The Doomsday prophets strike again

May 21, 2011 Editorial

There is a group of individuals who have been going around the world preaching the end of the world. They started in a small community in the United States and eventually reached Guyana.
The group that came to Guyana comprised some Guyanese, Trinidadians and a few Americans. We learnt of them from a news report out of New Amsterdam. The report stated that this group succeeded in putting the fear of death into the hearts of many Berbicians.
What we found surprising was that there were similar groups in the United States preaching the same message. It was a message of earthquakes and other natural disasters all of which foretell the end of the world.
The group preaching the destruction represents a body called Judgement Day. It listed a catalogue of events leading to today’s destruction of the world.
33 AD—The year Jesus Christ was crucified and the church age began (11,045 years from creation; 5023 calendar years from the flood).
1988 AD—This year ended the church age and began the great tribulation period of 23 years (13,000 years from creation).
2011 AD—On May 21st, Judgment Day will begin and the rapture (the taking up into heaven of God’s elect people) will occur at the end of the 23-year great tribulation. On October 21st, the world will be destroyed by fire (7000 years from the flood; 13,023 years from creation).
The newspaper, The Independent, reported “the end of the world is nigh; 21 May, to be precise. That’s the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is confidently predicting the Second Coming of the Lord.
“At about 6pm, he reckons 2 per cent of the world’s population will be immediately “raptured” to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.”
This message is ubiquitous because Harold Camping is on television, on radio, has his own newspaper and minions to spread his word. This man owns 66 radio stations, has assets of US$120 million courtesy of generous listeners, and about 2,000 billboards proclaiming this message that the world ends today.
Harold Camping, other newspapers have noted, have been wrong before so there is little belief among the majority that they will not be here tomorrow when the sun rises. Yet the fact that many of us are paying attention to the ravings of 89-year-old Harold Camping is because we are fascinated with anything futuristic. Death is one of them.
What is amazing is that there has not been a mass movement by people to give away what they have since Mr Camping says that they will not be here in another few hours. People have gone to work as usual; no one has gone to the banks in their numbers and there is no assembly. In Guyana there will be no suicide pact as was the case in Neville Shute’s doomsday novel, On the Beach.
Yet we would not be surprised to hear of some untoward behaviour in the run up to the hour when according to Camping the world will end. There are people who are gullible enough to believe any prediction.
What is strange is the fatalistic attitude that some people adopt. For as long as man has been on earth there were those who have been preaching doomsday. There have been people who shouted doomsday from the roof tops and when the dreaded hour passed, they simply faded away, only to resurrect with another doomsday prediction and another bunch of followers.
The Independent writes, “Mr Camping’s argument has convinced Adam Larsen, 32, from Kansas. He is among scores of “ambassadors” who have quit their jobs to drive around America in Family Radio vehicles warning of the impending apocalypse.
“My favourite pastime is raccoon hunting,” Mr Larsen told CNN. “I’ve had to give that up. But this task is far more important.”
Mr Camping contends that the earthquake in Japan was a sign of the beginning of the end. So too are the floods that ravage various countries, including the United States. It would be most interesting in Guyana if there is a sudden downpour of unnatural intensity today. Many a scoffer would panic.
But there is one thing that is a little confusing. If Mr Camping says that the world would end 6:00 pm California time, that would be 9:00 pm in Guyana. The time would be different in other parts of the world. Mr Camping might not have considered that when he came up with his folly.

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