以前九十年代巳經錯過, 為什麼這人這麼喜歡 predict 無謂事?? 自己的死期又不 predict??
Harold Camping.
From Garance Burke
Associated Press
Garance Burke
Associated Press
ALAMEDA, CALIF.—California preacher
Harold Camping said Monday his prophecy that the world would end was off
by five months because Judgment Day actually will come on Oct. 21.
Camping, who predicted that 200
million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before the Earth
was destroyed, said he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did
not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his
wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent
millions — some of it from donations made by followers — on more than
5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.
But Camping said that he's now
realized the apocalypse will come five months after May 21, the original
date he predicted. He had earlier said Oct. 21 was when the globe would
be consumed by a fireball.
Saturday was “an invisible judgment
day” in which a spiritual judgment took place, he said. But the timing
and the structure is the same as it has always been, he said.
“We've always said May 21 was the
day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning,” he
said. “May 21 is the day that Christ came and put the world under
judgment.”
It's not the first time the
independent Christian radio host has been forced to explain when his
prediction didn't come to pass. He also predicted the Apocalypse would
come in 1994, but said it didn't happen then because of a mathematical
error.
Rather than give his normal daily
broadcast on Monday, Camping made a special statement before the press
at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire that has broadcast his
message. His show, “Open Forum,” has for months headlined his doomsday
message via the group's radio stations, TV channels, satellite
broadcasts and website.
When the Rapture didn't arrive Saturday, crestfallen followers began turning their attention to more earthly concerns.
Jeff Hopkins had figured the gas
money he spent driving back and forth from Long Island to New York City
would be worth it, as long as people could see the ominous sign atop his
car warning that the End of the World was nigh.
“I've been mocked and scoffed and
cursed at and I've been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of
my car,” said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in
Great River, New York. “I was doing what I've been instructed to do
through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped
in the face.”
Camping said Family Radio would never tell anyone what they should do with their possessions.
“That is between them and God,” he said.
But he said he wouldn't give away all his possessions ahead of Oct 21.
“I still have to live in a house, I
still have to drive a car,” he said. “What would be the value of that?
If it is Judgment Day why would I give it away?”
Apocalyptic thinking has always been
part of American religious life and popular culture. Teachings about the
end of the world vary dramatically — even within faith traditions —
about how they will occur.
Still, the overwhelming majority of Christians reject the idea that the exact date or time of Jesus' return can be predicted.
Tim LaHaye, co-author of the
bestselling “Left Behind” novels about the end times, recently called
Camping's prediction “not only bizarre but 100 per cent wrong!” He cited
the Bible verse Matthew 24:36, “but about that day or hour no one
knows” except God.
“While it may be in the near future,
many signs of our times certainly indicate so, but anyone who thinks
they 'know' the day and the hour is flat out wrong,” LaHaye wrote on his
website, leftbehind.com.
In 2009, the non-profit Family Radio
reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and
had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks
or other publicly traded securities.
