Tuesday, March 24, 2009


The Camping Trip: The End Is Near (Again)


As a hippie would say, Harold Camping is on a wild trip, man.

I was surfing the shortwave radio band when I came upon his show, Open Forum. Camping stated that the world would end in a couple of years: 2011. (Bummer.)

Camping is the president of Family Stations Inc. (AKA Family Radio). I did an online search and found out more about his works.

Born in 1942, Camping created over his lifetime a media network to spread his word: radio (AM, FM and SW), the Internet and cable TV. When he hosts his Open Forum program, he invites callers to ask questions about a particular Biblical passage. He’s ready with what he purports to be his true interpretation of the Good Book, offering an independent Christian POV.

Camping claims that the church age is over, i.e., all organized churches are not teaching the truth and one must find the truth on his own –- such as by listening to Open Forum.

During his show I noticed that some listeners didn’t buy his vision. A couple of callers essentially called him a false prophet. There was disagreement about what the Bible says about the end-times, that no man knows the final hour and that the end will come like a thief in the night.

But Camping was able to take those passages and with some spin prove that it was possible for him to know when it all will go down. It’s amazing how the Absolute Truth of The Bible can be construed so many different ways.

Camping believes our planet isn’t that old, but he doesn’t buy Bishop Ussher’s timeline with earth creation in 4004 BC. From his research Camping claims that God made the world in 11,013 BC and the Great Flood happened in 2348 BC.

It’s from this research that he’s determined that the Rapture will go down –- I mean, go up –- on May 21, 2011 and then the cosmic stuff hits the infinite fan on October 21, 2011.

So mark your calendar. But when you do, keep in mind that Camping thought the big finale might occur on September 6, 1994, Christ descending from the clouds.

I’m still here. No sign of Jesus.


6 comments:

Crushed said...

He's behind you!

X. Dell said...

I consider this good news. I've lived through a number of these supposed end dates, now: 1976, 1977, 1981, and, of course, Y2K. I've always found that they make for great theme parties, where anything goes. Of course, there's hell to pay the next day when you wake up and find hat the world is still here. But hey! Everything has its consequences, right?

Of course, there's a slight chance that Camping could be correct. As far as I'm concerned, that's still good news. I haven't had many chances to photograph nubile virgins ascending nude into Heaven. I'd probably want a better digital camera than the one I have now, though.

Ray Palm (Ray X) said...

Crushed:

As an atheist he is indeed "behind" me - as in left behind.


X. Dell:

For photographing nubile virgins being raptured, I would use a Canon digital camera.

Ray

Doug said...

So I was talking to God and boy was He pissed that Camping figured out the date; He so wanted it to be a surprise.

Then He remembered: Oh yeah. I'm God. And the He changed it.

Now I just need to get a radio show...

Leigh Hanlon said...

Is this the shortwave broadcaster with a woman announcer who always sounded as if she was in a constant state of nasal congestion? Drove me up the wall.

Ray Palm (Ray X) said...

Doug:

Obviously you were talking with your God. My God wouldn't slip up like that. My God is better than your God... nah,nah,nah. [G]



Leigh:

I've heard his part f his show only a few times while dialing through but it wasn't until recently that I found out about his doomsday prediction. I don't think I ever heard the intro to his Open Forum, so I don't know about the nasally-challenged woman.

So how are SW conditions in Chicago? Between broadcasters like Radio Netherlands dropping their programs to North America and the lousy reception conditions, it looks like I'm stuck with domestic patriot-Xtian stations.

Maybe the Illuminati stole the sunspots...

Ray