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Rapture - May 21st, 2011


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Former civil engineer Harold Camping of Oakland, who runs Family Radio, has studied the Bible for almost 70 years.
Credit: Lance Iversen / The ChronicleHarold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.

"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."

The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.

The Mayans and the recent Hollywood movie "2012" have put the apocalypse in the popular mind this year, but Camping has been at this business for a long time. And while Armageddon is pop science or big-screen entertainment to many, Camping has followers from the Bay Area to China.

Camping, 88, has scrutinized the Bible for almost 70 years and says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Good Book. One night a few years ago, Camping, a civil engineer by trade, crunched the numbers and was stunned at what he'd found: The world will end May 21, 2011.

On Sept. 6, 1994, dozens of Camping's believers gathered inside Alameda's Veterans Memorial Building to await the return of Christ, an event Camping had promised for two years. Followers dressed children in their Sunday best and held Bibles open-faced toward heaven.

But the world did not end. Camping allowed that he may have made a mathematical error. He spent the next decade running new calculations, as well as overseeing a media company that has grown significantly in size and reach.

"We are now translated into 48 languages and have been transmitting into China on an AM station without getting jammed once," Camping said. "How can that happen without God's mercy?"

His office is flanked by satellite dishes in the parking lot that transmit his talk show, "Open Forum." In the Bay Area, he's heard on 610 AM, KEAR. Camping says his company owns about 55 stations in the United States alone, and that his message arrives on every continent.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Ted Solomon, 60, who started listening to Camping in 1997. He's worked at Family Radio since 2004, making sure international translators properly dictate Camping's sermons.

"This world may have had an attraction to me at one time," Solomon said. "But now it's definitely lost its appeal."

Camping is a frail-looking man, and his voice is low and deep, but it can rise to dramatic peaks with a preacher's flair.

As a young man, he owned an East Bay construction business but longed to work as a servant of God. So he hit the books.

"Because I was an engineer, I was very interested in the numbers," he said. "I'd wonder, 'Why did God put this number in, or that number in?' It was not a question of unbelief, it was a question of, 'There must be a reason for it.' "

Drosnin developed a technique that revealed prophecies within the Bible's text. A handful of biblical scholars have supported Drosnin's theory, lending it an air of legitimacy, and just as many scholars have decried it as farce.

One of Drosnin's more well-known findings is that a meteor will strike Earth in 2012, the same year some people believe the Mayan calendar marks the end of times, and the same year the "2012" action movie surmised the Earth's crust will destabilize and kill most humans.

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

"Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved.

"I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.


more...see http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-01-01/bay-area/17466332_1_east-bay-bay-area-first-time-camping


Camping is truly "off his rocker" because the Word of God clearly teaches us that no one knows the date of Jesus' return. If Camping could figure it out using mathematical equations then he would therefore "know" thus making Jesus wrong. Camping has failed in his predictions many times in the past and it's obvious that he will do so again. Jesus does not want us to pack our bags now, He wants us to keep busy until He comes.

God Bless!
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Camping is truly "off his rocker" because the Word of God clearly teaches us that no one knows the date of Jesus' return. If Camping could figure it out using mathematical equations then he would therefore "know" thus making Jesus wrong. Camping has failed in his predictions many times in the past and it's obvious that he will do so again. Jesus does not want us to pack our bags now, He wants us to keep busy until He comes.

God Bless!
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I believe that when John Wesley was asked what he would do if he knew that the Lord would return in a few days, he read out his preaching diary ....

We should be living in the expectation of our Lord's return. Watch & pray.

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I believe that when John Wesley was asked what he would do if he knew that the Lord would return in a few days, he read out his preaching diary ....

We should be living in the expectation of our Lord's return. Watch & pray.

:amen: It's far too common for many to be busy looking for signs of His coming rather than being busy about the Lord's work as we watch and pray in expectation.
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Anyone have the billboards plastered in their area? We have the "Judgement Day" billboards and people walking around with the T-shirts. Good news is they are getting peoples attention, the bad news is that they are getting peoples attention.

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Anyone have the billboards plastered in their area? We have the "Judgement Day" billboards and people walking around with the T-shirts. Good news is they are getting peoples attention, the bad news is that they are getting peoples attention.


We have a couple up here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They also bought a full page spread in today's free downtown daily paper. No T-shirts though.
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