熱 天 氣 Warm Weather

Of course when it doesn't they will come up with some lame excuse like Jesus changed his mind.

You should check out the cartoons Doonsbury is creating to make fun of this world ending event!

Any how on Sunday, May 22, 2011 please come by and check out my web page to make sure it is still here!

Opps, May 21 came and left with out the end of the world occurring. Looks like God changed his mind. At least that is what the Christian nut jobs tell us. According to them Gods's new date for ending the world will be Friday, October 21, 2011.

See you at our 2nd "Day after the end of the world party" which will be Saturday, October 22, 2011.

Source

May. 18, 2011 4:08 PM ET

End of the world? How about a party instead?

TOM BREENTOM BREEN, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

For some, it's Judgment Day. For others, it's party time. A loosely organized Christian movement has spread the word around the globe that Jesus Christ will return to earth on Saturday to gather the faithful into heaven. While the Christian mainstream isn't buying it, many other skeptics are milking it.

A Facebook page titled "Post rapture looting" offers this invitation: "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." By Wednesday afternoon, more than 175,000 people indicated they would be "attending" the "public event."

The prediction is also being mocked in the comic strip "Doonesbury" and has inspired "Rapture parties" to celebrate what hosts expect will be the failure of the world to come to an end.

In the Army town of Fayetteville, N.C., the local chapter of the American Humanist Association has turned the event into a two-day extravaganza, with a Saturday night party followed by a day-after concert.

"It's not meant to be insulting, but come on," said organizer Geri Weaver. "Christians are openly scoffing at this."

The prediction originates with Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer from Oakland, Calif., who founded Family Radio Worldwide, an independent ministry that has broadcast his prediction around the world.

The Rapture — the belief that Christ will bring the faithful into paradise prior to a period of tribulation on earth that precedes the end of time — is a relatively new notion compared to Christianity itself, and most Christians don't believe in it. And even believers rarely attempt to set a date for the event.

Camping's prophecy comes from numerological calculations based on his reading of the Bible, and he says global events like the 1948 founding of Israel confirm his math.

He has been derided for an earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994, but his followers say that merely referred to the end of "the church age," a time when human beings in Christian churches could be saved. Now, they say, only those outside what they regard as irredeemably corrupt churches can expect to ascend to heaven.

Camping is not hedging this time: "Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment," he said in January.

Such predictions are nothing new, but Camping's latest has been publicized with exceptional vigor — not just by Family Radio but through like-minded groups. They've spread the word using radio, satellite TV, daily website updates, billboards, subway ads, RV caravans hitting dozens of cities and missionaries scattered from Latin America to Asia.

"These kinds of prophecies are constantly going on at a low level, and every once in a while one of them gets traction," said Richard Landes, a Boston University history professor who has studied such beliefs for more than 20 years.

The prediction has been publicized in almost every country, said Chris McCann, who works with eBible Fellowship, one of the groups spreading the message. "The only countries I don't feel too good about are the 'stans' — you know, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, those countries in Central Asia," he said.

Marie Exley, who left her home in Colorado last year to join Family Radio's effort to publicize the message, just returned from a lengthy overseas trip that included stops in the Middle East. She said billboards have gone up in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

"I decided to spend the last few days with my immediate family and fellow believers," Exley said. "Things started getting more risky in the Middle East when Judgment Day started making the news."

McCann plans to spend Saturday with his family, reading the Bible and praying. His fellowship met for the last time on Monday.

"We had a final lunch and everyone said goodbye," he said. "We don't actually know who's saved and who isn't, but we won't gather as a fellowship again."

In Vietnam, the prophecy has led to unrest involving thousands of members of the Hmong ethnic minority who gathered near the border with Laos earlier this month to await the May 21 event. The government, which has a long history of mistrust with ethnic hilltribe groups like the Hmong, arrested an unidentified number of "extremists" and dispersed a crowd of about 5,000.

No such signs of turmoil are apparent in the U.S., though many mainstream Christians aren't happy with the attention the prediction is getting. They reject the notion that a date for the end times can be calculated, if not the doctrine of the Rapture itself.

"When we engage in this kind of wild speculation, it's irresponsible," said the Rev. Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. "It can do damage to naive believers who can be easily caught up and it runs the risk of causing the church to receive sort of a black eye."

Pastors around the country are planning Sunday sermons intended to illustrate the folly of trying to discern a date for the end of the world, but Akin couldn't wait: He preached on the topic last Sunday.

"I believe Christ could come today. I believe he could choose not to come for 1,000 years," he said. "That's in his hands, not mine."

No one will know for sure whether Camping's prediction is correct until Sunday morning dawns, or fails to dawn. In the meantime, there will be jokes, parties, sermons and — in at least one case— a chance to make a little money.

Bart Centre, an atheist from New Hampshire, started Eternal Earth-bound Pets in 2009. He offers Rapture believers an insurance plan for those furry family members that won't join them in heaven: 10-year pet care contracts, with Centre and his network of fellow non-believers taking responsibility for the animals after the Rapture. The fee — payable in advance, of course — was originally $110, but has gone to $135 since Camping's prediction.

Centre says he has 258 clients under contract, and that business has picked up considerably this year. But he's not worried about a sales slump if May 21 happens to disappoint believers.

"They never lose their faith. They're never disappointed," he said. "It reinforces their faith, strangely enough."

More on the coming end of the world

Entrepreneurs offer post-'rapture' services

By Abby Sewell, Los Angeles Times

May 19, 2011

Natalie Jones said the idea of paying someone to send emails to her loved ones after the "rapture" would have seemed preposterous to her a few years ago.

That was before the occupational health therapist and mother of two in Surrey, Britain, became a born-again Christian. She now believes the faithful will be swept up in the skies to unite with Jesus in the rapture, while nonbelievers will be left behind to wait for Armageddon and the second coming of Christ.

Eight months ago, Jones paid $14.95 to a website called You've Been Left Behind to send letters to nonbelieving loved ones in the event she is taken away in the rapture.

"I'm the only Christian in my family, so what I really have to achieve is to warn them about everything, but they just think I'm crazy," said Jones, 43.

You've Been Left Behind is one of several enterprises advertising post-rapture services. You've Been Left Behind lost its incorporation status with the state of Massachusetts last month for failing to file its required annual report, although it continues to advertise on the Web.

Founder Mark Heard, a professed rapture believer and handyman in Cape Cod, Mass., said he plans to reconfigure the venture as a nonprofit.

Experts said potential buyers should be wary when approaching business ventures based around deeply held religious beliefs.

"Usually most of these things sound too good to be true, and people, instead of trusting their own instincts, will fall back on 'There can't be anything wrong with it because it's my group, it's my religion,'" said Lisa Fairfax, a George Washington University law professor who has studied religious-based investment fraud schemes. Some of the ventures hawking post-rapture services don't pretend to be operated by believers. Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, which promises to care for pets left behind, is run by avowed atheists.

"Is this a joke?" That's question No. 1 on the site's list of frequently asked questions.

"No" is the answer. "This is a serious offer to our Christian friends who believe in the Second Coming and honestly care about the future of their pets after the Rapture occurs."

Bart Centre, the New Hampshire retiree who runs Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, said he simply wants to make a buck.

"I saw dollar signs, because no one has more pets per capita and more rapture-believing Christians than the good old U.S.A.," he said.

His business is not incorporated in any state. Centre said he simply reports the income on his personal tax return.

While Centre doesn't believe in the rapture, he insisted he's prepared to honor his contract. If prospective customers are wary, Centre said, he will suggest they appoint a trusted nonbeliever with "post-rapture power of attorney" to enforce the agreement.

Centre said inquiries picked up in recent months based on predictions by evangelical radio broadcaster Harold Camping that the rapture will take place Saturday, leading him to boost his basic rate from $110 to $135. For that fee, his crews will retrieve and care for one household pet post-rapture, if it occurs within 10 years of payment.

Jones is not holding her breath. She believes the rapture is coming soon but doesn't think anyone can predict the date. Nor was she concerned about You've Been Left Behind's standing with the state of Massachusetts.

"So long as the service is still operating and delivers my messages to those left behind then that's fine with me," she wrote in an email. "Do [you] know if it's still working?"

abby.sewell@latimes.com

Source

Parties planned as 'end of the world' nears

May. 18, 2011 01:09 PM

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. - For some, it's Judgment Day. For others, it's party time.

A loosely organized Christian movement has spread the word around the globe that Jesus Christ will return to earth on Saturday to gather the faithful into heaven. While the Christian mainstream isn't buying it, many other skeptics are milking it.

A Facebook page titled "Post rapture looting" offers this invitation: "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." By Wednesday afternoon, more than 175,000 people indicated they would be "attending" the "public event."

The prediction is also being mocked in the comic strip "Doonesbury" and has inspired "Rapture parties" to celebrate what hosts expect will be the failure of the world to come to an end.

In the Army town of Fayetteville, N.C., the local chapter of the American Humanist Association has turned the event into a two-day extravaganza, with a Saturday night party followed by a day-after concert.

"It's not meant to be insulting, but come on," said organizer Geri Weaver. "Christians are openly scoffing at this."

The prediction originates with Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer from Oakland, Calif., who founded Family Radio Worldwide, an independent ministry that has broadcast his prediction around the world.

The Rapture -- the belief that Christ will bring the faithful into paradise prior to a period of tribulation on earth that precedes the end of time -- is a relatively new notion compared to Christianity itself, and most Christians don't believe in it. And even believers rarely attempt to set a date for the event.

Camping's prophecy comes from numerological calculations based on his reading of the Bible, and he says global events like the 1948 founding of Israel confirm his math.

He has been derided for an earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994, but his followers say that merely referred to the end of "the church age," a time when human beings in Christian churches could be saved. Now, they say, only those outside what they regard as irredeemably corrupt churches can expect to ascend to heaven.

Camping is not hedging this time: "Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment," he said in January.

Such predictions are nothing new, but Camping's latest has been publicized with exceptional vigor -- not just by Family Radio but through like-minded groups. They've spread the word using radio, satellite TV, daily website updates, billboards, subway ads, RV caravans hitting dozens of cities and missionaries scattered from Latin America to Asia.

"These kinds of prophecies are constantly going on at a low level, and every once in a while one of them gets traction," said Richard Landes, a Boston University history professor who has studied such beliefs for more than 20 years.

The prediction has been publicized in almost every country, said Chris McCann, who works with eBible Fellowship, one of the groups spreading the message. "The only countries I don't feel too good about are the stans' -- you know, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, those countries in Central Asia," he said.

Marie Exley, who left her home in Colorado last year to join Family Radio's effort to publicize the message, just returned from a lengthy overseas trip that included stops in the Middle East. She said billboards have gone up in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

"I decided to spend the last few days with my immediate family and fellow believers," Exley said. "Things started getting more risky in the Middle East when Judgment Day started making the news."

McCann plans to spend Saturday with his family, reading the Bible and praying. His fellowship met for the last time on Monday.

"We had a final lunch and everyone said goodbye," he said. "We don't actually know who's saved and who isn't, but we won't gather as a fellowship again."

In Vietnam, the prophecy has led to unrest involving thousands of members of the Hmong ethnic minority who gathered near the border with Laos earlier this month to await the May 21 event. The government, which has a long history of mistrust with ethnic hilltribe groups like the Hmong, arrested an unidentified number of "extremists" and dispersed a crowd of about 5,000.

No such signs of turmoil are apparent in the U.S., though many mainstream Christians aren't happy with the attention the prediction is getting. They reject the notion that a date for the end times can be calculated, if not the doctrine of the Rapture itself.

"When we engage in this kind of wild speculation, it's irresponsible," said the Rev. Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. "It can do damage to naive believers who can be easily caught up and it runs the risk of causing the church to receive sort of a black eye."

Pastors around the country are planning Sunday sermons intended to illustrate the folly of trying to discern a date for the end of the world, but Akin couldn't wait: He preached on the topic last Sunday.

"I believe Christ could come today. I believe he could choose not to come for 1,000 years," he said. "That's in his hands, not mine."

No one will know for sure whether Camping's prediction is correct until Sunday morning dawns, or fails to dawn. In the meantime, there will be jokes, parties, sermons and -- in at least one case-- a chance to make a little money.

Bart Centre, an atheist from New Hampshire, started Eternal Earth-bound Pets in 2009. He offers Rapture believers an insurance plan for those furry family members that won't join them in heaven: 10-year pet care contracts, with Centre and his network of fellow non-believers taking responsibility for the animals after the Rapture. The fee -- payable in advance, of course -- was originally $110, but has gone to $135 since Camping's prediction.

Centre says he has 258 clients under contract, and that business has picked up considerably this year. But he's not worried about a sales slump if May 21 happens to disappoint believers.

"They never lose their faith. They're never disappointed," he said. "It reinforces their faith, strangely enough."

Source

Judgment Day or just another Saturday? Valley churches say no one knows

Thursday, May 19, 2011 11:40 am | Updated: 3:54 pm, Thu May 19, 2011.

By Michelle Reese, Tribune East Valley Tribune

No, you're not getting out of going to church on Sunday.

Billboards around the Valley are proclaiming that Saturday is Judgment Day - when Jesus' believers will go to heaven - but Valley churches haven't cancelled Sunday's services.

Leaders at nondenominational churches, as well as those tied to organized faith groups, say there's no way anyone can announce with certainty that the end of the world is near, let alone on Saturday. They point to biblical statements that no one knows when that time will come.

And yet, the billboards backed by Family Radio Worldwide, which proclaims itself a nondenominational Christian ministry started by Harold Camping and based in Oakland, Calif., claim otherwise.

Camping says through Biblical study and mathematics - he's an engineer by training - he has discovered that May 21, 2011, will be the Rapture, a time Jesus' believers will leave the earth and go to heaven. Camping predicts that in October, five months later, the world will come to an end.

Camping has made similar predictions in the past, with news reports saying he claims he miscalculated the date or that he was referring to the end of the "church age."

Charles Barfoot, an ASU professor who teaches religious studies and sociology of religion, said there are a lot of apocalyptic conversations going on nowadays. It was evident, he said, this spring during his religion and popular culture course.

Several students gave presentations about the end times, from the belief the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012 (because the calendar ends) to discussions on the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan as indicating the time is near.

Barfoot grew up the son of Pentecostal ministers in California. In the 1960s, the area had an "incredible apocalyptic" feel to it then, in part because of the wars at the time worldwide, he said. He remembers a man from his church leaving to go live in caves because the world was coming to an end.

"The second coming was clearly emphasized," Barfoot said.

The 1906 earthquake in California sparked another apocalyptic phase. In fact, a look at history clear back to Jesus' time shows multiple periods when people believed time was soon going to stop.

"That sense of the end of the world, the first Christians obviously thought that they were living in the last days," Barfoot said.

Today is no different.

"My first reaction is that it's certainly in the air with the Middle East turmoil, the earthquake. I was telling my wife the other day, ‘People like Pat Robertson will be online or doing something because of the tornadoes, floods, the earthquake in Japan.' It's been an endless array of disasters," he said.

One large local church, Cornerstone in Chandler, is tackling the topic in its current sermon series.

The End of Days billboard the church put up on the Santan Freeway shows a dark chaotic scene with buildings burning. Attendance has spiked since the series began three weeks ago (it goes on two more weeks) and many are taking the time to watch the sermons on the church's website, said Rick Calcutt, executive pastor of creative arts at the church.

The series looks at what the Bible says about the fact that there will be an "end of days," Calcutt said. "Prophecies in the Bible are accurate that one day God is going to say, ‘Enough is enough' and it's going to be the end."

The topic isn't an easy one, but it's something that's on many people's minds, Calcutt said. In fact, the church moved the series to after Easter because there was such a buzz about it.

"I think everyone knows things can't go on forever and ever, even if you're not spiritually minded. People know there's an end and they're wondering what it is. Hollywood has made it a sexy topic," with movies like "2012" and "Apocalypse," he said.

As for the May 21 date, Calcutt said: "The bible is clear. We do not know when that day is."

Cindy Packard, spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Greater Phoenix Area, issued a similar statement: "No one knows the time of his coming, but the faithful are taught to study the signs of it and to be prepared for it."

Packard said the LDS church believes in "Jesus Christ as our Savior and we try to follow his teachings every day of our lives so that we will be prepared for the Second Coming - whenever that may be. The scriptures teach us if we are prepared we shall not fear. The billboards are a good reminder that we must continue to live worthy for that day."

The Mormon church teaches that Jesus will return to the earth "in power and great glory to reign personally during a millennium of righteousness and peace," Packard said. "At the time of His coming everyone will recognize the truth of who he is."

With the topic and growing media coverage of the story, some are taking their opinions to the Internet.

Valley resident and former corporate public communications director Peter Faur, 61, wrote a blog (peterfaur.com) about the billboards. His blog's subtitle is "Tips and thoughts about communicating and living in the 21st century."

Faur was raised a member of the Lutheran church, attending Lutheran schools from grade school through college.

"I've always been skeptical of end times type people, Rapture type people," he told the Tribune. "Everything in my background says you don't worry about the end times. Martin Luther was asked once, ‘What would you do if you knew you would die tomorrow?' Luther said, ‘I'd plant a tree. I'd go about my life as it was and as it is and I'd try to do something positive for future generations.'"

Faur said that's the Christian message.

"My life, and I think a lot of Christians' lives, is dedicated to not looking at the end times but the here and now and trying to do what you can to make it a better here and now and trying to be transformed in the process so you can do that."

Remember tomorrow is the end of the world! Of course us atheist will be having a party on the following day.

Source

End of the world? Pastors still preparing for Sunday

by Lawn Griffiths - May. 20, 2011 09:50 AM

Special for the Republic

On Satuday, it's either the Great Rapture or a bust for a self-proclaimed prophet.

If California radio evangelist Harold Camping is correct, Saturday is God's long foretold Judgment Day - perhaps the most tumultuous event of human history.

If Camping is correct, many people - all devout Christians - will ascend to heaven, while those "left behind" will face wrath and suffering and can expect God to destroy the Earth five months from Saturday.

Camping, 89, said he has meticulously calculated that Saturday begins God's destruction of a sinful world. For months, the earnest biblical scholar has conveyed his warning through the 66 stations of the Family Radio Network, including KPHF (88.2 FM) in Phoenix, which airs his "Open Forum" program nightly.

On his website ( www.familyradio.com ), Camping says, "We learn from the Bible that Holy God plans to rescue about 200 million people (that is about 3 percent of today's population). [ Wow that many people! According to the Jehovah Witness teachings only 144,000 people will make it to heaven. Of course as a recovering Catholic I was taught that a lot more people would go to the mythical Christian heaven ]

"On the first day of the Day of Judgment (May 21, 2011), they will be caught up (raptured) into heaven because God had great mercy for them. This is why we can be so thankful that God has given us advance notice of Judgment Day." He believes final destruction will come Oct. 21.

Scattered billboards around the Valley and nation have been proclaiming God's final answer for the planet.

Notwithstanding Camping's warnings, Southeast Valley pastors say they have gone ahead anyway and prepared Sunday sermons and organized their regular services - business as usual.

"This Sunday morning, I am preaching a sermon called, 'What to Do If You have Been Left Behind'," quipped Pastor F.M. Hughes of East Mesa Baptist Church. Hughes dismisses Camping's prophesies. Last Sunday, he called his sermon, "What Are You Going to Do Until Saturday?" Hughes believes Christ will return one day to church, but not on Camping's calendar.

"The Bible says "that day and hour knoweth no one except the Father," Hughes said, paraphrasing Mark 13:32-33. "What he (Camping) is doing by setting dates is making a mockery of Christianity and the Bible because when he sets dates and it doesn't happen, it gives the unbelievers the opportunity to say, 'See, the Bible is not true,' especially when he says he has unlocked the mystery in the Bible."

Camping's website points to decadence in the churches and the failures of pastors. He asserts that the "worldwide success of the Gay Pride/Same Sex Marriage Movement is a dramatic sign provided by God to warn the world that the world is on the threshold of Judgment Day."

Twenty years ago, Camping self-published a book, "1994," which predicted doomsday was coming Sept. 15-17 that year. He used numerology to find hidden truths that he believed are locked in biblical terms and numbers.

History records others who have miscalculated the apocalypse, said the Rev. John MacKinney, pastor of Chandler Bible Church and author of "Revelation: Plain and Simple."

He said that Edgar Whisenant, a former NASA engineer and biblical student, released a series of books successively predicting the rapture, including the 1988 book "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988."

He sold about 4.5 million copies and pronounced, "Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong." His follow-up books with new predictions missed the mark.

"At that point, he was ruled a false prophet," MacKinney said.

"The Seventh Day Adventist's (founder) William Miller also made predictions that didn't come true (in 1844)," he said.

"There is nowhere that we are told to spend our time trying to figure out when is the coming of Christ," MacKinney said. "All I know is that the Bible teaches that it is inevitable. In the meantime, we need to be proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ and living a transformed life in the world."

At Dayspring United Methodist Church in Tempe, the Rev. Jane Tews said no one has talked to her about Camping's predictions.

"It is so far out of anything we teach or believe," she said. Her advice would be, "Just read the Scriptures. Nobody knows the day or the hour," words of Jesus himself.

The Rev. Chon Pugh, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Mesa, said no one in her congregation has raised the prospect that today means the beginning of The End.

"The circles that I am in are just not taking it seriously," she said, noting that her denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, simply teaches what the Book of Mark notes.

Pugh urged people to intentionally explore Scriptures, and "really study it instead of taking other people's thoughts about it." Some, she said, will use Camping's predictions to say "he was way off base and Christians are crazy and lump everybody together."

While Pastor Tom Rakoczy of Chandler First Assembly of God said, "I have had some people ask about it," he added:

"The problem is that no man knows, so I don't know where he is getting his biblical information."

As to Camping's spelled-out system of numbers, Rakoczy said, "With statistics and numbers, you can make them do what you want them to do."

He said he could not "speak against another minister," but when the radio evangelist's soothsaying fails, "what does that say to the non-Christian community about followers of Christ? They will say, 'They are all a bunch of kooks' or 'it's all a joke,' and that is sad."

Rakoczy, a pastor for 38 years, said he plans "every day for the coming of Christ because it can be anytime, so I live accordingly. If he comes today, I am ready. . . . If he comes in 2022, I am ready."

Hughes agreed, "I am not going to do anything different because whether he comes (today), or not, is irrelevant because he could come today, tomorrow or next month. We should be living in light of his imminent return."

Hot damn the end of the world didn't come today.

On the other hand one of the articles says the end of the world isn't due till 6pm (your local time) so I guess I will have to wait another 12 hours for this prediction to become a miserable failure.

Of course I am planning on attending the "Day After" party put on by some local Phoenix Atheists.

Source

End-of-world talk has many enraptured

by Anne Ryman - May. 21, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Arizona State University sophomore Devon Mills doubts the world is going to end soon, but he sees at least one positive aspect to a predicted apocalypse.

"I have a student loan," the 18-year-old said. "I wouldn't have to pay that off."

Around the state, people are using predictions of today's Judgment Day as a way to poke fun at, and even capitalize on, the idea of a precise doomsday forecast, which in this case has become a national phenomenon.

Judgment Day predictions are not new, but this one, started by a California-based Christian radio network, has taken on a life of its own because of a billboard advertising campaign, the Internet, Facebook and Twitter.

At 6 p.m. today, no matter the time zone, a series of strong earthquakes will occur that "will throw open all graves," said Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio Worldwide, based in Oakland.

The Rapture, he said, will then occur: True Christian believers, both living and dead, will be transformed into spiritual bodies to live with God.

Those who remain, whom Camping calls the unsaved people, will struggle in the ravaged environment until Oct. 21, 2011. That's the day Camping predicts God will destroy Earth.

Camping's website, familyradio.com, greeted visitors on Friday with the warning, "Judgment Day May 21, 2011, the Bible guarantees it!" and a countdown clock.

The former civil engineer's warnings have been generating buzz and media play for months.

But, on Friday, many people weren't taking them seriously.

Steve Sichrovsky of El Mirage posted messages to his friends on Facebook to "watch out for zombies," adding, "I don't know if I'll be seeing you Monday."

He told The Arizona Republic he doubts the predictions. But he would have one big regret if the world ended.

"I'm a big Chicago Bears fan, and I've never got to see them play in Soldier Field," the 32-year-old said.

Others see the prediction as an excuse to party. In the Valley, a few restaurants and bars are planning special menus and events to commemorate what they call a "last supper."

And some people, confident that everyone will make it through today just fine, are organizing "afterlife" parties on Sunday.

Rich Moe and Bernie Kantak, co-owners of the Citizen Public House, an upscale bar in downtown Scottsdale, learned about the doomsday warnings a couple of weeks ago.

They both agreed they would want to get together with friends and have a drink before everything ended. They also saw a fun business opportunity.

They planned to hold a "last supper" event last night at their restaurant with a special menu, including an Armageddon Dog featuring a fancy wiener on a rye bun topped with bourbon mustard.

Moe came up with a special cocktail called "Reese's Peace's Be With You." It's a mixture of vanilla vodka, chocolate and peanut-butter syrup, cream and a chocolate garnish.

The Duce, a Chicago-themed bar and restaurant in downtown Phoenix, is planning an "End of Days Cabaret and Afterlife Party" tonight.

Owner Steve Rosenstein said the event's promoter came up with the idea to promote the burlesque show.

No death-themed eats or drinks are planned; it's just another opportunity for people to get together.

Rosenstein obviously doesn't believe the predictions. He just filled up his car's gas tank, something he said he wouldn't do if he thought the world would end soon.

John Lynn, who organizes the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group, is getting together with friends in central Phoenix today.

They will each bring an extra set of clothes and lay them on the sidewalk to represent people who have been saved and taken away.

"It's just for a quick laugh," said Lynn, who also is organizing a Sunday post-Rapture-day get-together at a restaurant.

On a serious note, he said, it's unfortunate that there are some people who take doomsday forecasts seriously.

Camping says on his website that he came up with the date based solely on evidence in the Bible. The website's fact sheet about May 21, however, doesn't reference the individual Bible passages from which the date was derived.

In a 1992 book, Camping also predicted the world would end in 1994, but he later said he had been relying on incomplete information.

Mark Hitchcock, senior pastor at Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Okla., has written several books on biblical prophecy. He said Camping's claims have no merit.

"Anyone who sets a date for the Lord's coming, you can be sure that's not the date," he said, adding that, in the Bible, Matthew 24:36 specifically says that no one but God will know the day or hour when the end will occur.

Hitchcock said he plans to briefly mention the end-of-the-world prediction in his Sunday service.

"I'll probably mention, 'Hey, we're all still here,' " he said.

Reach the reporter at anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8072.

The end is tomorrow!!!!! You are going to die!!!!

Christian movement preparing for End of Days

Posted 5/21/2011 8:02 AM ET

By Garance Burke, Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. — Some shut themselves inside to pray for mercy as they waited for the world's end.

Others met for tearful last lunches with their children, and prepared to leave behind homes and pets as they were swept up to heaven.

And across the globe, followers of a California preacher's long-publicized message that Judgment Day would arrive Saturday turned to the Bible, the book they believe predicts Earth's destruction on May 21.

The doomsday message has been sent far and wide via broadcasts and web sites by Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar nonprofit ministry based on his apocalyptic prediction.

After spending months traveling the country to put up Judgment Day billboards and hand out Bible tracts, Camping follower Michael Garcia planned to spend Friday evening with his family at home in Alameda, near the Christian media empire's Oakland headquarters.

They believe it will likely start as it becomes 6 p.m. in the world's various time zones.

"We know the end will begin in New Zealand and will follow the sun and roll on from there," said Garcia, a 39-year-old father of six. "That's why God raised up all the technology and the satellites so everyone can see it happen at the same time."

The Internet was alive with reaction in the hours past 6 p.m. Saturday in New Zealand.

"Harold Camping's 21st May Doomsday prediction fails; No earthquake in New Zealand," read one posting on Twitter.

"If this whole end-of-the-world thingy is still going on ... it's already past 6.00 in New Zealand and the world hasn't ended," said another.

Camping's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website are controlled from a humble building on the road to the Oakland International Airport, sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader. Family Radio International's message has been broadcast in 61 languages.

Camping, however, will be awaiting Jesus Christ's return for the second time. He said his earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994 didn't come true because of a mathematical error.

"I'm not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature," he told The Associated Press last month. But this time, he said, "there is...no possibility that it will not happen."

Skeptics are planning Rapture-themed parties to celebrate what hosts expect will be the failure of the world to come to an end.

Bars and restaurants from Melbourne, Australia to the Florida Keys advertised bashes.

In Oakland, atheists planned a gathering at a local Masonic temple to include group discussions on "The Great Success of Past Apocalypses," followed by dinner and music.

Camping and his followers believe the beginning of the end will come on May 21, exactly 7,000 years since the flood in the biblical story of Noah's Ark.

Some 200 million people will be saved, Camping preaches, and those left behind will die in earthquakes, plagues, and other calamities until Earth is consumed by a fireball on October 21.

In the Philippines, a big billboard of Family Radio ministry in Manila warned of Judgment Day. Earlier this month, group members they distributed leaflets to motorists and carried placards warning of the end of the world.

Christian leaders from across the spectrum have widely dismissed the prophecy, but one local church is concerned that Camping's followers could slip into a deep depression come Sunday.

Pastor Jacob Denys of Milpitas-based Calvary Bible Church plans to wait outside the nonprofit's headquarters on Saturday afternoon, hoping to counsel believers who may be disillusioned if the Rapture does not occur.

"The cold, hard reality is going to hit them that they did this, and it was false and they basically emptied out everything to follow a false teacher," he said. "We're not all about doom and gloom. Our message is a message of salvation and of hope."

On Friday afternoon, a small group of eccentrics, gawkers and media opportunists convened outside Family Radio's closed office building. A sign posted on the front door said "SORRY WE MISSED YOU!"

As May 21 drew nearer, followers say donations grew, allowing Family Radio to spend millions of dollars on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the doomsday message. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.

Marie Exley, who helped put up apocalypse-themed billboards in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, said the money helped the nonprofit save as many souls as possible. She said she and her husband, mother and brother planned to stay glued to the television Friday night in Bozeman, Montana for news of an earthquake in New Zealand.

Camping recommended this week that followers surround themselves by their loved ones and not meet publicly, Exley said.

"It's an emotional time and we're kind of nervous and scared about how things will pan out as to who will be here and who will go to heaven," she said. "I'll probably be scared in the fog of it, and crying, because we don't know who is saved and who is not."

Some people wanted to make sure their pets receive good treatment, no matter what happens.

Sharon Moss, who founded AfterTheRapturePetCare.com to provide post-apocalypse animal care, said a new wave of customers has paid $10 to sign up in the last few weeks.

"A lot of people have said you should be out there saving souls not saving pets but my heart says 'why can't you do both?'" said Moss, who identifies herself as Protestant.

God changes his mind - 'judgment day' passes

Believers vigilant, but 'judgment day' passes

by Garance Burke - May. 22, 2011 12:00 AM

Associated Press

OAKLAND - They spent months warning the world of the apocalypse, some giving away earthly belongings or draining their savings accounts. And so they waited, vigilantly, on Saturday for the appointed hour to arrive.

When 6 p.m. came and went across the United States and various spots around the globe and no extraordinary cataclysm occurred, some believers expressed confusion, while others reassured each other of their faith. Still, some others took it in stride.

"I had some skepticism, but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," said Keith Bauer - who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the rapture.

He started his day in the morning sun outside the gated Oakland headquarters of Family Radio Worldwide, whose founder, Harold Camping, has been broadcasting the apocalyptic prediction for years.

"I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this Earth," said Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, who began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the rapture did happen."

The May 21 doomsday message was sent far and wide via broadcasts and websites by Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multimillion-dollar Christian media empire that publicized his apocalyptic prediction.

According to Camping, the destruction was likely to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones, although some believers said Saturday that the exact timing was never written in stone.

In New York's Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when the 6 o'clock hour simply came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.

"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."

Many followers said the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith.

The Internet was alive with discussion, humorous or not, about the end of the world and its apparent failure to occur on cue. Many tweets declared Camping's prediction a dud or shared, tongue-in-cheek, their relief at not having to do weekend chores or take a shower.

The top trends on Twitter at midday included "end- oftheworldconfessions," at No. 1, followed by "myraptureplaylist."

As 6 p.m. approached in California, about 100 people gathered outside Family Radio Worldwide headquarters in Oakland, although it appeared none of the believers of the prophecy were among them. Camping's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website are controlled from a modest building sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader's business.

Camping has preached that some 200 million people would be saved, and that those left behind would die in a series of scourges until the globe is consumed by a fireball on Oct. 21.

As Saturday drew nearer, followers reported that donations grew, allowing Family Radio to spend millions on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the doomsday message. In 2009, the non-profit reported that it received $18.3 million in donations and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.

Early today, a magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck near a group of South Pacific islands about 600 miles off New Zealand, but there were no reports of damage or tsunami risks.

A much smaller earthquake also was recorded at 7:05 p.m. Saturday in the San Francisco Bay Area. There were no reports that the minor magnitude-3.6 temblor caused damage.

Believers' reactions to unfulfilled doomsday

Believers' reactions mixed to unfulfilled doomsday

Posted 5/22/2011 8:11 AM ET

By Garance Burke, Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. — The hour of the apocalypse came quietly and went the same way -- leaving those who believed that Saturday evening would mark the world's end confused, or more faithful, or just philosophical.

Believers had spent months warning the world of the pending cataclysm. Some had given away earthly belongings. Others took long journeys to be with loved ones. And there were those who drained their savings accounts.

All were responding to the May 21 doomsday message by Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction.

"I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," said Keith Bauer -- who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture.

He started his day in the bright morning sun outside the gated Camping's Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International.

"I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth," said Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver who began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen."

According to Camping, the destruction was likely to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones, although some believers said Saturday the exact timing was never written in stone.

He had been projecting the apocalyptic prediction for years far and wide via broadcasts and websites.

In New York's Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when the six o'clock hour simply came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.

"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."

Many followers said the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith.

"It's still May 21 and God's going to bring it," said Family Radio's special projects coordinator Michael Garcia, who spent Saturday morning praying and drinking two last cups of coffee with his wife at home in Alameda. "When you say something and it doesn't happen, your pride is what's hurt. But who needs pride? God said he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble."

The Internet was alive with discussion, humorous or not, about the end of the world and its apparent failure to occur on cue. Many tweets declared Camping's prediction a dud or shared, tongue-in-cheek, their relief at not having to do weekend chores or take a shower.

The top trends on Twitter at midday included, at No. 1, "endofworldconfessions," followed by "myraptureplaylist."

As 6 p.m. approached in California, some 100 people gathered outside Family Radio International headquarters in Oakland, although it appeared none of the believers of the prophecy were among them. Camping's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website are controlled from a modest building sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader's business.

Christian leaders from across the spectrum widely dismissed the prophecy, and members of a local church concerned followers could slip into a deep depression come Sunday were part of the crowd outside Family Radio International. They held signs declaring Camping a false prophet as motorists drove by.

"The cold, hard reality is going to hit them that they did this, and it was false and they basically emptied out everything to follow a false teacher," the Rev. Jacob Denys, of the Milpitas-based Calvary Bible Church, said earlier. "We're not all about doom and gloom. Our message is a message of salvation and of hope."

About a dozen people in a partying mood were also outside Family Radio International, creating a carnival-like atmosphere as they strolled in a variety costumes that portrayed monks, Jesus Christ and other figures.

"Am I relieved? Yeah. I've got a lot going on," Peter Erwin, a student from Oakland, said, with a hint of sarcasm. "Trying to get specific about the end of the world is crazy."

Revelers counted down the seconds before the anticipated hour, and people began dancing to music as the clock struck 6 p.m. Some released shoe-shaped helium balloons into the sky in an apparent reference to the Rapture.

Camping has preached that some 200 million people would be saved, and that those left behind would die in a series of scourges visiting Earth until the globe is consumed by a fireball on Oct. 21.

Family Radio International's message has been broadcast in 61 languages. He has said that his earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994 didn't come true because of a mathematical error.

"I'm not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature," he told The Associated Press last month. But this time, he said, "there is ... no possibility that it will not happen."

As Saturday drew nearer, followers reported that donations grew, allowing Family Radio to spend millions on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the doomsday message. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.

Marie Exley, who helped put up apocalypse-themed billboards in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, said the money allowed the nonprofit to reach as many souls as possible.

She said she and her husband, mother and brother read the Bible and stayed close to the television news on Friday night awaiting word of an earthquake in the southern hemisphere. When that did not happen, she said fellow believers began reaching out to reassure one another of their faith.

"Some people were saying it was going to be an earthquake at that specific time in New Zealand and be a rolling judgment, but God is keeping us in our place and saying you may know the day but you don't know the hour," she said Saturday, speaking from Bozeman, Mont. "The day is not over, it's just the morning, and we have to endure until the end."

Still, the world wasn't without its normal and sometimes dreadful disturbances Saturday. Among them: a tornado killed one person and damaged at least 20 homes in Kansas, a 6.1-magnitude quake stuck 600 miles off New Zealand with no reports of injury, a much smaller quake, 3.6, was felt my many people Saturday evening in the San Francisco Bay area, and Iceland's most active volcano started erupting.

Camping, who lives few miles from his radio station, was not home late morning Saturday, and an additional attempt to seek comment from him late in the evening also was unsuccessful, with no one answering his front door.

Earlier in the day, Sheila Doan, 65, Camping's next-door-neighbor of 40 years, was outside gardening and said the worldwide spotlight on his May 21 forecast has attracted far more attention than the 1994 prediction.

Doan said she is a Christian and while she respects her neighbor, she doesn't share his views.

"I wouldn't consider Mr. Camping a close friend and wouldn't have him over for dinner or anything, but if he needs anything, we are there for him," Doan said.

___

Associated Press reporters Terry Chea in Oakland, Don Babwin in Chicago, Mike Householder in Detroit, Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, David R. Martin in New York and video journalist Haven Daley in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Garance Burke can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/garanceburke

Rapture believers don't go anywhere

In the end, rapture believers weren't going anywhere

By Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times

May 22, 2011

Sue Espinoza was planted before the television, awaiting news of her father's now infamous prediction: cataclysmic earthquakes auguring the end of humanity.

God's wrath was supposed to begin in New Zealand and then race across the globe, leaving millions of bodies wherever the clock struck 6 p.m. But the hours ticked by, and New Zealand survived. Time zone by time zone, the apocalypse failed to materialize.

On Saturday morning, Espinoza, 60, received a phone call from her father, Harold Camping, the 89-year-old Oakland preacher who has spent some $100 million — and countless hours on his radio and TV show — announcing May 21 as Judgment Day. "He just said, 'I'm a little bewildered that it didn't happen, but it's still May 21 [in the United States],'" Espinoza said, standing in the doorway of her Alameda home. "It's going to be May 21 from now until midnight."

But to others who put stock in Camping's prophecy, disillusionment was already profound by late morning. To them, it was clear the world and its woes would make it through the weekend.

Keith Bauer, a 38-year-old tractor-trailer driver from Westminster, Md., took last week off from work, packed his wife, young son and a relative in their SUV and crossed the country.

If it was his last week on Earth, he wanted to see parts of it he'd always heard about but missed, such as the Grand Canyon. With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief.

On Saturday morning, Bauer was parked in front of the Oakland headquarters of Camping's Family Radio empire, half expecting to see an angry mob of disenchanted believers howling for the preacher's head. The office was closed, and the street was mostly deserted save for journalists.

Bauer said he was not bitter. "Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see the country," he said. "If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me."

Tom Evans, who acted as Camping's PR aide in recent months, took his family to Ohio to await the rapture. Early next week, he said, he would be returning to California.

"You can imagine we're pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true," he said. "We obviously went too far, and that's something we need to learn from."

Despite the failure of Camping's prediction, however, he said he might continue working for him.

"As bad as it appears—and there's no getting around it, it is bad, flat-out—I have not found anything close to the faithfulness of Family Radio," he said.

Others had risked a lot more on Camping's prediction, quitting jobs, abandoning relationships, volunteering months of their time to spread the word. Matt Tuter, the longtime producer of Camping's radio and television call-in show, said Saturday that he expected there to be "a lot of angry people" as reality proved Camping wrong.

Tuter said Family Radio's AM station in Sacramento had been "severely vandalized" Friday night or Saturday morning, with air conditioning units yanked out and $25,000 worth of copper stripped from the equipment. He thinks it must have been an angry listener. He was off Saturday but planned to drive past the headquarters "and make sure nothing's burning."

Camping himself, who has given innumerable interviews in recent months, was staying out of sight Saturday. No one answered the door at his Alameda home, though neighbors said he was there.

By late afternoon, a small crowd had gathered in front of Camping's Oakland headquarters. There were atheists blowing up balloons in human form, which were released into the sky just after 6 p.m. in a mockery of the rapture. Someone played a CD of "The End" by the Doors, amid much laughter.

There were also Christians, like James Bynum, a 45-year-old deacon at Calvary Baptist Church in Milpitas, holding signs that declared Harold Camping a false prophet. He said he was there to comfort disillusioned believers.

"Harold Camping will never hand out poisoned Kool-Aid," Bynum said. "It's not that kind of a cult. But he has set up a system that will destroy some people's lives."

christopher.goffard@latimes.com

Rapture fails to roll

Bay Area rocks, Rapture fails to roll

By Janis Mara

Contra Costa Times

OAKLAND -- If the universe started with a big bang, Saturday's non-rapture qualifies as a big whimper -- or maybe just a big bust.

Though the tremendous earthquake and ascension into heaven of the faithful predicted by doomsday prophet Harold Camping did not happen, there were lessons to be learned from the most-hyped nonevent since Y2K.

"For those who were invested in this prediction, their world did end Saturday," said the Rev. Jeremy Nickel, the minister at Fremont's Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation. "They thought they were going to heaven, and they didn't. They may have donated all their money. They're going to be in a world of hurt."

Billboards guaranteeing the end of the world Saturday were almost as ubiquitous as Starbucks outlets in the Bay Area and the world and just as galvanizing to followers, who donated more than $100 million over the past seven years and drove RVs all over the United States to alert people of the coming rapture. Oakland-based Family Radio, with 66 radio stations across the globe, continued to broadcast prerecorded gospel talk Saturday, though its website was down.

The Alameda home of Harold Camping, president of Family Radio, was deserted Saturday, and he was not answering his phone.

Though things heated up later, the only pilgrims at the station's Hegenberger Road office Saturday morning were media and Keith Bauer -- who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the rapture.

"I had some skepticism, but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," he said in the bright morning sun. "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth."

Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the rapture did happen." After seeing the nonprofit ministry's base of operations, Bauer planned to take a day trip to the Pacific Ocean, and then start the cross-country drive back home Sunday with his wife, young son and another relative.

Meanwhile, in downtown Oakland about 200 atheists attended the American Atheists convention commemorating (mostly mocking) the rapture.

"Here's the takeaway," said Richard Hodill, of San Mateo, who staffed the registration table at the atheist convention. "Learn to be a discriminating and critical thinker. Base your life on evidence-based reasoning. Religion exploits people to their detriment."

Indeed, the ever-irreverant Bay Area reacted to the non-rapture in its own fashion, with End of the World garage sales, a zombie crawl to raise money for Oakland libraries and a gathering Saturday afternoon at Family Radio headquarters that was a cross between a Raiders tailgate party and a Grateful Dead parking lot celebration.

After a slow beginning to the day, activity at the headquarters picked up in the evening. About 20 members of Calvary Bible Church of Milpitas made a presentation offering support to any of Camping's followers left distraught by the nonfulfillment of the prophecy.

As evangelists preached, the Phenomenauts, a local band, flew helium-filled adult blow-up dolls on fishing poles while the media recorded the event.

Other observances were a bit more tame.

"What better place to observe the rapture than in a bar with a drink in your hand?" said Rebecca Auerbach, who organized a party at Jerry's Cocktail Lounge in her Richmond neighborhood.

Less than a mile from Camping's Alameda home, a UC Berkeley anthropology graduate student held a rapture moving sale, advertising on Craigslist: "If you are not planning on getting raptured tomorrow, then you might need some stuff."

"I think people are still into private possessions," said Mather, who declined to give her last name. "The sale went great. I'm feeling lighter already, although I'm not levitating anywhere."

There was a happy resolution in Boyes Hot Springs, a town near Sonoma, where a Family Radio believer William Tinker relinquished his cockatoo, Senegal parrot and cat to a county animal control officer. Tinker had threatened to kill his pets in advance of Judgment Day, but with the help of the Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, he turned his pets over to authorities, said rescue volunteer Vincent Hrovat.

There was one thing Christians and Muslims, Unitarians and Catholics all seemed to agree upon with regard to Camping's prediction.

"In my view it just doesn't square with Biblical revelation, which clearly suggests that according to the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel we neither know the day nor the hour that the end times will begin," said Gregory Chisholm, pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Oakland.

"So if one were really trying to help people prepare for the end times, one would counsel people to minister to the sick and feed the hungry and visit those who are in prison, because that's exactly what the Lord says to do," Chisholm said.

A Muslim spiritual leader agreed.

"Our understanding is the same as the Christian understanding in the Bible. No man knows when the end will come," said Khurram Shah, president of the Contra Costa County chapter of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Bay Point.

Given that Camping already unsuccessfully predicted the end of the world in 1994, Shah's words seemed to ring true.

"I don't think people should live in fear. If I didn't think positive, I wouldn't be able to do what I do," said Lisa Guichard, who has been Camping's neighbor for more than 50 years. Guichard is a special-education teacher at Oakland High School, working with severely handicapped children.

"I grew up with the Campings. They are hardworking people, and I respect his Biblical scholarship," said Guichard, standing at the gate of her home. "But I don't necessarily think in such apocalyptic terms.

"If you live every day to its fullest and do the right thing, when the world ends, you'll be all right."

Staff writer Matthias Gafni and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Janis Mara at 510-301-8373. Follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/jmara.

Chrisitan nut jobs ‘flabbergasted’ world didn’t end

Mon May 23, 11:25 am ET

Doomsday prophet, followers ‘flabbergasted’ world didn’t end

By Liz Goodwin liz Goodwin – Mon May 23, 11:25 am ET

It's hard to feel bad for someone whose doomsday predictions caused so much anxiety, but 89-year-old Harold Camping's recent admission that he's "flabbergasted" the world didn't end last weekend sounds somewhat pitiful.

"It has been a really tough weekend," Camping said Sunday, after emerging from his Alameda, California home for the first time to talk to a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle. "I'm looking for answers ... But now I have nothing else to say," he said, adding that he would make a full statement today.

Camping's PR aide, Tom Evans, told the L.A. Times that the group is "disappointed" that 200 million true believers weren't lifted up to heaven on Saturday while everyone else suffered and eventually died as a series of earthquakes and famine destroyed the Earth. "You can imagine we're pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true," [ Yea, if you believe the word of God is true, I have some land I would like to sell you in Florida! ] Evans said. "We obviously went too far, and that's something we need to learn from." [ OK, here is your lesson - God is bunk! God is superstition! God is make believe! God is a fairy tale! ] The group posted 2,000 billboards around the country warning of the rapture, while Camping--an uncertified fundamentalist minister--spread the word on his radio show.

Camping's Family Radio, which airs on 66 U.S. stations, has apparently rebranded itself quickly. Business Insider notes that the station's website has scrubbed all mentions of the Judgment Day. The site previously featured a countdown clock to the May 21 rapture on its homepage.

But the false prediction might not be so easily effaced from the lives of Camping's followers. The L.A. Times writes that Keith Bauer, a 38-year-old tractor trailer driver, took a road trip with his family to see the Grand Canyon before the world ended.

"With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief," the paper writes.

But Bauer is not angry at Camping for his false prediction. "Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see the country," he told the paper. "If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me." [ Well at least he got that right! He was sucker in and could have prevented it by using a little common sense! ]

Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent $140,000 of his life savings to advertise the rapture in New York, said he was dumbfounded when life went on as usual Saturday.

"I do not understand why ...," he told Reuters while awaiting the event in Times Square. "I do not understand why nothing has happened."

An NPR reporter talked to two Camping followers on Sunday. "One man, his voice quavering, said he was still holding out hope that they were one day off. Another believer asserted that their prayers worked: God delayed judgment so that more people could be saved, but the end is 'imminent,'" she reported.

Evans, Camping's PR aide, told NPR he hopes Family Radio will reimburse followers who spent their savings in anticipation of the rapture, but that he can't guarantee it.

Protesters gathered outside Camping's radio headquarters to mock the false prophecy over the weekend. Some of them set aloft a toy cow with balloons to lampoon the idea that a select elite would ascend to heaven. Meanwhile, other religious groups tried to recruit disappointed Camping followers.

God changed his mind - New day is October 21

Source

World is still ending - but not until Oct. 21, preacher says

May. 23, 2011 06:41 PM

Associated Press

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- California preacher Harold Camping said Monday his prophecy that the world would end was off by five months because Judgment Day actually will come on October 21.

Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before the Earth was destroyed, said he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions -- some of it from donations made by followers -- on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.

But Camping said that he's now realized the apocalypse will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. He had earlier said Oct. 21 was when the globe would be consumed by a fireball.

It's not the first time the independent Christian radio host has been forced to explain when his prediction didn't come to pass. He also predicted the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but said it didn't happen then because of a mathematical error.

Rather than give his normal daily broadcast on Monday, Camping made a special statement before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire that has broadcast his message. His show, "Open Forum," has for months headlined his doomsday message via the group's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website.

When the Rapture didn't arrive Saturday, crestfallen followers began turning their attention to more earthly concerns.

Jeff Hopkins had figured the gas money he spent driving back and forth from Long Island to New York City would be worth it, as long as people could see the ominous sign atop his car warning that the End of the World was nigh.

"I've been mocked and scoffed and cursed at and I've been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of my car," said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in Great River, NY. "I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face." Apocalyptic thinking has always been part of American religious life and popular culture. Teachings about the end of the world vary dramatically -- even within faith traditions -- about how they will occur.

Still, the overwhelming majority of Christians reject the idea that the exact date or time of Jesus' return can be predicted.

Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels about the end times, recently called Camping's prediction "not only bizarre but 100 percent wrong!" He cited the bible verse Matthew 24:36, 'but about that day or hour no one knows" except God.

"While it may be in the near future, many signs of our times certainly indicate so, but anyone who thinks they 'know' the day and the hour is flat out wrong," LaHaye wrote on hiswebsite, leftbehind.com.

In 2009, the nonprofit Family Radio reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.