New Zealand happy – some preachers upset!

I reckon the “Rapture” may have come in New Zealand on Sunday Night.

However, it proved to be another failure for Harold Camping who had predicted the end of the world by then. He said last September:

“The end is going to come very, very quietly probably within the next month. It will happen, that is, by October 21.”

Since then Camping has kept well clear of the press – although I get the impression that after three failed attempts at prediction there were very few reporters hanging around outside his door.

However, there is now a report that he has retired from this whole business. According to the Chrsitian News (see Harold Camping Exclusive: Family Radio Founder Retires; Doomsday ‘Prophet’ No Longer Able to Work):

“Harold Camping, who predicted Oct. 21 to be the day Christians would be caught up to heaven and that God would judge the world, said on Oct. 16 that he is no longer able to lead Family Radio Stations, Inc. or his ministry, and his wife has confirmed that the 90-year-old radio evangelist has retired, a documentarian close to Camping told The Christian Post in an exclusive interview.”

But what about this?

Apparently some preachers were upset that the world didn’t end last weeked. The newspaper reports “they were all disappointed that Christ did not come”

With friends like this!

Visible signs of the rapture

Credit to Peter Griffin – I don’t know where he gets these things from.

If only I was a student again –  and could afford such a big bill at the local sex shop.

Don’t drink the punch!

Photo Credit: @snipeyhead New York

I liked this little nerdy counter demonstration at a Judgement day demo in the US.

Apparently many people are getting into the mood with rapture parties on the evening of the 20th May. Anyone familiar with The Simpsons episode on rapture parties will know to avoid the punch. Otherwise its the obvious way to respond to such ridiculous predictions.

I am pleased to see many Christians are also heaping on the ridicule. Mind you, it was a bit disconcerting the find that what many of them are ridiculing is not the concept of a rapture but just the fixing of a specific date! For example local blogger Bosco Peters  at Liturgy injected a bit of humour with Jesus is coming. But his humour was somewhat spoiled by a commenter who said:

“The simple answer to Harold Camping is from Our Lord’s own words: “Ye know not the day nor the hour.” It’s more than a little presumptuous of Mr. Camping to presume that he DOES know, is it not?”

And Donald Perkins at the Prophecy Mission in the USA warns of The Dangers of Date Setting:

“The Word of God is clear on this subject of Date-setting. To set dates on the return of Christ is to err. Because of these recent events, the church has become a laughingstock and many Christian faith were shaken by it; some had their hopes raised to high levels, only to have them come crashing down to the truth. Many even quit their jobs, and still others closed their businesses.”

Its  bit of a worry. Criticise Harold Camping because he dares to work out dates! But this whole idea of raptures, destruction of the world and the universe, etc. still seems acceptable to many Christians. I think that’s dangerous.

Seattle Atheists are offering some rapture Relief. Good idea really. They are asking for donations to enable them to help rebuild the lives of all those left behind by the rapture. In the event there is no rapture the proceeds will go to a good secular cause – Camp Quest West.

But isn’t it amazing what crazy ideas we humans can get. Appparently an all female sect in Russia believes that Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, is a reincarnation of early Christian missionary Paul the apostle (see Russian sects: from Rasputin to the ‘Jesus of Siberia’)!

Richard Dawkins had the most sensible comment on all this in his Washington Post article Science explains the end of the world:

“Why is a serious newspaper like the Washington Post giving space to a raving loon? I suppose the answer must be that, unlike the average loon, this one has managed to raise enough money to launch a radio station and pay for billboards.”

But he does take the opportunity to get back to the scientific approach to the end of the world. Which takes us back to the photo above.