I personally was astonished at how much publicity was raised last year around a prediction that Rapture, this judgement day before the second coming of Christ would happen on May 21st, 2011. Harold Camping is a radio evangelist who claimed to have interrupted the Bible and devised a mathematical calculation to predict the day. This really took over the American media news stories surrounding the time and also was very popular on the different social media sites and internet searches. Mr. Camping also had a significant group of followers and believers. I remember seeing billboards on the drive from Wisconsin back to the twin cities last year proclaiming the coming of Rapture. So what did Camping do that was so convincing? He had no formal Biblical training or teaching. He only read the Bible himself and created an equation to predict Rapture. He was "flabbergasted" that we were still here come May 22nd 2011. But this was not the first time that he had gotten it wrong. He had made a previous prediction in 1994 and once that did not happen either he just claimed that he had miscalculated and it was only the end of the church. What are the economics? Camping has made a lot of money from his followers the more people he convinces the more money he receives. The more publicity he also gained for his radio talk show. He is essentially selling and marketing 'doomsday'. His followers will do anything for him. His followers want to believe that this is still coming, that Camping is not a fake. He forces them into a state of fear. A crisis situation much like we have been talking about in class with global warming and climate change. That people are being convinced that they need to act now, the world as they know it is ending and they must do something about it.
If Camping is so dedicated to the Bible and has made all of these claims then how could he overlook this passage?
"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" Matthew 24:36
I was not following news of Harold Camping but after reading your blogpost, I found this guy hilarious. First and foremost, like you said at the end of the post, how can one who claim himself dedicated to the Bible not knowing this important message? In addition, this verse pretty much defeat all other people or group who claim they know when the end of Earth or apocalypse is.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, I wonder how come his followers would believe someone who had made mistakes before and simply explain by saying miscalculating. From my point of view, I just think that he only does good math on his own financial. To end this comment and also to respond, I want to provide two verses from the Bible, Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my nam, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive man (Matthew 24:4, 24:5), He said to them: " It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority." (Acts 1:7)
Your post definitely got me thinking. It would be really interesting to look at "Rapture" or "End of the World" culture. This year we have the Mayan Calendar scare - which I am not even sure if people took seriously - but it seems recently we've had a lot of similar phenomenon that have been acknowledged culturally, in quite a wide scale (SNL did some Mayan sketches). Who are the people who start these? And why?
ReplyDeleteEric Best