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You may have seen them in the Triad, across North Carolina, and throughout the United States. Billboards stating that the end of the world in May 21, 2011.
It's part of a world-wide publicity blitz by a broadcast ministry called Family Radio, based in Oakland, Calif. The short version: Founder Harold Camping believes through a complex set of numerological calculations, one can date the creation of the world, Noah's flood and other events described in the Bible, then extrapolate when the Bible "guarantees" the world will end.
Camping contends that God warned Noah that global judgment would occur in seven days. From that he concludes that this refers not only to the Genesis account of the flood but also another day of judgment seven "days" (millennia) later. And to top it off, he concludes that this decree can be dated back exactly 7,000 years from May 21 (based on the Hebrew calendar.)
"The Bible has given us absolute proof that the year 2011 is the end of the world during the Day of Judgment, which will come on the last day of the Day of Judgment," said his website.
It should be noted that there is a long history of people predicting the end of the world unsuccessfully - Camping himself in 1994, which he attributed to a miscalculation.
One medieval sect confidently expected the world's end in 1260.
Then there was the "Great Disappointment" when people in the early Adventist movement expected the Second Coming on specific dates in the 1840s and were not obliged.
Some doomsday sects have arisen in recent years, citing biblical or other religious sources. Camping's May 21, 2011, date has to share space on the doomsday calendar with others' predictions of a 2012 apocalypse, based on some calculations involving the Mayan calendar.
Family Radio spokesman Michael Garcia acknowledged in an interview that reaction to his group's media blitz has been largely negative. "The majority are a bit upset," he said. But he contended that people should react with repentance the way that the people of ancient Nineveh did in a biblical story in which the prophet Jonah predicted doom in 40 days.
Their attitude wasn't 'Come on, (what will you do on) the 41st day and the 42nd day, when you're wrong?'" he said.
What about the Bible verse in which Jesus says that no one will know the day and hour of his second coming? Even most of those who believe the Bible predicts the end in detail won't predict a specific date.
Camping's website, however, says the few that are saved can discern the end through special divine insight. The majority in spiritual darkness can't, he argues, and he includes those in churches in that indictment.
When Garcia was asked about the amount of dollars the group paid for the ads, and where it got its money.
"That's not going to be information I'll be able to release to the public," Garcia said.
1,200 billboards nation-wide and 2,000 more in dozens of foreign countries, in addition to other media and people passing out the information by hand. A Boston Herald
report estimates the billboard campaign costs at least $3 million.
Christians across the theological spectrum see little merit in the prediction.
"Harold Camping has already taken us through this before," said Russell Moore, a dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
"From a standpoint of Christian orthodoxy the claim is ridiculous," he added. "If Jesus claims not to know the time of his coming, I find it odd that Harold Camping would know. Rather than speculating about particular days or seasons, we should be always ready for the coming of Christ."
Susan Garrett, professor of New Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, said Camping's complex numerology comes from a "pick-and-choose reading of the Scriptures" rather than seeing each biblical book in its own context. She argued that many numbers in prophetic books are "entirely symbolic" rather than codes for future events.
"There are plenty of Christians who don't really concern themselves with such predictions, who affirm that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, but don't claim to know how and when," she added. "Their emphasis is more on living in readiness."
It's part of a world-wide publicity blitz by a broadcast ministry called Family Radio, based in Oakland, Calif. The short version: Founder Harold Camping believes through a complex set of numerological calculations, one can date the creation of the world, Noah's flood and other events described in the Bible, then extrapolate when the Bible "guarantees" the world will end.
Camping contends that God warned Noah that global judgment would occur in seven days. From that he concludes that this refers not only to the Genesis account of the flood but also another day of judgment seven "days" (millennia) later. And to top it off, he concludes that this decree can be dated back exactly 7,000 years from May 21 (based on the Hebrew calendar.)
"The Bible has given us absolute proof that the year 2011 is the end of the world during the Day of Judgment, which will come on the last day of the Day of Judgment," said his website.
It should be noted that there is a long history of people predicting the end of the world unsuccessfully - Camping himself in 1994, which he attributed to a miscalculation.
One medieval sect confidently expected the world's end in 1260.
Then there was the "Great Disappointment" when people in the early Adventist movement expected the Second Coming on specific dates in the 1840s and were not obliged.
Some doomsday sects have arisen in recent years, citing biblical or other religious sources. Camping's May 21, 2011, date has to share space on the doomsday calendar with others' predictions of a 2012 apocalypse, based on some calculations involving the Mayan calendar.
Family Radio spokesman Michael Garcia acknowledged in an interview that reaction to his group's media blitz has been largely negative. "The majority are a bit upset," he said. But he contended that people should react with repentance the way that the people of ancient Nineveh did in a biblical story in which the prophet Jonah predicted doom in 40 days.
Their attitude wasn't 'Come on, (what will you do on) the 41st day and the 42nd day, when you're wrong?'" he said.
What about the Bible verse in which Jesus says that no one will know the day and hour of his second coming? Even most of those who believe the Bible predicts the end in detail won't predict a specific date.
Camping's website, however, says the few that are saved can discern the end through special divine insight. The majority in spiritual darkness can't, he argues, and he includes those in churches in that indictment.
When Garcia was asked about the amount of dollars the group paid for the ads, and where it got its money.
"That's not going to be information I'll be able to release to the public," Garcia said.
1,200 billboards nation-wide and 2,000 more in dozens of foreign countries, in addition to other media and people passing out the information by hand. A Boston Herald
report estimates the billboard campaign costs at least $3 million.
Christians across the theological spectrum see little merit in the prediction.
"Harold Camping has already taken us through this before," said Russell Moore, a dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
"From a standpoint of Christian orthodoxy the claim is ridiculous," he added. "If Jesus claims not to know the time of his coming, I find it odd that Harold Camping would know. Rather than speculating about particular days or seasons, we should be always ready for the coming of Christ."
Susan Garrett, professor of New Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, said Camping's complex numerology comes from a "pick-and-choose reading of the Scriptures" rather than seeing each biblical book in its own context. She argued that many numbers in prophetic books are "entirely symbolic" rather than codes for future events.
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