As in “business as usual.” The world ends 21OCT, but at least the annoying Xtianists will be gone WELL before then. Prediction of my own: the billboards will quietly disappear, or be humorously “updated.”
The fans of Family Radio Inc., a Christian radio network, have sponsored dozens of different billboards in select cities around the country proclaiming the exact date when Jesus is coming back.
May 21st, 2011.
You know, just like the Bible “predicted.”
Via Friendly Atheist
If they’re so sure that it’s going to happen on that date … will they leave regardless of if it happens or not?
I’d pay real money if they would.
[...] to Ginny for the link. AKPC_IDS += "1282,";Popularity: [...]
I hope so.
1 Thessalonians Chapter 5:4
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
For this context I prefer Thomas Jefferson’s version of the New Testament, with all the miracles, magical thinking, and superstition stripped out of it. Makes it sound like the “tribulation” in this passage refers more to some kind of disaster about to fall on the Jewish people similar to Noah’s flood… or like when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple after the time of Jesus.
Stamping Out Harold Camping
I don’t care a fig for date-setters, especially those who predict when Christ will return. The current champion is 89-year-old, headline-grabbing Harold Camping of Family Radio fame.
Is Second Coming date-setter Harold Camping worthy of death? He already has a zero batting average after his September 1994 prediction fizzle and, according to the Bible, is a false prophet.
Nevertheless that California shaman, who should be ashamed, claims he’s found out that Christ’s return will be on May 21, 2011 even though Matt. 24:36 says that no one knows the “day” or “hour” of it!
A Google article (“Obama Fulfilling the Bible”) points out that “Deut. 18:20-22 in the Old Testament requires the death penalty for false prophets.”
The same article reveals that “Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note ‘taken away’).”
Theologically radioactive Harold Camping and his ga-ga groupies (with their billboards featuring “May 21, 2011″) should worry about being “stamped out” if many persons decide to follow the I Cor. 5 command.
The above article concludes: “False prophets in the OT were stoned to death. Today they are just stoned!”
PS – For many years Camping was not known as a pretrib rapture teacher. But now, for $ome my$teriou$ rea$on, he seeks support from those who believe in and teach an imminent, pretrib rapture which supposedly will occur SEVERAL YEARS BEFORE the traditional SECOND COMING to earth! For a behind-the-scenes, documented look at the 181-year-old pretrib rapture belief (which was never a part of any official theology or organized church before 1830!), Google “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty,” “Pretrib Rapture Diehards” and “Pretrib Rapture – Hidden Facts.” These are from the pen of journalist/historian Dave MacPherson a.k.a the “Pretrib Rapture Answerman” & the “Rush Limbaugh of the Rapture” – author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot,” an “encyclopedia” of pretrib rapture history (see Armageddon Books).
These people are trying to save you from the fate ofthe unsaved:
Jeremiah 25:33
And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
Sorry, Rev Fred, in my opinion the concept of the Rapture is religious hysteria at its worst. It’s one of the things that make non-Christians think Christians are kind of weird and to be avoided. It totally conflicts with Jesus’ actions, too: He didn’t pick and choose a select elite of people to be saved or healed or raised from the dead… he saved, healed or raised poor people, the ritually unclean, the socially unacceptable, and funny-looking short guys who climbed trees just to catch a glimpse of Him.
I think it’s an unbiblical late addition cobbled together by unscrupulous leaders from a bunch of different texts, in order to stir up gullible people and achieve power and prestige in THIS world, not be “saved” for the next world.
The end of the world has been proclaimed and the faithful gathered together so many times, by so many different charismatic doomsayers, that it’s literally hard to believe.
It seems as if another group has entered the billboard wars in Camping’s/Family Radio’s back yard of Oakland, CA. They are disputing Camping’s claims with a compelling message of “Jesus is already here.” Here’s the billboard photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62779138@N08/57080636
Ask most Christians how many they thing are truly saved. Around here many would guess about %10.
So..
Jesus saves, but he also burns and torturers in the lake of fire forever.
Nine times out of ten Jesus is here to burn you forever for your sins.
That’s the kind of God you serve and worship. It’s no wonder the Bible says most of the world will try to kill him in the battle of Armageddon. Imagine if we were able to kill the butcher. What a wonderful world we could have without people being cast into hell.
Reincarnation seems a whole lot better, when you compute the high cost of Jesus’s ‘LOVE’.