Everybody knows by now that Family Radio has pinned the rapture down to May 21 and the official end of the world to October 21 of this year. Led by Harold Camping (89), a man who failed in 1994 to predict Jesus’ second coming, the organization has launched a “Project Caravan” crusade wherein teams of believers drive across the country proclaiming the end of the world and the need to repent. Several members of the caravan have left behind jobs, family, friends, and responsibilities to drive these RVs until Jesus comes back to whisk them away to be with their Heavenly father.
CNN’s story on the caravan
Even while these faithful followers are so certain of their Biblical knowledge, other Christians (who read the same books) talk about them like they’re lunatics. They cite Matthew 24:36 where Jesus says nobody knows the time and place, not even Jesus himself. This gets me thinking:
If Bible-believing Christian “A” can call Bible-believing Christian “B” a lunatic (or, in kinder forms, “flat-out wrong”) for believing Biblical numerology and Christian “B” can call Christian “A” a lunatic for believing that the Great Flood was allegory and never happened, then what makes one crazy and the other sane? Are they both out of their minds?
I, of course, have my opinions on the matter but I can’t claim to know for sure whether or not Family Radio is wrong about the end of the world. I only know that I’ve seen absolutely no compelling evidence, nor have I heard any compelling arguments that would make me believe that this is probable. And while I would side with Christian “A” in the above paragraph it certainly doesn’t mean that I think Christian “A” is any more justified for believing what they do than the lunatics in the RVs. I only know that I fear for the safety and well-being of these people’s families that have been abandoned in order to spread the far-fetched news about something that was foretold to happen 2,000 years ago, didn’t happen, and hasn’t happened since. I hope god is taking good care of them.
4 comments
can’t really believe how they have left their families and do they think that they’d be able to motivate the people on what do they think?
I guess most of the people will make fun of religion with their act…
Jesus will indeed come back but like it is said no religion which accepts jesus (chrisianity and islam) gives the timeline…
I was in NYC this weekend and saw probably 50-75 people carrying signs about May 21st. Wild!
@TheCheshireGrins – Yeah, I don’t really know what to make of it. I’m curious to see what happens on May 22 (since I have faith – pun intended – that we’ll all still be around) but I’m also really hoping that this whole movement doesn’t result in some kind of suicide cult conclusion.
@CoderHead – The suicide cult situation was my first thought…