Will The World End on May 21, 2011?
I just got back from vacation and passed a roadsign in the Southern United States that said that the world was ending on May 21, 2011. Well this surprised me! So I did a bit more research on the subject.
As it turns out, there is a group that believes that the world will end on May 21, 2011. According to the predictions of the Family Radio ministry, on that date a massive earthquake will shake the world apart, littering the ground with 'many dead bodies'. Those who believe in Jesus will be carried into heaven, while the rest of humanity will endure 153 days of 'death and horror' before the world finally gets its last gasp and ends on October 21. The church members point to baffling biblical codes to demonstrate their reasoning and timing.
Speaking to CNN the group's leader, 89-year-old Harold Camping, is adamant that the date is accurate. He said: 'I know it's absolutely true, because the Bible is always absolutely true. 'If I were not faithful that would mean that I'm a hypocrite.' Despite his conviction, Camping has predicted the world would end before - on September 4 1994. That, he says, was a mistake, a misreading of the biblical codes used to decipher the exact date of the 'rapture'. In order to get the warning out in time he fudged his calculations, a mistake he maintains he did not make this time.
According to the Church's website, there are two 'proofs' that May 21 2011 is the judgement day. According to them, Noah's great flood occurred in the year 4990 B.C., 'exactly' 7000 years ago. At the time, God said to Noah he had seven days before the flood would begin. Taking a passage from 2 Peter 3:8, in which it is said a day for God is like a thousand human years, the church reasoned that seven 'days' equals 7000 human years from the time of the flood,making 2011 the year of the apocalypse.
In its second 'proof' the exact date is revealed by working forward from the exact date of the of the crucifixion - April 1, 33 AD. According to their reasoning, there are exactly 722,500 days from April 1, 33 A.D. until May 21, 2011 - the alleged day of judgement. This number can be represented as follows: 5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17 = 722,500. The church then argues that numbers in the bible have special meanings, with the number 5 signifying atonement or redemption, the number 10 signifying 'completeness' and the number 17 equalling heaven.
Okay folks, you have two months to go. Start your doomsday clocks....