May 21 Judgement Day: It's Not the End of the World, and I Feel Fine

I don't know what its like where you live, but in my neck of the woods -- the San Francisco Bay Area -- we've witnessed a proliferation of billboards announcing: "Cry Mightily Unto God! Judgment Day is Coming on May 21! The Bible Guarantees It!" Apparently someone read the Bible, made a few assumptions, took an illogical leap of faith, did the math and came up with a calculation: Jesus is coming back -- and soon.

This, of course, is nuts. People have been using the Bible to predict the end of the world for as long as there has been a Bible, and they've never been right. The history of the Christian church is filled with stories of great disappointments that occur when communities get hoodwinked into believing the rapture is at hand. True scholars of the Bible know that biblical passages about the End of Days are poetry, not meant to be taken as actual predictions. Not everyone listens to the smart people, however, and so, come May 22, a goodly number of folks will be confused and disappointed to wake up for an ordinary Sunday.

Nonetheless, we should celebrate on May 21. A wise man once said that if the world is coming to an end, the only thing you need is a bottle of Champagne and a couple of glasses. That's good advice, so I say let's make May 21 a holy festival, not because the world will come to and end, but because it won't. Celebrate life and the ongoing beauty of the world we are blessed to call home and the human family in which we are privileged to claim membership.

At my house, on May 21, we will we will drink Champagne, toasting the world that won't end and the future that probably won't be as bad as the newspapers suggest. I hope you'll do the same. Maybe you don't like Champagne or you cannot drink the stuff. That's OK. Celebrate in some other way: make cupcakes and eat them off fine china, drink lemonade from heirloom crystal. Put on a tuxedo and dance. Wear a ballroom gown with cowgirl boots and go fly a kite at the beach. Do whatever works; just have fun because life will go on.

And if for some wacky reason Judgment Day does come to pass on the 21st of May, you will be in a state of grace, entirely prepared to stand before your God.

P.S. Here's a video of Bruce Cockburn singing the song that inspired this blog post:

This blog post was originally written for the Perspectives program on KQED FM in San Francisco, California. Here's the audio:

 

 

 

Comments

[Andrew Drew]

08:01 PM on 05/20/2011

This is a very special message from the one known as the Comforter in The End Times (John 14:16 and 14:26) to Harold Camping of Family Radio posted at http://merkaba.org/recent/052011.html

[Andrew Drew]

08:00 PM on 05/20/2011

A very special message from the one known as the Comforter (John 14:16 and 14:26) to Harold Camping:

Harold Camping, Today is May 20, 2011

“The Comforter” would like to thank Harold Camping and his group for making people aware of the fact that the Rapture Energies are coming and soon there will be the Physical Body Ascensions of those who are ready.

You are special people who stood up for God during the End Times. Thus, you still have time to get ready for a Physical Body Ascension and learn how to consciously work with the sun’s Rapture Energies so you are prepared to Ascend at anytime, from anywhere.

We can teach you how to use Rapture Energies so you can be part of those who leave for the City of Gold in the prophesized Archangelic level Physical Body Ascension Process that will occur before December 21, 2012.

These 3 steps enable one to begin training at home with Rapture Energies and to partake each week in our Sabbath’s guided visits to the City of Gold.

· Step One: Free Techniques *
· Step Two: A Two Day Meditator Class
· Step three: A Two Day Activator Class

* Daily usage of our free techniques and a liberal’s lifestyle of properly helping others in need, will enable one to become ready for an Angelic level Ascension on Judgment Day, December 21, 2012.

Email Classes @ Merkaba.org for a calendar of our family’s Classes in your area of the world.

[Versaries]

03:30 AM on 05/20/2011

137,691 Seconds to go! there's a Live Countdown.
http://vrsry.com/endoftheworld

[Andrew Drew]

02:44 PM on 05/19/2011

Another group has put up a billboard in Oakland and are debating Camping on their website... http://www.merkaba.org/free.htm Does anyone know anything about them?

[Andrew Drew]

02:44 PM on 05/19/2011

Hey what do you think of this third group that put up a billboard in SF and are challenging Camping on their website at http://www.merkaba.org/free.htm ?

[dmarion]

09:57 PM on 05/18/2011

The bible is meant to be literal except these people have made a bunch of suppositions. It says in Matthew 24:36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." So any Christians claiming a specific date is just misguided or hasn't read the Bible.

[Arthur Daniels Jr]

05:19 PM on 05/18/2011

I would have to say that this statement is far from true: "True scholars of the Bible know that biblical passages about the End of Days are poetry, not meant to be taken as actual predictions." No, as someone who does scholarly research in the Bible, and who knows both Hebrew and Greek (the original languages of the Bible), I do not find that "End of Days" passages are necessarily "poetry." Psalms, Proverbs and books of that nature ARE indeed poetry and wisdom literature, but to claim that something is poetry when it gives no indication that it is of that genre is not scholarship, and it's not honest.

[Ben Daniel]

11:27 PM on 05/18/2011

Actually, much of the Bible's apocalyptic literature is poetry (the Greek Scholars who translated the NRSV actually translate it into verse--I'm not saying your not a better scholar than they are, but I studied under some of the folks who translated the NRSV at Princeton Seminary, so I know they are good); and the imagery used in the apocalyptic passages is poetic metaphor, even when it is not in verse. This seems seems self evident to me as a frequent reader of poetry and an a passionate reader of the Bible. Maybe you are a reader of poetry as well, and as such you do not recognize the poetic language in the Apocalyptic literature. That's fine--these are subjective observations--but I'm not entirely sure you are correct in saying my piece lacks scholarship or honesty. I like your last name, however.

[Arthur Daniels Jr]

01:39 AM on 05/19/2011

Ok, well let's look at a passage that deals with "End of Days." The return of Jesus is mentioned throughout the NT and is clearly an "end time" event. Acts 1:11 says: "who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'" It would take a great deal of eisegesis and mental gymnastics to attempt to argue that this was "poetry" and "metaphor." Context dictates meaning, not assumptions. This is not poetry. This is historical narrative. My overall point is that you are correct that May 21 will not be judgment day; how you arrived at that conclusion is what I disagree with. Camping has clearly made basic mistakes in his reading of Scripture, taking the simile language in 2 Peter 3:8 and making it literal to come up with his date. That is why he's wrong; not because all the apocalyptic passages are "poetry." I like your last name too. You're just missing a key letter.

[mutton]

12:15 AM on 05/18/2011

It may be the end of the world for Camping if the people who believed him decide to invoke the wrath of God on the 22nd.

[mrkurtzhedead]

12:40 AM on 05/18/2011

No. Camping will come up with an excuse about making a mistake on the calculations, they will buy it, and the money will keep pouring in. It's a phenomenon known as "religion".

[jamie461]

05:25 PM on 05/17/2011

Why is it that only the nutbag "christianists" get all the publicity? There are so many good and decent and caring Christians who are quietly going about their lives and serving others, but it's the loons who make us look bad that everyone knows about. I guess it's the same feeling Muslims have when the radical islamists get all the press.

[doodie pants]

12:06 AM on 05/17/2011

I'm thinking the 22nd could be the awesomest day ever for single people..........

http://doodiepants.com/2011/05/16/may-22nd-great-day-to-pick-up-lonely-women/

[Danny Havoc]

02:05 PM on 05/16/2011

I dont think its right to say that the christian church has attemped to pinpoint the end of the world numeorus times.. as far as i know there have been several religions that have claimed the end of the world and judgment day before.. among those are the watch tower wich i belive has seven of those notches under its belt.. not the people that have claimed "judgment day" is organization. FAMILY RADIO.ORG.. not a church and not a christians all together.. its a single person that came to this conlusion and decided to use the organization at his disposal to make it seem as if all christians are in on it.. my church and i dont belive these claims. in the bible it says that the day and time is not known.

[Ben Daniel]

05:46 PM on 05/16/2011

Danny,

Actually, more mainstream Christian organizations do have quite a track record of predicting the end of the world and then waking up to another regular day. I believe Hal Lindsay, for example, thought Jesus was going to return in probably in the eighties and definitely by 2000, and this was part of a huge trend of prophecy-interpretation that was big in the sixties and seventies-during the Cold War and after the establishment of Israel. The MIllerites believed the rapture would occur in 1843 (we now know them as Seventh Day Adventists). The passengers on the Mayflower believed they were ushering in the End of Days. In fact, nearly every religious tradition--Christian or otherwise--that was established in North America had some kind of end-times emphasis. I also know that Martin Luther saw the reformation as being a signal that the end was at hand, which is how many folks interpreted the Avignon papacy, as well as the year 1000.

So I stand by my assertion that the Christian church has attempted to pinpoint the end of the world on numerous occasions.

Ben

[mrkurtzhedead]

12:42 AM on 05/18/2011

Christ spoke to his contemporaries as if the end would be during their lifetimes. When are you going to reach the sane conclusion that this whole religion thing is just something people made up?

[craftycrow]

12:58 PM on 05/16/2011

I, personally, would be more afraid of my fate for telling everyone that it's the end of the world or rapture incorrectly (when God says no one knows when) than I would be of the actual end of the world.

[sanmigmike]

11:23 PM on 05/19/2011

That is the cool thing about "faith"...not to worry, YOU are on the side of the Angels so all will be forgiven... Amazing how so many people can find all sorts of things in the Bible. Keeping slaves...you bet, tells you how to treat them and who you can have as a slave...tells slaves how to behave. And yet others can find the courage to fight slavery there. More than one wife...some find a requirement to do that there. Others find reason to have one wife or no wife. But I wonder about all those people that have more than one coat...

It will be cute to see how many days it will take people including Camping to come up with the "reason" why that the world did not end... And people think atheists are stupid... Somehow I find more value in astrology than any organized religion...

[babybelle]

05:28 PM on 05/15/2011

I'll celebrate by going to yard sales Saturday morning. .

[Ben Daniel]

05:32 PM on 05/16/2011

Depending upon which yard sales you go to, you might get some sweet deals.

[DannyHaszard]

05:10 PM on 05/15/2011

Watchtower Jehovah’s Witnesses have little credibility with their own fairy tale primary doctrine of Jesus ‘invisible’ second coming October 1914

Watchtower society false prophets declare end of world in 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984....
http://www.dannyhaszard.com/1975.htm
LINK Actual news releases on Armageddon 1975 prediction
-----
Danny Haszard been there!

[HeadAches]

03:15 PM on 05/15/2011

What surprises me the most is that people can look at these clowns and then with a 100% serious attitude claim that these people are wrong but the content of their message is correct, just a bit off!

What is it you don't get about middle eastern mythology? How can you with a straight face take anything in bible seriously?

[Ben Daniel]

03:37 PM on 05/15/2011

Head Ache, I am able to take the Bible seriously because I understand a lot about the mythology of the ancient near east. If I thought I had to read the Bible as history, science and prognostication, I could not take the Bible seriously, but as story, poetry, myth and wisdom, I am able to find meaning that is challenging at times, often comforting, sometimes confusing, and deeply moving.

[HeadAches]

06:51 PM on 05/15/2011

It;s a horrid book to read, the stories are profoundly stupid most of the time, has no resemblance to our time and in general is not useful for anything whatsoever.

As a book of poetry or moral, it is a disaster, for wisdom, it contains none that can not be used to justify any atrocity known to man and few not known.

Take it as a book of myths, poetry if you will and moral but please keep that moral away from children and people like me and for heavens sake - do not try to shove this nonsense down peoples throats nor enact laws requiring people who have no interest in this nonsense, to follow them.

What is wrong with reality? Why do you need several thousand year old middle eastern mythology to be happy?