Counting Down

I'm curious as to what will happen come May 22nd, 2011. Mainly since the world is (once again) scheduled to end on May 21st, based upon the "Biblical Calendar of Time, according to the classified ad that Family Radio placed in the local newspaper. And the internet banner ads that they've been placing. You have to give them credit for going all out.

Of course, if this time, the apocalypticists are correct, May 22nd will never come (in a manner of speaking), and Family Radio will be vindicated. But even within the segment of the Christian community that believes that we're currently living in the End Times, theirs is a minority view - presumably because each group has its own understanding of when the End of the World will occur, and a certain level of conviction that they, and they alone, have it right.

Given that I, personally, am fairly confident that this will simply be another iteration of the "Great Disappointment," I feel kind of badly for these people. It's hard to make a case for hedging one's bet on something like this, and so many, if not all, of them are likely to be completely unprepared for still being on Earth come Sunday morning.

I've asked a dozen of Camping's followers the same question. Everyone said even entertaining the possibility that May 21 would come and go without event is an offense to God.

(This stands out for me. The possibility that their leader, whom, I suspect, is only Human, might have gotten this wrong "is an offense to God," seems a bit much. I find it interesting that despite the active research that Harold Camping put into coming up with this date, it's being treated as if it were a passive process, where God simply told him what would happen, so doubting it is tantamount to questioning God's honesty.) They'll be fortunate if the inevitable (and likely quite mean-spirited, given what we're already seeing) public ridicule that will greet them is the worst of their problems.