BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ANYONE who believes in the most recent end-times prediction by a certain American pastor must now make peace with their Maker, because time is running out on their lives.
Over the past week, a US-based Christian group was seen in the streets of Basseterre handing out pamphlets to residents and visitors, warning them that the Rapture and Judgment Day will take place on Saturday, May 21, 2011.
This group is affiliated with Harold Camping, President of an independent Christian ministry based in Oakland, California known as Family Radio Worldwide which he founded in 1959.
The 89-year old Camping is said to have based his prediction on mathematical calculations and certain codes written in the Bible in relation to the great flood during the days of Noah.
Speaking with Tony Moise, a member of the religious group who had left his job to travel around the world to spread Camping’s prediction, he told this publication that he is in St. Kitts to share the news that God is bringing judgment to the world.
“We are here to share the news that God is going to bring judgment in this world. This is the message that we share all over the world. We have billboards and posters everywhere in the world because God is really sharing the message now just as he did in the days of Noah when He told him precisely the time that He was going to destroy the world by flood.
“He told Noah 120 years before it happened to build an ark, and everybody thought that Noah was crazy. But he went around telling everybody what God told him and nobody believed him. They saw the ark, they heard the message, but nobody paid attention and the flood came upon them like a thief in the night.
“Similarly, when God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He told Abraham He was going to do it and He also told Lot that He was going to do it. Lot told his family and they mocked him…they took it as a joke, and this is the way things are today,” Moise said with deep convictions.
Moise noted that God gave man a calendar in the Bible so that he could know that the great flood occurred in 4990 BC.
In his explanation of how Camping arrived at May 21, 2011 as the Rapture, Moise quoted Genesis Chapter Seven, Verses 10-11 saying, “And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth in the sixth hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. And taking Second Peter, Chapter Three, Verse Eight, God reminds us that one day is as 1 000 years, Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to can be understood as 7 000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world that there would be exactly 7 000 years to escape the wrath of God that would when He destroys the world on Judgment Day. Seven thousand years after the flood in 4990 BC is the year 2011 AD, which is our calendar.”
He stated that 4 990 + 2 011 - 1 = 7 000. He explained that one year must be subtracted in going from an Old Testament BC calendar date to a New Testament AD calendar date because the calendar does not have a zero year.
SKNVibes reminded him that Matthew 24:36 of the King James Version states, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, by my Father only”.
He replied by saying, “Jesus also told his Disciples ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’”
He further said that in Ecclesiastes 8:5 God declares, “Who so keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.”
According to Moise’s teachings, it was not until a few years ago that the accurate knowledge of the entire timeline of history was revealed to the true believers by God from the Bible, and Camping is among them.
He however could not have provided a plausible answer to the question: "What if the prediction fails?"
This is not the first time that Camping had predicted the time of the end. He once said that September 6, 1994 would have been the end of days, but, as we all know, more than 16 years have since passed.
Camping is not the only man to have failed in his predictions.
Over the years, there have been many failed predictions in the second coming of Jesus the Christ, the arrival of the Antichrist, the Rapture, the Tribulation, the war of Armageddon and many natural disasters.
The late Edgar Whisenant, who was an engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), predicted that the Rapture would occur in September 1988 in a book titled ’88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1988’. However, when it failed he wrote another book titled ‘Why the Rapture is in 1989’.
Another failed self-proclaimed prophet, Chuck Smith, founding Pastor of the Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, predicted that Judgment Day would have been in 1971.
A Korean group known as Mission for the Coming Days predicted October 28, 1992 as the date of the Rapture; and Pastor John Hinkle of Christ Church in Los Angeles had predicted the date to be June 9, 1994, while Marilyn Agee, in her book ‘The End of the Age’, saw it as May 31, 1998.
There are many others who have failed in their predictions, including Minister Louis Farrakhan Muhammed Sr., who proclaimed in 1991 that the Gulf War would be “the War of Armageddon…the final War”.
But, as said by Todd Stranberg in his writings of ‘The Date Setters Diary’, no one one would ever know the exact day of Jesus’ return for His Church.
“It is God’s nature to act independently from man’s thinking. If He returned on a date that someone had figured out, that person would deprive God of His triumph. When it comes to His glory, God doesn’t share the spotlight with anyone.
“The return of Jesus Christ for His Church will easily be the most important event in history. The glory of heaven contrasted with our lives on earth is like comparing the job of running a hot dog stand with the job of serving as President of the United States,” Stranberg said.
He also stated that the general timeframe of Jesus’ second coming is written in the Holy Bible, because He had forewarned us of a number of events that would take place.
Stranberg however reiterated that no man knows the hour but people could conclude that time is short because of the prophecies that would take place during the seven-year Tribulation period, which is the beginning of the Rapture.
