The world is going to end on May 21 - so says some loonies

[NYBuckeye96]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43106614/ns ... ork_times/

Kids hope to attend party — but parents say world's going to end
Families divided as some people believe world will self-destruct on Saturday

The Haddad children of Middletown, Md., have a lot on their minds: school projects, SATs, weekend parties. And parents who believe the earth will begin to self-destruct on Saturday.

The three teenagers have been struggling to make sense of their shifting world, which started changing nearly two years ago when their mother, Abby Haddad Carson, left her job as a nurse to “sound the trumpet” on mission trips with her husband, Robert, handing out tracts. They stopped working on their house and saving for college.

Last weekend, the family traveled to New York, the parents dragging their reluctant children through a Manhattan street fair in a final effort to spread the word.

“My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven,” Grace Haddad, 16, said. “At first it was really upsetting, but it’s what she honestly believes.”

Thousands of people around the country have spent the last few days taking to the streets and saying final goodbyes before Saturday, Judgment Day, when they expect to be absorbed into heaven in a process known as the rapture. Nonbelievers, they hold, will be left behind to perish along with the world over the next five months.

With their doomsday T-shirts, placards and leaflets, followers — often clutching Bibles — are typically viewed as harmless proselytizers from outside mainstream religion. But their convictions have frequently created the most tension within their own families, particularly with relatives whose main concern about the weekend is whether it will rain.

Kino Douglas, 31, a self-described agnostic, said it was hard to be with his sister Stacey, 33, who “doesn’t want to talk about anything else.”

“I’ll say, ‘Oh, what are we going to do this summer?’ She’s going to say, ‘The world is going to end on May 21, so I don’t know why you’re planning for summer,’ and then everyone goes, ‘Oh, boy,’ ” he said.

The Douglas siblings live near each other in Brooklyn, and Mr. Douglas said he could not wait until Sunday — “I’m going to show up at her house so we can have that conversation that’s been years in coming.”

Ms. Douglas, who has a 7-year-old, said that while her family did not see the future the way she did, her mother did allow her to put a Judgment Day sign up on her house. “I never thought I’d be doing this,” said Ms. Douglas, who took vacation from her nanny job this week but did not quit. “I was in an abusive relationship. One day, my son was playing with the remote and Mr. Camping was on TV. I thought, This guy is crazy. But I kept thinking about it and something told me to go back.”

A 'fiery trial'
Ms. Douglas and other believers subscribe to the prophesy of Harold Camping, a civil engineer turned self-taught biblical scholar whose doomsday scenario — broadcast on his Family Radio network — predicts a May 21, 2011, Judgment Day. On that day, arrived at through a series of Bible-based calculations that assume the world will end exactly 7,000 years after Noah’s flood, believers are to be transported up to heaven as a worldwide earthquake strikes. Nonbelievers will endure five months of plagues, quakes, wars, famine and general torment before the planet’s total destruction in October. In 1992 Mr. Camping said the rapture would probably be in 1994, but he now says newer evidence makes the prophesy for this year certain.

Kevin Brown, a Family Radio representative, said conflict with other family members was part of the test of whether a person truly believed. “They’re going through the fiery trial each day,” he said.

Gary Daniels, 27, said he planned to spend Saturday like other believers, “glued to our TV sets, waiting for the Resurrection and earthquake from nation to nation.” But he acknowledged that his family was not entirely behind him.

“At first there was a bit of anger and tension, not really listening to one another and just shouting out ideas,” Mr. Daniels said.

But his family has come around to respect — if not endorse — his views, and as he drove from his home in Newark, Del., on Monday night in a van covered in Judgment Day messages to say goodbye to relatives in Brooklyn. “I know I’m not going to see them again, but they are very certain they are going to see me, and that’s where I feel so sad,” he said. “I weep to know that they don’t have any idea that this overwhelming thing is coming right at them, pummeling toward them like a meteor.”

Courtney Campbell, a professor of religion and culture at Oregon State University, said “end times” movements were often tied to significant date changes, like Jan. 1, 2000, or times of acute social crises.

“Ultimately we’re looking for some authoritative answers in an era of great social, political, economic, as well as natural, upheaval,” Professor Campbell said. “Right now there are lots of natural disasters occurring that will get people worried, whether it’s tornadoesin the South or earthquakes and tsunamis. The United States is now involved in three wars. We’re still in a period of economic uncertainty.”

While Ms. Haddad Carson has quit her job, her husband still works as an engineer for the federal Energy Department. But the children worry that there may not be enough money for college. They also have typical teenage angst — embarrassing parents — only amplified.

“People look at my family and think I’m like that,” said Joseph, their 14-year-old, as his parents walked through the street fair on Ninth Avenue, giving out Bibles. “I keep my friends as far away from them as possible.”

“I don’t really have any motivation to try to figure out what I want to do anymore,” he said, “because my main support line, my parents, don’t care.”

His mother said she accepted that believers “lose friends and you lose family members in the process.”

“I have mixed feelings,” Ms. Haddad Carson said. “I’m very excited about the Lord’s return, but I’m fearful that my children might get left behind. But you have to accept God’s will.”

The children, however, have found something to giggle over. “She’ll say, ‘You need to clean up your room,’ ” Grace said. “And I’ll say, ‘Mom, it doesn’t matter, if the world’s going to end!’ ”

She and her twin, Faith, have a friend’s birthday party Saturday night, around the time their parents believe the rapture will occur.

“So if the world doesn’t end, I’d really like to attend,” Grace said before adding, “Though I don’t know how emotionally able my family will be at that time.”

This article, "Make my bed? But you say the world's ending," first appeared in The New York Times.

[kantuckyII]

I promise you, this world is good for at least 1007+ more years

[Chieftain]

The Jesus freaks are out in force.............................lol

[footballfanatic1]

NO PADUNKI...IN YOUR CASE JUST FREAKS.

[kantuckyII]

The Jesus freaks are out in force.............................lol

No, Bible Believing Christian thinks the world is going to come to an end on the 21st of May. There will be a man who steps onto the scene and Israel will trust him and sign a peace treaty and feel they dwell safely for the first time in their own land. Then...a while later, the whole world will fall down upon Israel. This will be the Tribulation..a 7 year period that starts with the rapture of the Church. Then...the man will step onto the scene and be revealed who he is. Then..after this 7 year period, there will be a 1,000 year period and THEN, the world will come to an end as God will make all things new.

Now, we're seeing the Bible unfolding in front of our very own eyes. It's so painfully apparent that many Christians are overlooking it

[surfsider]

So you're sayin' I don't have to bother returning this library book?

[seofan_via_dublin]

I'm golfing at 8, drinking by 8:15, and watching a movie with the wife that evening.

If Mr. Camping want the world to end tomorrow, then he needs to push back the time frame till I'm in bed.

[Raiderball]

I'm golfing at 8, drinking by 8:15, and watching a movie with the wife that evening.

If Mr. Camping want the world to end tomorrow, then he needs to push back the time frame till I'm in bed.

Sounds a lot like my day tomorrow.

[moose]

Stop worrying. If you have prepared yourself by living your life intelligently and surrounding yourself with friends who have done the same, none of you are gonna go anywhere tomorrow anyhow.

"Buildest thou an ark out of gopher wood."
"Where am I gonna find gopher wood in the desert?"
"Why dost thou think it is called gopher wood?"

[moose]

hello...........hello?

[kantuckyII]

For every minute that goes by, about 150 people's world WILL end today

[kantuckyII]

...and, by the way, the world isn't (according to them) supposed to come to an end today but rather, the start of the end of the world, with the climax in October. Today, there's supposed to be a big earthquake

[kantuckyII]

I know! I thought the same thing GAHS

[Burg_Grad_77]

bump

[kantuckyII]

[Tiger Lady]

bump