In the early 60's there was a song written by Pete Seeger that has been referred to as one of the biggest anti-war (at that time, Viet Nam) songs ever. It was a huge hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary. I liked the song. I just liked the melody and PP&M's harmony. I still do. Titled, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" the song depicted all the flowers having been picked by the pretty girls who having taken young husbands who were called to be soldiers and who, having lost their lives in war, had their graves decorated with the flowers picked by those young girls. You can find the full lyrics at this website: http://arlo.net/resources/lyrics/flowers-gone.shtml. I think the point of the song is "when will they ever learn the tragedy and futility of war?"
That song came to mind after all the hoopla about the rapture having been supposed to occur on May 21 "to be followed by a five month period of great suffering known as the Tribulation, ending, finally, on October 21." For months, because of the predictions of one Harold Camping, an 89-year old retired civil engineer, on his multi-million dollar international network of Family Radio, his followers had been making preparation to be caught up to heaven in the rapture. "They spent months warning the world of the apocalypse, some giving away earthly belongings or draining their savings accounts. And so they waited, vigilantly, on Saturday for the appointed hour to arrive." (AP, 5/21). One Staten Island, NY believer had spent his own money to buy advertising to tell Times' Square visitors of the approaching end of the world. After it didn't occur, the Associated Press said of him, '"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."' The AP also told of "Keith Bauer, a Maryland tractor-trailer driver who drove his family cross-country to witness the rapture at Family Radio's California headquarters. I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth," Bauer said. Some even held "rapture parties" on May 21 in anticipation of its occurrence.
The failure of Camping's predictions to come true left him fumbling for an explanation and his followers not knowing what to believe. Camping had adamantly asserted that "it will happen." When a reporter asked him a day or two prior to the set date, "If it doesn't happen, can we talk again on May 22?", Camping explained that he couldn't even think of that since it was certain to occur. The AP stated, '"Radio evangelist Harold Camping said in a special broadcast Monday night on his radio program Open Forum that his predicted May 21, 2011 rapture was "an invisible judgment day" that he has come to understand as a spiritual, rather than physical event.
"We had all of our dates correct," Camping insisted, clarifying that he now understands that Christ's May 21st arrival was "a spiritual coming" ushering in the last five months before the final judgment and destruction. He is now "insisting that his teaching has not changed and that the world will still end on October 21, 2011." He further stated, "It won't be spiritual on October 21st, the world is going to be destroyed all together, but it will be very quick."
This is not Camping's first miscalculation. His 1994 apocalyptic prediction's failure he attributed to a "mathematical error." He said, "I'm not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature." Camping, a retired civil engineer, based his predictions on his "Biblical numerology."
Nor is Camping the first to make such a prediction, only to have it fail. Charles Wesley, one of the founders, along with his brother, of Methodism is said to have thought the end of the world would be 1794. Despite his error, his brother "John predicted that 1836 would be the year that the Great Beast would come to earth, marking the beginning of the end." http://listverse.com/2008/09/18/top-10-failed-apocalyptic-predictions/
Not the least of the false prophets of the end is the Jehovah's Witnesses of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. In fact I have in my library a book by their J.F. Rutherford copyrighted in 1920 and entitled "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" because the "new heavens and the new earth" were to begin in 1925. I also have a copy of a 1968 newspaper article (The Louisville Times, October 10, 1968) that brother James P. Needham had clipped and filed away and which he then published in his church bulletin on Aug. 18, 1975. The article reported on the JW's prediction that "1975 Is Key Year on End of World."
The source sited above regarding Charles and John Wesley states, "The Jehovah's Witness religion has made a number of predictions about the end of the world. The first was 1914 - they based their prediction on prophecies from the Book of Daniel. After the end did not come, they changed the meaning of the prediction and stated that it was the date that Jesus would begin to rule invisibly (yes - invisibly). Some other years that the group have predicted the end of the world to come are: 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975 and 1994, etc. One member of the cult actually built a house for the Jewish prophets to live in when they returned to earth as part of the end times."
Many will remember stories of the Heaven's Gate cult and their mass suicide in March of 1997. An amateur astronomer had reported observing a "companion object" following the Hale-Bopp Comet, and "The Heaven's Gate cult felt this was their signal to commit mass suicide in March of 1997. The cult believed the companion object was a spaceship coming to pick them up only to be reached by leaving their Earthly vessels behind."
When will the end-of-the-world date setters ever learn concerning the coming of the day of the Lord that they can't know any more than what the Bible has revealed? The Lord Himself said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heave, but My Father only" (Matt. 24:36). Jesus also said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority" (Acts 1:7). There are some things that are declared to be secret things that belong only unto the Lord our God. Only those things that are revealed "belong unto us and our children for ever..." (Deut. 29:29).
All this having been said, however, be assured that while we do not know when, "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night..." (2 Pet. 3:10). And that behooves all to be prepared.
- The Sterling Herald, 5/29/11