucifixion, why the numbers five, 10, and 17 represent what Camping claims they represent, why they should be multiplied together, why they should then be squared, and, for that matter, why the Bible would contain esoteric numerological references predicting the end of the world in the first place. They could also point out that April 1, 33 AD was actually a Wednesday, and that, under Camping's method, April 1, 2011 gets counted twice.
Others use different methods to calculate the last day. For example, Dec. 21, 2012 marks the end of the 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, leading some people – particularly those who believe that the dating systems of pre-Columbian Americans can predict events hundreds of years in the future – to believe that the world will end on that date.Judgment Day May 21: When will the world actually end? - CSMonitor.com
Is it no wonder why Jesus had said in Mathew 24:36, "No one knows the day or the hour, not even the angels in heaven...only the Father...."
A lot of damage had been done that day when the Rapture did not take place. People were laughing and making fun of those that had believed. Finances were lost even before when people started quitting their jobs. More importantly was the damage done to the hearts and minds of those that had believed Harold Camping. And what about those that were new in their faiths? Baby christians as they are often called.
For sure, it had been a sad, discouraging, depressing time for many and a hilarious party day for so many others. All because someone did not believe Jesus, and chose to predict his own dates for the end of the world.
What happened to Camping after the fact? And his followers? Can we find out any more about them?
Come back next time to see what is next in this study. In the meantime, God bless!
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