The Mayans were wrong - this loony has it all worked out

[mr blur]

Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.


"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."

The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.

The Mayans and the recent Hollywood movie "2012" have put the apocalypse in the popular mind this year, but Camping has been at this business for a long time. And while Armageddon is pop science or big-screen entertainment to many, Camping has followers from the Bay Area to China.

Camping, 88, has scrutinized the Bible for almost 70 years and says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Good Book. One night a few years ago, Camping, a civil engineer by trade, crunched the numbers and was stunned at what he'd found: The world will end May 21, 2011.

<snip>

(He uses Math and everything!: )

By Camping's understanding, the Bible was dictated by God and every word and number carries a spiritual significance. He noticed that particular numbers appeared in the Bible at the same time particular themes are discussed.

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

"Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved.

Not much time left, then...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/BA8V1AV589.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0bP2FniJR

[onager]

1. We're safe, his calculations only affect Western Xians.

By my own calculations, we can save ourselves by immediately converting to the Jewish, Muslim or Chinese calendars.

Thanks for this. It's so much delicious stupid. A perfect example of how poor innocent numbers can be tortured into proving anything.

I love this part:

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Most of the grumps in this group know all this, but it's a slow Sunday...

Our math genius is calculating the birth of the Alleged Christ in Year One of the Western calendar.

Damn, talk about a literalist! I haven't seen anyone use that date since I was about 7 years old in Baptist Sunday School.

With its usual consistency and historical accuracy, the New Testament gives two different events that took place approximately when JHC was born: the death of Herod The Great, around 4 BCE, and the Roman census of Quirinius in 6 CE.

So the Holy Brat was born sometime between those two events. If we make the rather large assumption that the gospel writers even got that much history right.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. "It's like a fairy tale"

Because it has "not one stitch of biblical authority."

Speechlessness!