Judgment Day will occur one year from this past Friday on Saturday May 21, 2011. Most people have been falsely told that no one can know when Christ returns…this is not true; the Bible clearly says that true Christians WILL know in advance the time when Christ returns. 

In I Thessalonians 5:1 we read “But of the times and seasons brethren, ye have no need that I write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the LORD so cometh as a Thief in the Night.  For when they shall say ‘Peace and safety;’ then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye brethren, are not in darkness, that that Day should overtake you as a Thief.  Ye are all the children of the Light, and the children of the day; We are not of the night; not of the darkness…”

Further, in Revelation 3:3 the Bible says “…If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a Thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.”  [see Revelation 16:15].   The Bible describes these who “WATCH” in 30 passages [a comprehensive listing is available upon request]. 

Some claim even Jesus doesn’t know the timing of Judgment Day – this is a very serious claim as ALL the Bible from its very first verse to the last is written to show that Jesus is God Almighty, Jesus said of the Scriptures “…these are they that testify of Me…” and He said clearly in John 3:13 that “He was in Heaven while on earth,” and Jesus said “he that hath seen Me hath seen the father…” and Jesus is called “the Everlasting father…” in Isaiah 9:6. There are literally hundreds of verses like this. Those who want to claim that Jesus is something less than God, are in deep, deep trouble. Much more can be said of this very dark claim; but please remember if you are resting in Mark 13:32, that several are called “son” in Scripture. In that verse “the son” refers to Satan, who is called the “son of wickedness” (Psalm 89:22) and the “son of perdition” (John 17:22, 2 Thessalonians 2:3).

There are several verses about knowing the timing of the End, just like these above, in Hebrews 10:25, Matthew 24:36 AND 37, Matthew 24:43ff, etc. Jesus gives examples of His return in Luke 17 of Noah and the Flood and of Lot at Sodom and Gomorrah. In both cases they had advance warning of those horrible judgments. In fact, in ALL, every single one, of God’s fierce Judgments in the Bible, God gave ADVANCE warning of the timing: Noah [120 years, then a 2nd warning at 7 days], Moses and Aaron [the 10 Plagues of the Exodus], Moses and the killing of the 14,950 Jewish Temple servants by fire and quake in Numbers 15 & 16, Joshua and Jericho [the 2 million Jews circled 13 times in 7 days], Jonah and Ninevah [40 days]….according to clear Scriptures.

How can you specifically know that the Day of Judgment will begin Saturday May 21, 2011 and end 5 months later on October 21, 2011?  The Bible, beginning in Genesis 5 and 11, and continued later, has a “calendar” of all 13,023 years of the existence of the Universe….precise, without gaps…showing that the resurrection of the Saints, the “Rapture,” will be on Saturday May 21, 2011, and the destruction of the Universe by fire follows shortly thereafter [details from the Bible available upon request].

Further, the Bible shows that the Flood was in 4990 BC [Genesis 5], and it will be 7,000 years ago, to the day, next May 21, 2011 [subtract one – there is no year “0”]…further, the Bible shows clearly that Jacob was born in 2007 BC [Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel”] and then 1,000 years later, in 1007 BC, David was crowned King of Israel [Jews, worldwide, celebrated this 3,000th anniversary in AD 1994 (a Jubilee year)].

My wife and I were invited to Jerusalem to also celebrate…how sad that Christians seemed unaware of something so obvious; the Bible shows that Jesus was born in 7 BC, just before wicked King Herod’s death (exactly 1,000 years after David’s Coronation).

Israel as a nation (Christ’s earthly, visible kingdom) lasted about 2,000 years, and the Church, Christ’s 2nd earthly kingdom, also lasted about 2,000 years – and, like the nation of Israel has been [spiritually] destroyed as promised [I Peter 4:17, Jeremiah 23:20, 30:24, Ezekiel  9, Matthew 24:16 ff, Mark 13:14 ff, Luke 21:20 ff]. 

The Bible shows that Creation to the Flood was 6,023 years [Genesis 5], and the Flood to Calvary was 5,023 years, according to a series of Scriptures, and Creation to Judgment Day on Saturday, May 21, 2011 is 13,023 years precisely. Those extra 23 years are the exact time of the “Great Tribulation,” and the number “23” is used throughout Scripture to denote “judgment” [Daniel 8:14, I Corinthians 10:8, etc.].

The 70 “weeks” of Daniel 9 point to May 21, 2011; and so do the 7-year (84 months) “Great Tribulation” of Jacob, the 70-year (840 months) “Great Tribulation” of Israel/Judah of Daniel 9:2 [etc.], and the 23-year (8,400 days) “Great Tribulation” of our day.  All these time references give precision to understanding the timing of the Day of Judgment on Saturday May 21st 2011.

These are just a few of dozens of Bible “time paths” to the Rapture of the elect on Saturday, May 21st 2011 – one year from last Friday. This date cannot be changed, held back, or wished away. It will be the day of Christ’s return in fiery judgment. All approximately 7 billion living on that Day, including me, will be held to account – even for every “idle word” we have spoken [Matthew 12:36] – a fearful thing. 

The Bible predicts that “scoffers” will arise, and they surely have, but they have no Biblical basis to disprove any of this which has been carefully obtained from Scripture [II Peter 3:3-15].  By God’s grace, people all over the world have become aware of Judgment Day next year. In Daniel 12, God says twice that it will be at the time of the End [now] that He will open up an understanding of the End.

There are many “signs of the times” that Jesus alluded to in Matthew 16:3 and other verses from this very time in history [upon request I will send you 50 that refer specifically to this time].

All of this is why some of the greatest, most faithful Bible teachers, especially of the last 500 years, taught that God’s people will know the timing of the End. Yes, kooks and cultists have set false dates for Christ’s Second Coming (generally by reasoning outside of the Bible), but many wise and godly men have realized that there is nothing in Scripture to preclude God’s people from knowing the time of the coming Judgment and that the Bible contains the date of the End.

If we fear this Judgment Day in just short of one year, what should we do?  I urge you to read the small Book of Jonah and see what the King and his kingdom did when told of the coming of Judgment Day…they “cried mightily to God,” and He heard.

The very saddest part of Judgment Day is that God has promised to send a “strong delusion” to professing Christians regarding that day [II Thessalonians 2:11], and Jesus warned that many will come to May 21, 2011 and be shocked to find they really weren’t real Christians after all.  They will go into eternal damnation along with the rest of the unsaved (see Matthew 7: 21-23, and Matthew 25:1-12).

May God choose to let His Mercy and Grace fall on you and your loved ones, and on me and mine.  You can discover all the Bible says about the End at familyradio.com, or at ebiblefellowship.com.

A message crafted by an ancient intelligence millennia ago…

 

encoded with a message critical to the hopes of all mankind…

 

transmitted to and dutifully recorded by human scribes…

 

who were unaware of the import of the words they were writing…

 

published in a collection of books that have been read, studied, and debated for centuries…

 

the true meaning of which is unlocked at a point in history when enlightened men have gained the ability to decode it…

If you were guessing that this is the plot of an upcoming Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich (creators of Stargate and Independence Day) film or a new Dan Brown (author of Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code, and The Lost Symbol) novel, you’d have guessed incorrectly.  The scenario summarized actually concerns God, the Bible, the various Books of the Old and New Testaments, the writers of those books, and the Parousia, Rapture, Judgment Day, and End of Time respectively.

And, according to Harold Camping, Founder and President of Family Stations, Inc. – a Christian ministry with global radio and Web broadcast facilities, God has revealed May 21, 2011 as the date for Jesus’ Return and October 21, 2011 as the date on which the Earth and Universe will be destroyed and replaced by the New Creation, God’s everlasting Kingdom.

To understand Mr. Camping’s teachings, one must consider their philosophical underpinnings.  Mr. Camping believes that the Bible is the infallible and only Word of God through which He speaks to His people – that is, those whom he has chosen from before the foundation of the world.  At the time of the Rapture, these are the ones – both those alive on that date and those resurrected from their graves – whose bodies will be transformed into their eternal glorified bodies and who will meet Jesus in the air.  The remainder of the world’s population and lifeless remains of the rest of mankind that will spew forth from the Earth as a result of the great worldwide earthquake of May 21, 2011, will face God’s wrath during the Day of Judgment, the 153-day period concluding with the destruction of the world and universe on October, 21, 2011.

To determine these dates accurately and validate the legitimacy of these predictions, Mr. Camping relies upon two other fundamental principles:  first, Biblical passages must be interpreted in the context of the Bible as a whole, and second, scripture must be compared with scripture to ascertain its true meaning.  Mr. Camping views the Bible as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  Thus, while Bible stories may provide historical accounts of actual occurrences, they also are an allegory – symbolizing events and participants in the present day.  And so, the Biblical nation of Israel often symbolizes the Christian Churches and Jerusalem represents Heaven.

But, accurate analysis of the Bible and knowledge regarding the timing of the world’s end depend upon revelation from God, a revelation to his true believers that Mr. Camping asserts could not take place before the commencement of the Great Tribulation.  As evidence, he points to the book of Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelation in the New Testament.  In the 12^th Chapter of Daniel, God is speaking to Daniel about end-times and instructs him to “shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4).  In Revelation Chapters 5 through 8, Christ opens a book with seven seals.

Mr. Camping, analyzing these chapters in the context of the Bible as a whole, indicates that the book in Revelation is the very same book mentioned in Daniel.  According to Mr. Camping, the final seal on that book was broken on May 21, 1988, the date that he correlates with the beginning of the Great Tribulation – a 23-year period ending with the Rapture on May 21, 2011 and commencement of the Day of Judgment.

During the Great Tribulation, Mr. Camping posits, Satan is loosed on the Earth, and his rule extends even to the Churches.  Thus, true believers, those chosen by God who will join Jesus at the Rapture, have left the Churches and those remaining, including clergy, are following and proselytizing a false Gospel and actually engaging in apostasy.  Needless to say, Mr. Camping’s teachings are not popular among those in the traditional Christian denominations.

Yet, Mr. Camping is undeterred, unequivocal, and supremely confident in spreading the Word as he perceives it.  He points to a number of “proofs” provided by God that indicate that his calculations have been done accurately.  These proofs rely heavily upon numerology.

Mr. Camping, like many others Biblical scholars, attributes spiritual significance to certain numbers.  The number 3, he asserts is representative of “God’s purpose.”  The number 5 signifies “atonement” or “redemption.”  10 or 100 or 1,000 represent “completeness.”  The number 17 is associated with “heaven.”  And, 23 signifies “destruction.”

While it is not my intention to present all of the proofs revealed, I will highlight the techniques employed to give readers a sense for their nature and substance.  Mr. Camping has calculated that Jesus’ crucifixion took place on April 1, 33 A.D. and bases this date on a study of the Biblical information on Jesus’ life along with known historical data.  The Crucifixion marked the beginning of what Camping refers to as the Church Age, that ended with the commencement of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 1988.  The length of the Church Age, therefore, was 1955 years.  The number 1955 is the product of three prime numbers:  5 x 17 x 23.  Thus, “atonement” or “redemption” brings “Heaven” or brings God’s “destruction,” a phrase echoing 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 – “¹⁵For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. ¹⁶To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”

Furthermore, there are 722,500 days between Jesus’ crucifixion and his return on May 21, 2011.  722,500 is the product of two repeating sets of spiritually significant numbers:  5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17.  Mr. Camping interprets this as “The atonement or redemption demonstrated by Christ’s suffering and death on April 1, 33 A.D. (the number 5) is 100% completed on May 21, 2011 (the number 10) when all the true believers are raptured into Heaven (the number 17).”  The sequence is doubled to “indicate that it has been established by God and will shortly come to pass” in accordance with Genesis 41:32, “And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.”

In 1970, Camping published a book entitled The Biblical Calendar of History in which he calculated the date of the Creation as 11,013 B.C. and of the Great Flood as 4,990 B.C.  According to the Genesis account, the Great Flood occurred on the 17^th day of the second month of the Hebrew calendar.  This equates to May 21^st of our modern calendar.  In 2 Peter 3:8, God stated, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  If you add 4,990 + 2,011 and subtract 1 (to account for the fact that there was no year 0), you arrive at the number 7000 – making May 21, 2011 exactly 7,000 years from the date of the Great Flood.  And by May 21, 2011, the world is projected to have nearly 7 billion people inhabiting it.  Oh, by the way, did I mention that the number 7 represents “spiritual perfection?”

Is Harold Camping correct that on May 21, 2011, this world will be “perfected” with Jesus’ return to collect the true believers and usher in 153 days of God’s wrath and judgment ending with total annihilation of mankind and this universe and creation of a new Heaven and new Earth?  Or, will he join such notables as William Miller, a Baptist preacher and founder of what would become the Seventh Day Adventist Church who concluded that Christ’s Second Coming and the end of the world would occur sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, or for that matter himself, who questioned (albeit without his current level of conviction) whether 1994 might signal Jesus’ long-awaited return?

Obviously, the jury is still out on this question.  Yet, if you consider yourself to be a Christian, is the thought of Christ’s imminent return a source of hope or fear for you?  And, whether a Christian or not, do you number yourself among the many who intuit events portending imminent disaster?

Is Harold Camping a prophet of the Lord or a product of a civilization drifting aimlessly from crisis to crisis while desperately seeking answers?  Is time running out?

 

For more information, visit the Family Radio Website (http://www.familyradio.com/) where you will find literature (http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/frame/) providing information of intricate detail on the subjects discussed in this article.

Related Posts:

May 21, 2011: Judgment Day!

  

Harold Camping: False Prophet or Herald of God?

  

It is Finished: God’s Final Warning

 Assembling the Timeline of History – Part I

 Assembling the Timeline of History – Part II

Assembling the Timeline of History – Part III

  

Assembling the Timeline of History – Part IV

  

Judgment Day: Less than One-Half Year Away

 

A Word of Warning

Signs of the Times

May 21, 2011: Judgment Day Scenario Unfolds