▀ End of the world weekend? Not on Mayan watch! ▀
▀ THE LAST 580 DAYS ▀
By Curtis Robinson
May 21, 2011 12:00 am
If you’re reading this on Saturday, well, how’s it going so far? Any
of your, uh, church-going friends missing yet?
If you’re reading on Sunday, well, have you noticed vacant parking
lots at any of the larger churches? How’s the traffic? And don’t be
fooled by checking early-morning evangelical TV; they pre-record many
of those shows.
Welcome to our latest End of the World Weekend. It’s become a national
jest of sorts, a chance to very carefully make fun of an elderly radio
preacher who took the wild-eyed crazy step of placing an actual date
on the Rapture – and “careful” because nobody cares to insult the
millions of people who believe the exact same thing, but just don’t
have a specific date.
He does: Saturday, May 21.
Background: An 89-year-old preacher in Oakland, California did the
kind of inspired math usually reserved for Bernie Madoff’s annual
reports to find the ultimate expiration date. The media is eating it
up (thus this column) because (A) it’s mostly harmless fun and (B)
it’s a chance to gently mock certain faiths that are sometimes not
frequently associated with the Media Elite.
(To that point, why does this guy get such a pass on gay-bashing?
Placing the gay rights movement on par with the Japanese earthquake as
a sign of God’s impending wrath? Really?)
Here’s a direct quote: "All the stealing, and the lying, and the
wickedness and the sexual perversion that is going on in society is
telling us something," he says. "So too is the gay pride movement. It
was sent by God as a sign of the end."
Here’s how the Independent newspaper in London reports the math: “He
says the world will end on 21 May, because that will be 722,500 days
from 1 April AD33, which he believes was the day of the Crucifixion.
The figure of 722,500 is important because you get it by multiplying
three holy numbers (five, 10 and 17) together twice. ‘When I found
this out, I tell you, it blew my mind,’ he said.”
Yeah, I’ll bet.
Beyond the good national hoot of all this is the fact that we love a
good apocalypse story. The guy moved beyond “another nut” status the
old-fashioned way: Ad campaign.
He bought thousands of billboards around the country, sent out
caravans of believers and of course all this is paid for by his
faithful flock. But they are not alone in a certain faith, now are
they?
Based on my extensive late-night History Channel research, nearly all
cultures have such things and ours are not always religious.
How about Y2K?
A friend of mine who knows a bunch about computers was mocking that
all through 1999, arguing that everyone gathering food and guns for
the End of Civilization should be marked with some “Y” symbol. If Y2K
happened, he suggested, then they get to rule the Afterworld.
“If not,” he added. “Then we should never have to hear from them
again.”
Ah, but there’s less track-record accountability in predicting End
Times then there is in the Republican Presidential Primary. This
particular preacher, for example, also predicted the end in the 1990s
and not just, presumably, because the Democrats had ushered in a
decade of peace and budget surpluses.
He blamed bad math and re-figured. This time, he’s sure.
Others are no doubt glad to play along. Like the guy who has a service
to take care of pets left behind when their owners are Raptured away.
Or the folks who intend to take old clothes and situate them so it
looks like their wearers were suddenly taken up.
And of course, there are parties planned. Anyone old enough to have
visited a bar in the days after 9-11 knows that end-of-world energy
can prompt a certain urge to get your drink on.
Yet, despite the clear and present math, skeptics remain.
And sadly, there is a clear rift in this country between the early
morning religious folks, who tend to hear Christian information, and
the late-night crowd that does not have Rapture plans. In part, the
late-nighters tend to be somewhat less religious, but – well, they
also know the world can’t possibly end this weekend because the Mayan
Calendar doesn’t run out until Dec. 21 of 2012, which the nutjobs
would know if they’d spend less time in church and more in New Age
bookstores.
The doomsday countdown is dead?
Let the doomsday countdown begin...
(Curtis Robinson is founding editor of The Portland Daily Sun. Email
him at cur...@portlanddailysun.me.)
▬▬▬
HOOROO
UNCLE WALLY
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KAM
It doesn't match Ma'/An calendar
here, either.
But, It is very 'close' - to "IT" !!!
}:< )
Curtis Eagal
Because there was a total solar eclipse on that day which was NOT
visible in the Middle East; the one which WAS seen in Jerusalem in
that era was in 29 AD - but not in the 'correct' month (November).
This was because the Romans altered the calendars on conquered people,
using their Emperor's birthdate: so it was ironic when Pilate told
them it was the time of their feast, since he was dictating it. Also
the total eclipse couldn't have happened if the lunar months were
being observed properly, also subject to Roman influence.
But Camping has other problems...
> The figure of 722,500 is important because you get it by multiplying
> three holy numbers (five, 10 and 17) together twice. ‘When I found
> this out, I tell you, it blew my mind,’ he said.”
>
> Yeah, I’ll bet.
Such methods appear arbitrary.
It has been noted Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour, etc. A
lot of focus on timing a single, improbable event, rather than
comprehending the span of the era outlined in Revelations. Consider
in that book the remark concerning the sounding of the sixth trumpet:
"And the four angels were loosed, who had been kept ready for the hour
and the day and the month and the year" - at some point, this specific
time is known in such a way that it becomes integral to the story. So
if there is mystery, there is also eventual revealing.
I've shown how recent events could relate to VI.78, whose final line
has the great Lord being demanded. That could be possible if people
were brought to understand this was the Apocalyptic period, but
without being offered the identity of the Messianic character, without
whom there can be no real Second Coming. The implausible event
described as Rapture would not make that case, although an explanatory
text could impart the necessary insights. Rapture depends on
unilateral reaping of the righteous, which goes against scripture, and
also denies those saved must undergo a tribulation devised by the
wicked. The movement seems to revolve more around the presumption of
salvation, which is a sort of pride, rather than humility or
fellowship, perhaps attracting those who would like to believe in
attaining rewards without making sacrifices.
Eagal