I know that there’s no way anyone could know an exact number (or closer than a ballpark educated guess backed up by certain numbers) of how many human beings believed with 51% or greater fervency/conviction that May 21st 2011 would truly be the end of the world. But there are certain numbers that I believe may have been cited somewhere, I just don’t know where to look, of things like
a) how many people were photographed/filmed/seen by the public holding up signs declaring the May 21st Apocalypse?
b) Are there officials numbers for how many people registered with Camping/Family Radio Christian Network on some kind of Rapture Log or List of Believers?
c) You can find citations for a handful of people who spent significant money/went a significant distance supporting Camping’s idea. I already know of these citations, but I’d like more examples (and let’s try not to mention the 14 year old girl in Russia who allegedly committed suicide over the prediction ).
d) Are there official/cited numbers of how many people quit their jobs/et al over the prediction?
That last poll continued with a set of questions regarding whether the respondent believed themselves, Obama, or Sarah Palin would be raptured. 66% believed they themselves would be raptured, 13% believed they would not, and 21% were not sure, which seems the most theologically sound choice to me.
Wasn’t even on my radar; and I was a fan of Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth series when it first came out. I believe the most respected authority on the subject said “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”.
Also, my understanding is that “Judgement Day” is referring to literally after the end of the universe, when preparatory to a new creation those salvaged from this universe are kept and the rejects tossed.
Harold Camping claimed that those quotes from Jesus in the Gospels referred only to a certain period of time:
" Camping and his followers responded that this principle applied only during the “church age” or pre-Tribulation period and did not apply to the present day, citing other verses (such as 1 Thessalonians 5:1–5:5" (2011 end times prediction - Wikipedia)
Here’s 1 Thess 5:1-9;
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ
Bolding mine, obviously, to point out that Paul (“Paul” ahem- he may not have existed at all, and even if he did, who knows if he wrote anything at all?) does say something that could be misconstrued, as it was misconstrued.
Update: I’ve just discovered that Harold’s followers were known as “Campingites” (a Google search of Campingites in quotations brings back 9 to 10 pages of results; 9 if you don’t click the “omitted pages” thing, 10 if you do).
Perhaps somewhere there is a small cult who is single handedly preventing the end of the world by every day making the prediction that the 2nd coming would happen tomorrow.
Heh. Though the question of “what’s taking so long?” is actually a theological issue that some people have given a label to: the Katechon - Wikipedia
I’ve thought that someone could make a television series about a secret society that for 2000 years has been assassinating successive reincarnations of the Antichrist before he could come to power.
Buck_Godot, in a roundabout way your post reminded me of the Arthur C. Clarke short story “The Nine Billion Names of God.” I’ve loved that story since I first read it.
Of course it might be that the 2nd Coming would coincidentally happen the next day, but the cult’s reasons for thinking so were rubbish; i.e., they didn’t really “know” the day and hour. Also, wouldn’t they have to really believe their own prediction, which a cynical “prediction” for the conscious purpose of being a spoiler wouldn’t qualify as?
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