The world will end (again) on Friday night

StephenW

                    The world will end (again) on Friday night                                                            October 17, 2011 - 10:39AM        

                                                                            Predicting the end of the world ... Harold Camping. Photo: Reuters
        
                            Newsflash: The world will end on Friday night.

• Who is Harold Camping?
  

            This shocking prediction comes from US Christian broadcaster Harold Camping, the same man who said the world would end on May 21 - and also on September 6, 1994.
            We're still here, he believes, because on May 21 only God's true believers were "withheld" while the rest of us were left to be under "final judgment" for the next five months.
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            In a rambling explanation posted on the website for the 90-year-old's California-based radio station, Family Radio, he said earthquakes were known to be an important sign of impending Judgment Day.
            And in fact - try and keep up here - May 21 itself was a kind of earthquake of mankind, he said.
            "All of mankind was shaken with fear. Indeed the earth [or mankind] did quake in a way it had never before been shaken," Mr Camping wrote.
            "God had come spiritually to bring judgment upon the whole world."
            He went on to write that "universal judgment" would not be physically felt until the end of the five-month judgment period, which is October 21.
            "Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved [the elect], are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011, on the last day of the present five months period.
            "On that day the true believers [the elect] will be raptured. We must remember that only God knows who His elect are that He saved prior to May 21.
            "You, too, without your knowledge may have become saved before that date. Anyone can continue to beseech God for mercy because salvation and the election program are entirely in God's hands."
            Get it? Neither do some of his fellow Christians.
            Glenn Lee Hill, a retired pastor from North Carolina, has rejected Mr Camping's latest predictions.
            "That is an erroneous prophecy, I don't believe the world is about to end. Jesus has provided the choice for people to live forever," Mr Hill told The Christian Post.
            "The late night comics tend to make fun of Christians anyway and when this happens it gives them an opportunity to mock us."
            When Mr Camping made the prediction in May, groups of followers quit their jobs and gave up their retirement funds to spread the word about the apocalypse.
            Groups of followers still believe in him, with some continuing to  spread the message in neon RVs, according to The Daily.
            Just months ago, after suffering a stroke, Mr Camping appeared unsure about his predictions.
            "I really am beginning to think as I restudied these matters that there's going to be no big display of any kind,” he said in an audio address quoted by The Washington Post.
            "The end is going to come very, very quietly."
            smh.com.au
   


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