# May 21st, the end of the world. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 7, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825 "2011-03-07T19:55:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/41 "2011-03-09T17:40:24Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > But but but… everyone on the mommy message boards is freaking out about 12/21/12. It’s the end of the _Incan_ calendar! > > _snicker_ > > No seriously. They’re putting together 72-hour survival kits. I guess if you get through the first 72 hours of the end of the world you’re golden. Won’t they all be surprised when they find out that the Mayan rollover is on 24 December 2012, and their survival kits run out juuuust as the disaster strikes. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/42 "2011-03-09T19:17:55Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I wish I could. > > Ever read the book, _When Prophecy Fails_? The one thing that _won’t_ happen is for them to say, “I guess we were wrong, and the world isn’t coming to an end after all! Maybe we relied too much on our interpretation of the Bible.” > > More likely, they will recalculate and come up with a new and improved date. Sure, a few members on the fringe will drop out, but most of them will recycle the whole process. “We just had a small problem. But we’ve got it now!” Nope. They never will. All the calculations have to be done in base 666. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/43 "2011-03-09T23:53:19Z")
Just my stupid luck. My car loan will be just about paid off by then. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/44 "2011-04-21T03:51:36Z")
I went out today, not something I do very often. My ex took me out for pizza. Anyways we were on a busy street and a city bus went by which had an ad for this Judgment Day thingy. I knew about it but this is the first I had seen, but as I said I don’t get out much. I also don’t have a TV. Have there been ads on TV & radio? Another also, the webcomic Something Positive mention it in today’s strip. Not always safe for work. [noparse][http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp04192011.shtml[/noparse]](http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp04192011.shtml%5B/noparse%5D) Only 30 days to go! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/45 "2011-04-21T04:31:11Z")
I saw an ad for this recently, too. Seems like a huge waste of money to advertise that the end of days is coming. Everybody’s going to know soon enough and the ad agency might want its money up front. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/46 "2011-04-21T11:29:59Z")
There’s a huge billboard up near us, too – **Judgement Day is May 21!** And then in a “sunburst” nearby: **The Bible Guarantees it!** I had to look up the organization online to find out what it was all about. From what little I see, these folks don’t strike me as _Heaven’s Gate_ types. They seem more like Millerites: > [@](#): > > Despite the urging of his supporters, Miller never personally set an exact date for the expected Second Advent. However, in response to their urgings he did narrow the time-period to sometime in the year 1843, stating: “My principles in brief, are, that Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify, and take possession of the same, with all the saints, sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844”[19] March 21, 1844 passed without incident, and the majority of Millerites maintained their faith. On March 25, Miller wrote to Himes, “I am still looking for the Dear Savior…. The time, as I have calculated it, is now filled up; and I expect every moment to see the Savior descend from heaven. I have now nothing to look for but this glorious hope.”[20] As George R. Knight states, the movement’s survival was a result of the fact that, “the Millerite leaders had been ‘soft’ on the time…. They allowed for the possibility of small errors in their calculations and even in some of their historic dates.”[21] In fact, on February 28, Miller himself had written, “If Christ comes, as we expect, we will sing the song of victory soon; if not, we will watch, and pray, and preach until he comes, for soon our time, and all prophetic days, will have been filled.”[22] > > Further discussion and study resulted in the brief adoption of a new date—April 18, 1844, one based on the Karaite Jewish calendar (as opposed to the Rabbinic calendar).[23] Like the previous date, April 18 passed without Christ’s return. More study led the Millerites to believe that they had entered the “tarrying time”—a time of waiting after which Christ would finally return—spoken of in Matthew 25:5 and Habakkuk 3:2-3. This belief sustained the Millerites through the months of May to July, 1844. As Knight notes however, this period represented a “flatness in Millerite evangelism,” when even the Millerite preachers must have experienced diminished certainty.[24] > > In August 1844 at a camp-meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, everything changed when Samuel S. Snow presented a message of earth-shattering proportions—what became known as the “seventh-month” message or the “true midnight cry.”[25] In a complex discussion based on scriptural typology, Snow presented his conclusion (still based on the 2300 day prophecy in Daniel 8:14), that Christ would return on, “the tenth day of the seventh month of the present year, 1844.”[26] Again using the calendar of the Karaite Jews, this date was determined to be October 22, 1844. This “seventh month message” “spread with a rapidity unparalleled in the Millerite experience” amongst the general population. The situation caught many of the established leaders—including Himes and Miller himself, by surprise. Knight reports that, “There is no evidence that any of the foremost Millerite preachers accepted this grass-roots development until late September. Most did not accept it until early October.”[27] > **[Millerism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerites)** > > Christianity • Protestantism > The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller, who in 1831 first shared publicly his belief that the Second Advent of Jesus Christ would occur in roughly the year 1843–1844. Coming during the Second Great Awakening, his teachings were spread widely and grew in popularity, which led to the event known as the Great Disappointment. > Miller was a prosperous farmer, a Baptist lay preacher, and student of the Bible living in northeastern New York. ... > **[Great Disappointment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment)** > > Christianity • Protestantism > The Great Disappointment in the Millerite movement was the reaction that followed Baptist preacher William Miller's proclamation that Jesus Christ would return to the Earth by 1844, which he called the Second Advent. His study of the Daniel 8 prophecy during the Second Great Awakening led him to conclude that Daniel's "cleansing of the sanctuary" was cleansing the world from sin when Christ would come, and he and many others prepared. When Jesus did not appear by Oct... ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/47 "2011-04-21T12:05:45Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > This wouldn’t be off of King’s Highway near Alexandria, would it? There’s a house there (intersection of Memorial or maybe Harrison) that has signs proclaiming some very religious-based radio station. Haven’t particularly looked at any SUV (I don’t go by that terribly often). Turns out the ad I saw is also for a religous radio station. I’m sure it’s the same one, or at least a related station. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/48 "2011-04-21T12:29:44Z")
I was just thinking this morning that it would be nice to have a thread called It’s the End of the World (And You Wrote It). I’m interested to know what everyone’s major unexpected event would be. 😃 World War? Alien invasion? A pandemic that renders women infertile? On occasion, like when I’m driving for more than ten minutes (god I hate driving), I’ll do that “What if…” game. I always would like to think I could land the airplane/disarm a hijacker/have an affair with a Mossad agent/become the Secretary of Ag and watch a weird bug wipe out the first 8 people in line for the Presidency and allow for a new legacy of JoyAnnity. 😉 eta: clearly I’m hoping these guys are right and I’m left behind. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/49 "2011-04-21T13:24:32Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Damn it, why didn’t I join this year’s death pool and pick Everyone in the World? I would have won _easy_. Because you are limited to 13 names, and they have to be celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/50 "2011-04-21T13:34:06Z")
We’re all going to DIE!!! someday I need a new lawnmower. Can I request an Xmark to rain down from Jehovah ? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/51 "2011-04-21T13:43:37Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > 4990 + 2011 – 1 = 7,000 Neckties…contracts…7000? ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/52 "2011-04-21T13:45:41Z")
According to [The World Clock — Worldwide](http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/), the world has already ended in Anadyr, the Chatham Islands, Kiritimati, Vladivostok and Suva. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/53 "2011-04-21T13:51:30Z")
It’s ten minutes to midnight 21/4 where I am. So far, so good. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/54 "2011-04-22T22:17:54Z")
My wife’s birthday is May 21st. Does this mean I don’t have to buy a gift? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/55 "2011-04-24T01:27:12Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Neckties…contracts…7000? Lest we forget…503+6-2 = 507!!! :eek: And 1+2+3=6!!! :eek: And 6!=719 (more or less)!! :eek: And…well, you get the picture. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-21st-the-end-of-the-world/573825/57 "2016-09-21T12:51:26Z")
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