An 89-year-old retired civil engineer from Oakland, Calif., believes today will be Christians’ last Friday on Earth. That prediction has been circulating widely in the news media and on the Internet—and generating all kinds of responses.
According to calculations by Harold Camping, Jesus is set to return on Saturday to rapture the faithful. Those left behind? Well, their fate includes a mighty earthquake and general cataclysm, followed by the end of the world in October.
Mainstream evangelicals have dismissed Camping’s claims. Not only did he make (and miss) a similar prediction in 1994, but—much more importantly—Jesus Himself said that the timing of His second coming was unknowable: “No one knows about that day or hour,” Jesus said in Matthew 24:36, “not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
But while the vast majority of Christians seem to be yawning at Camping’s prediction, some outside the fold are looking at the day as an opportunity to party like it’s 1999. Larry Hickock, director of the California chapter of the American Atheists, has scheduled a meeting for 200 or so members of his organization. “We’re confident we’ll still be here,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “But if it does happen, we wanted a front-row seat.” And on the other coast, the American Humanist Association is holding a two-day event that concludes with a concert on Sunday in Fayetteville, N.C. “It’s not meant to be insulting,” organizer Geri Weaver told the Associated Press. “But come on, Christians are openly scoffing at this.”
Elsewhere, the Doonesbury comic strip has reportedly inspired “Rapture parties” to commemorate the assumed failure of the prediction. And a Facebook page titled “Post rapture looting” counsels, “When everyone is gone and god’s not looking, we need to pick up some sweet stereo equipment and maybe some new furniture for the mansion we’re going to squat in.” Nearly half a million folks (as of Friday morning) have signed up to say they’ll be attending that “event.” Still another Facebook page with the same title includes comments on its Wall like this one from Jim: “I call dibs on the military bases….drinking and driving a tank…kill me some zombies.” Joshua wonders, “Do I get to bring my dog?”
In at least one other country, though, Camping’s supposedly prophetic word has been taken so seriously by a small group of people that’s it’s actually caused civil unrest. In Vietnam, about 5,000 members of the Hmong ethnic minority gathered at that country’s border with Laos to wait things out until May 21. The government felt compelled to disperse the crowd and arrested a number of folks labeled extremists.
Predictions about Judgment Day, the end of the world and Jesus’ second coming are hardly a new phenomenon, of course. If you need proof, take a look at Focus on the Family president Jim Daly’s blog. What’s different this time around is the way Camping’s organization, Family Radio Worldwide, has diligently leveraged virtually every form of media possible to get the word out, relying upon radio, satellite TV, billboards, Internet updates, subway advertisements, people carrying placards, RV caravans and missionaries in dozens of cities from Asia to Latin America.
That kind of intentional, international effort, fed as it has been by the intrinsically viral nature of the Internet, has resulted in huge buzz for Camping and his organization. “God is utilizing the media,” Camping said via a Skype interview last week. “And my, my, has the media been busy with me.”
Camping may still be busy with the very same media next week if things do not, in fact, turn out as he believes they will.
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