Thanks for the link, moshe!
Harold Camping's Kingdom Hall
by moshe 26 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
moshe
JWs, Family Radio dupes, Baptists, Catholics, even some Jews, are all waiting for something to come from heaven to make things right on Earth. They are all alike in that way.
-
wannabefree
Monday, May 23, 2011 6:56 AM EDT
Birds of the same feather: Harold Camping, William Miller and Charles Taze Russell
By Carl BaghDoomsday prophet Harold Camping's failed rapture theory was a product of numerical manipulation which is based on the assumption that Biblical numbers contain encoded spiritual truths.
Camping's outrageous claim that May 21 was the chosen date for the Second Coming of Jesus now stands refuted. He predicted that the day would be punctuated with a massive earthquake and the heavenly transport (rapture) of 200 million believers. The U.S. Geological Society proved the quake claim bogus and a global census is sure to discredit the latter.
Harold Camping, a civil engineer who graduated from UC Berkeley, bewitched his clan of followers by applying abstract math to his apocalyptic madness which is similar to what other naysayers like the founders of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah Witness had used.
The Seventh-day Adventist had its roots in the "Millerite" movement which was started by William Miller in the 19th century. Religionfacts records that Miller had predicted that the Second Coming of Jesus would take place between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He based his calculation on the book of Daniel 8:14 which reads "And he said onto me, unto 2,300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Miller concluded that 2,300 days alluded to 2,300 years and the "cleansing of the sanctuary" to the second coming of Jesus. Miller believed that the countdown began in 457 B.C.
Similarly the founder of Jehovah Witness movement Charles Taze Russell had predicted that Jesus would return in 1914. Jehovahwitnesstruth explains Russell's theory as being based on 2,520 day calculation. He based his theory on Daniel 4:23-25 according to which he arrived at the date of 607 B.C as the foundation date. The date marked the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel stated that the destruction would continue for "seven times". Russell argues that "three and half times" equals 1260 days (Rev 12: 6, 14). Thus "seven times" equals 2520 days. Applying the "one day is equal to thousand years" (2 Peter 3:8) logic it translates into 2520 years with the probable date being 1914 A.D.
Harold Camping the 21st century prophet also worked on similar lines. Camping's theory is based on Noah's flood which according to him occurred in 4990 B.C. He based his theory on Genesis 7:6 -10 which according to which God had warned Noah that rains would start seven days from the day he enters into the ark. He uses the same logic of "one day is equal to thousand years" and converts the seven day period to 7,000 days. Thus calculating from 4990 B.C onwards the D-Day falls on May 21, 2011.
The irony of the failed theories by Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah Witness' is that the movement still continues to flourish with followers across the globe. Camping's goof-up comes after similar botched prediction in 1994. However, 17 years later Camping still has ardent followers which underscores that such movements don't die.
IBTimes reported earlier that the false prophet would make a public statement on Monday in a "public forum" explaining why he had predicted May 21, 2011 as the Judgment Day and why it had failed. And while the world awaits an explanation from the soothsayer maybe he will be able to buy time by throwing another mathematical puzzle at the "end-of-days" obsessed followers.
-
wannabefree
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2072748,00.html
Friday, May. 20, 2011
Apocalypse Weekend: Harold Camping Says the World Ends Saturday. He's Said that Before
By Kayla Webley
In a comfortable office, Bible placed firmly atop his lap, 89-year-old Harold Camping is preaching with utter certainty about the end of the world. "May 21, 2011, is the day of judgment," he says with conviction, in a YouTube video posted last year. "It is the day that ends all gospel salvation activity ... It is the most important day by a billion times than any other day the world has ever known." On that day, Camping estimates roughly 207 million people, or about 3% of the world's population, will be plucked from the earth. What will follow is five months of earthquakes and other calamities until the world officially ends on Oct. 21 of this year.
Like all who proselytize the end the world, Camping has spread his message using a small army of followers; in his case, they're supported by a substantial budget that by some estimates is more than $100 million. There have been stories in the media of families selling their homes, quitting their jobs and budgeting their finances such that by May 21 they will be left with nothing. After all, they won't need it, right? (See photos of the cinematic vision of the apocalypse.)
But Camping has been wrong before. The former engineer, who started the Family Radio network in 1958, predicted in 1992 that the world would end in September 1994. (He also wrote a book, titled 1994?, along the same lines.) When the apocalypse failed to materialize, Camping cited a mathematical error and re-emerged with a new date: May 21, 2011. Despite dubious evidence to support it, the current campaign has garnered a surprising number of followers, who hand out pamphlets, broadcast his message from the backs of trucks and plaster it on billboards nationwide — a fact that Paul Boyer, a historian at the University of Wisconsin who studies apocalyptic beliefs, attributes to Camping's radio voice. "He has a very compelling manner of speaking," Boyer says. "He speaks with conviction and there's a certain percentage of people who will respond to that sort of belief."
Throughout history, movements like these have sprung up, especially in times of war or economic and political instability. "When you think your world is going to hell in a handbasket, it's comforting to say, 'The world is bad, but God will take me out of this,'" says Doug Weaver, an associate professor of religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, who teaches the history of Christianity. To that end, apocalyptic movements have surfaced in almost every era of chaos: following the Great Fire of London in 1666, for example, or during the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s. The outbreak of World War I unleashed a torrent of end-of-the-world predictions: Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, predicted the second coming of Christ would occur in 1914, which he said would mark the end of time for nonbelievers. (See how May 21, 2011, was calculated to be Judgment Day.)
The most famous example might be that of William Miller, a Baptist preacher who predicted the world would come to an end sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. (When the end didn't arrive on time, he changed the date to Oct. 22.) It's been estimated that as many as 100,000 "Millerites" sold their belongings between 1840 and 1844 and took to the mountains to wait for the end. "It fits into a cult mentality," Weaver says. "That it's O.K. to escape and take flight. It's a very escapist version of religion, but some people are very afraid to die and it's a very powerful thing to feel as though you are on the winning side." Indeed, when Miller's prophecy proved false, his followers explained it away, saying the event did in fact occur — we just didn't notice anything because it only happened in heaven and not on earth — and went on to form the Seventh-Day Adventist movement.
But while history is littered with failed predictions of the apocalypse, that's no reason to think it might not be just around the corner. In fact, a 2010 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 41% of Americans believe Jesus will return to the earth before 2050. Many Christians firmly believe in the Rapture, which is when the faithful will be swept up from earth into heaven, thus avoiding the seven plagues that herald the end of the world.
While the Bible affirms that belief, it does not endorse date setting. "I don't think there is any kind of clear indication in any part of the Bible that can be used for a road map or calendar to try to plot when the end times might happen," says R. Scott Nash, a Bible scholar in the department of Christianity at Mercer University in Georgia. Attempts to set a date generally string together various passages from scripture and completely ignore the context in which they were written. Camping, for example, bases his complex calculations on Jesus having been crucified in 33 A.D. But Nash, like many Biblical scholars, thinks the crucifixion actually happened three or four years earlier — meaning that even if what Camping is preaching were true, the end should have come as early as 2007. (See why believers will grow stronger even if the world doesn't end.)
So what does the Bible say about preparing for the end? Basically, be on your guard: "Ye know not on what day your Lord will come," as Matthew 24: 42 puts it. "The Bible teaches followers to wait expectantly," says Kathy Maxwell, assistant professor of biblical and theological studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. "We're not supposed to be quitting our jobs, selling our stuff and moving onto compounds to wait, we're supposed to be taking care of people and contributing to society."
As for Weaver, when asked what he expects to be doing on May 22, he said he plans to go to church in the morning and jump on a trampoline with his grandson in the afternoon. Later in the day he plans to watch the Yankees game, which if they continue playing poorly, he says, will be the only way he will suffer that day.
-
moshe
Thank you WBF- for the article.
-
sd-7
Great post! And Great Scot!!!! It's like the past is repeating itself!!
--sd-7
-
startingover
The similarities are sure there. Thanks for the posts.
But did those first 2 articles get the facts straight about Russell? My understanding is that he said the Jesus returned in 1874 and that 1914 would mark the end.
-
smiddy
Starting over you are right on the ball
He said Christs invisible presence began in 1874 and that all the kingdoms of the world would be destroyed by God in 1914
smiddy
-
moshe
But did those first 2 articles get the facts straight about Russell? My understanding is that he said the Jesus returned in 1874 and that 1914 would mark the end.
For JW to prove that article was wrong, they have to provide the proof of what was actually printed- How many JWs want or can do that? - for a JW to disprove an incorrect WT story detail, it's like Saddam Hussein trying to prove he didn't have any buried WMDs.
-
startingover
I sent 2 of those articles to a JW friend, pointing out that they made mistakes regarding Russell, and asked if he could identify them. Haven't got any response as of yet and I doubt I will. There are few JW's that actually know the history. Or care.
