World Will End May 21, 2011, Internet Christians Claim

End of Days in May? Christian group spreads word

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RALEIGH, N.C. – If there had been time, Marie Exley would have liked to start a family. Instead, the 32-year-old Army veteran has less than six months left, which she'll spend spreading a stark warning: Judgment Day is almost here.

Well, it's different from the usual "you have six months to live" diagnosis. That usually means you're terminally ill; in this case, just terminally deluded.

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Exley is part of a movement of Christians loosely organized by radio broadcasts and websites, independent of churches and convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011.

I'm guessing they neglected to read the part where Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour the world will end.

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...mission groups are traveling through Latin America and Africa to spread the news outside the U.S.

Don't Latin America and Africa have enough problems without a bunch of Internet-driven apocalyptics spreading panic?

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"A lot of people might think, 'The end's coming, let's go party,'" said Exley, a veteran of two deployments in Iraq. "But we're commanded by God to warn people. I wish I could just be like everybody else, but it's so much better to know that when the end comes, you'll be safe."

Bolding mine. That's some major PTSD.

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In August, Exley left her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to work with Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio Worldwide, the independent Christian ministry whose leader, Harold Camping, has calculated the May 21 date based on his reading of the Bible.

For those who don't know, Harold Camping also predicted that the world would end in September of 1994.

*looks around* Nope, still here.

On that note...

OH, whatever. People have been saying the world is going to end for as long as there's been speech.

I heard some guy touting this on Coast to Coast on New Years Eve as a prediction for 2011.

This idiot also proclaimed that if Camping is wrong then there is no God and the Bible is wrong.

The radio host held himself together long enough to invite this nut to call on May 22. I am so tuning in just for the LULZ of another wrong prediction to add to the list. What does that make now? 20,000,000?

There's currently a small town in France where they've been overrun by nutcases looking for aliens they believe live in the mountain there. They think if they're there the aliens will save them from the pending apocalypse. It's gotten so bad the town can't support the amount of people coming in, and the town mayor has even requested that the army be there by the proposed date to help stop an inevitable rampage of lunatics.

Matthew 24:35 (English Standard Version): “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

This is also reiterated in Mark 13:32: "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

If God's own SON doesn't know when the Rapture will occur, what makes you think He's going to tell some radio minister whose congregation most likely consists entirely of people who shun organized religion because they're convinced that anyone who doesn't agree with them is doomed to Hell anyway?

Raine, that's an...interesting twist on the conventional End of Days scenario. I'd be interested in knowing exactly how the aliens are supposed to save them from the Apocalypse. I mean, if you're a Christian, you have no need to fear the Apocalypse, because you'll be raptured into Heaven long before it occurs. Though YMMV, depending on what church you belong to (and these people sound like they belong to St. Loony Up the Creme Bun and Jam).

Aaaaand countdown to backpedaling!

Rabid Badger wrote:

Raine, that's an...interesting twist on the conventional End of Days scenario. I'd be interested in knowing exactly how the aliens are supposed to save them from the Apocalypse. I mean, if you're a Christian, you have no need to fear the Apocalypse, because you'll be raptured into Heaven long before it occurs. Though YMMV, depending on what church you belong to (and these people sound like they belong to St. Loony Up the Creme Bun and Jam).

I really don't know much apart from the town's reaction. I think the alien-seekers believe that the mountain is a secret outpost and/or UFO garage. If they hang around the aliens may take pity and take them along when they flee the planet blowing up. At least I think that's the gist of it.

You know, I don't believe I'll be around if there ever is an apocalypse (which in some way I do believe will end up being our own twisted doing. It makes for a better story at least). I'll likely be long dead, none of that "soul goes to heaven when you die" stuff, however. My church is rather boring when it comes to stuff like this though - we believe there will be an end eventually - but we choose to just ignore it and live normally. It's definitely a better alternative to dwelling on an uncertainty and acting irrationally for it, as we've seen with these and so many more people.

One of my friends on FB noticed this a few days back and posted a status along the lines of, "Apparently Jesus is coming back in May, so Happy New Five Months!"

But yeah, this kind of thing happens all the time. It's best to ignore them before they are wrong and then laugh at them after.

One of the former teachers at my school somehow had formed the opinion that earthquakes presage the end of the world.

That's right. Earthquakes in California are so rare they mean the world is coming to an end.

Even more amazing, this woman grew up in Japan. You know, one of the other earthquake capitals of the world (and not exactly a bastion of Christian apocalyptic thought).

Oh, and just to top this off, she was a science teacher, who would presumably know better.

It's the Millerites all over again. And we saw how well that went for them. But at least they eventually evolved into the Seventh Day Adventists (among other Adventist groups), who, though still convinced that the end is coming soon, don't pin dates to it anymore.

All this group will likely accomplish is be a blip on the American religious landscape, become an obscure reference in someone's dissertation or journal article*, and fade away.



*Quite possibly mine--I'm having fun researching new religious movements lately.

Speaking of nutcases and end of the world prophecies, I wonder what date everyone will get hang up on after 2012 passes. 2033 (supposedly 2000 years after Jesus' death, if I recall correctly) is a bit too far away for the avarage goon.

Nevvy wrote:

Speaking of nutcases and end of the world prophecies, I wonder what date everyone will get hang up on after 2012 passes.

I think Penguin already answered this in a similar thread. If I recall correctly he said:

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2013

And I agree.

There's a good chance someone is going to feel right silly about this when they're wrong.

Then again, what are the odds some religious nutjob did the math and forgot to carry a 7?

They're always saying the world will end one day or another. They've been wrong about this before, time and time again.

Why not just be good people and prepare for the end of the world tomorrow?

Lady Anne wrote:

One of the former teachers at my school somehow had formed the opinion that earthquakes presage the end of the world.

That's right. Earthquakes in California are so rare they mean the world is coming to an end.

Even more amazing, this woman grew up in Japan. You know, one of the other earthquake capitals of the world (and not exactly a bastion of Christian apocalyptic thought).

Oh, and just to top this off, she was a science teacher, who would presumably know better.

To borrow a phrase from that great scholar Napoleon Dynamite, un-flippin'-believable.

Huh, I thought the world already ended on May 25, 2006. The Internet Archive saved that page.

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the 32-year-old Army veteran has less than six months left, which she'll spend spreading a stark warning

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...mission groups are traveling through Latin America and Africa to spread the news outside the U.S.

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we're commanded by God to warn people

Umm... why? What difference would that make?

Wasn't the world supposed to end on 2003?

grmblfjx wrote:

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the 32-year-old Army veteran has less than six months left, which she'll spend spreading a stark warning

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...mission groups are traveling through Latin America and Africa to spread the news outside the U.S.

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we're commanded by God to warn people

Umm... why? What difference would that make?

So that they have time to repent and submit themselves to God and be beamed up to heaven with all the other good Christians before this can happen, silly.

Nevvy wrote:

Speaking of nutcases and end of the world prophecies, I wonder what date everyone will get hang up on after 2012 passes. 2033 (supposedly 2000 years after Jesus' death, if I recall correctly) is a bit too far away for the avarage goon.

Yahoo had an article recently that suggested 'scholars' had miscalculated the date that the Mayan Calender ends--it's apparently off by 50 years, so, 2062.

Man I am glad to be living through all these awesome end-times.

The world was also supposed to end in 1975 according to the Jehovah's Witnesses, and 36 years later were still very much here.

Sheba wrote:

Nevvy wrote:

Speaking of nutcases and end of the world prophecies, I wonder what date everyone will get hang up on after 2012 passes. 2033 (supposedly 2000 years after Jesus' death, if I recall correctly) is a bit too far away for the avarage goon.

Yahoo had an article recently that suggested 'scholars' had miscalculated the date that the Mayan Calender ends--it's apparently off by 50 years, so, 2062.

Not to mention that the end of the Mayan Long-Count Calendar signifies nothing more than: "Hay Guys, it's time to make a new calendar".

Pssh. Nuclear war was meant to kill us - that didn't happen. Then the Ebola virus was meant to have us all shitting out our kidneys - that didn't happen. SARS fizzled, so did bird flu, the asteroid was meant to hit by now. I can't get excited about any Doomsday scenarios. Well, except the one where the IMF sells off all our water and farmland and everyone around here starts rioting and burns down Leinster House with the government in it. That'll be fun.

Well, the nukes thing merely hasn't happened yet. Eventually someone'll get a good excuse to start annihilating everything in sight; things are only getting worse and worse every year, anyway. In any case, not sure how yet another apocalypse group thingy is news, though I'm getting the weirdest feeling I've heard about these nuts before. Eh well.