DOOMSDAY PROPHET TO REVEAL DATE OF APOCALYPSE MAY 27TH

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Biblical Doomster Mark Farrell is presenting a series of free lectures – donations are appreciated – in San Francisco this month that will culminate with a final lecture on May 27th in which he promises to reveal the date of the Apocalypse.

That, my friends, is a promise that would make attending the lecture almost worthwhile. I say “almost” because, of course, for me to attend it, I would have to fly from the Mile High City to the City by the Bay. I’m just not that invested in Doomsday. Go figure.

Farrell alerted the San Francisco media with fliers and press releases, promising a free lecture every weekend in May exploring Bible prophesy in a “fully-illustrated series of dynamic lectures” and an “easy-to-understand format.” Probably a Powerpoint.

Farrell, termed an “epic pessimist” by one San Francisco columnist, promises to reveal the truth regarding “the timeline of final events, the location of hell, and ‘what heaven is like’ before finally revealing the actual date of the end of the world at the final lecture on May 27th.”

Not only that, there will be snacks! That’s right, a free lecture and light vegetarian snacks.

Vegetarian snacks? Another reason not to fly there for the big reveal lecture. If it was a prime rib buffet with shrimp cocktails and martinis, well…it would be something to consider.

The snarky columnist did wonder if the vegetarian cuisine would be accompanied by “Kool-Aid refreshments.”

Anyway, that’s the big news from the Bay Area.

May 27th. Something to look forward to.

MORE SNIPPETS FROM EVERYWHERE

Anonymous Letter Writer
The Olympian

“We are definitely in the End Times! The time for God/Jesus to return is soon. How soon I do not know, but tomorrow would not be too soon for me.”

Harold Camping
U.S. preacher who predicted the End of the World twice in 2011

Writing in a letter posted on his ministry’s Website:

“We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ's return. We humbly acknowledge we were wrong about the timing. We have no new evidence pointing to another date for the end of the world.”

Jack Kornfield
Buddhist Teacher and Author
Elevated Existence

Discussing 2012 predictions for the End of the World

“If everyone panicked all would be lost. But if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough to show the way for everyone to survive. So someone on the lifeboat of the world has to be that beacon of steadiness and compassion, and be mindful and free of heart. As you do that, it changes all you touch.”

Gary Demar
Biblical Scholar
Describing a televised debate with a End Times advocate

“He knew who I was, but it was obvious with our conversations between takes that he didn’t have a handle on what I actually believed. I asked him if he was interested in producing a documentary on competing views of Bible prophecy. He was polite in telling me that when he read the Bible, he read prophecy in a literal way. Here was my response: ‘I bet you that I interpret the Bible more literally than you do.’ Silence. I then asked him the following questions:

1. Can you give me one verse that explicitly teaches a pretribulational rapture?
2. Can you point out one verse from the New Testament that teaches that the temple will be rebuilt?
3. Where in Revelation is the seven-year tribulation found?

“He could not identify a single verse in support of any of these end-time beliefs that are very popular with Christians today.”

END OF DAYS! END OF DAYS….OH, NO, WAIT…IT’S ALL GOOD

Recently, the good citizens of Moscow saw several green-tinged clouds sweeping over the city and freaked out!

Armageddon! The Apocalypse!

Ah…no….

“Today Muscovites felt like characters in a disaster film about an alien invasion: people living in the south-west of the city saw that the sky had been colored green,” Russia's weather service reported.

Eerily, the green clouds slipped up on the Russian capital like some virulent alien gas or the angel of death come to dispose of the population. By afternoon, the clouds were over the city proper and office workers and others stared in wonder at the colored sky.

It didn’t help matters that the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid appeared with a headline: "Green clouds are coming toward Moscow. Could it be that the apocalypse is upon us?"

A light coating of green dust began covering streets and cars.

Emergency numbers were called as residents panicked. Was the ominous green cloud the result of an industrial accident? Was it part of some diabolical plot straight out of a James Bond thriller? Was it fallout from some distant, deadly explosion?

No. No. And no.

"This dust is pollen from alder and birch trees which began flowering recently after a slow spring," authorities explained. "The pollen poses danger to people suffering from allergies and asthma, for others it's only seasonal discomfort.”

SURVIVALIST BECOMES A CAUTIONARY TALE

Peter Keller was preparing for the end of the world and had a large gun collection and “often took extra supplies to stockpile at a fort in the woods,” according to his daughter’s boyfriend.

Authorities in Monroe, Washington, believe that on April 22, Keller murdered his 18-year-old daughter and his 41-year-old wife, along with the family’s cat and dog and then set their house on fire.

Initially, Keller was a “person of interest” in the murders; however, he was soon the prime suspect and an arrest warrant for first degree murder was issued.

For whatever reasons, Keller shot his daughter Kaylene and his wife Lynnette in the head with a .22 caliber weapon, then placed a plastic can of gas in a skillet on the stove, turned on a burner and fled.

Last Saturday, SWAT team accompanied by Seattle police officers, located Keller’s “fort,” which was, in fact, an elaborate underground bunker that he had spent eight years secretly constructing in the woods.

“Sheriff’s detectives found clues to the whereabouts of the bunker after processing the crime scene at the house where the women were murdered. Detectives also received tips from citizens who had seen Keller’s truck at the Rattlesnake Ridge Trailhead over the past year,” said Sgt. Cindi West, a King County sheriff’s office spokesperson.

Official documents said that Lynnette Keller’s family “described Peter Keller as reclusive and a man who had a fascination with trains and guns as well as a ‘survivalist mentality’ with distaste for authority.”

After locating Keller’s bunker, the SWAT team blew open the door and entered, finding Keller dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The Sky Valley Chronicle reported: “Inside the bunker detectives say they found 13 guns and a number of shelves filled with boxes of ammunition as well as a stove, a water jug, sealed plastic containers, PVC pipe, a small trailer, a few cans of gasoline, some buckets and a ventilation system.”

While this is a grim and sad story, as 2012 evolves, I worry that it is simple one of many such stories that will appears in the coming months. The stress of Armageddon/End of Days/Doomsday/the Apocalypse may become so great for some with the “survivalist mentality” that ironically they will snap. Frankly, and I don’t mean to sound callus or crude, if they kill themselves, c'est la vie – that’s life and there are those people who self-select to thin the herd – however, when they kill the innocent on their way out, damn them to hell.

PROFESSOR EXAMINES THE APOCALYPSE

Benjamin Reynolds, a professor of religion at Millsap College in Jackson, Mississippi, has penned an academic book – Between Symbolism and Realism: The Use of Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Language in Ancient Jewish Apocalypses 333-53 B.C.E. – that directly confronts the Bible’s alleged apocalyptic messages.

“Often when people argue about the Bible, they accuse each other of taking this or that passage out of context,” he explained. “My book is all about providing that context. It examines the language of ancient Jewish apocalypses like Daniel and Revelation in painstaking detail.”

While contemporary evangelical Christians believe the apocalypse and Second Coming would take place in their lifetimes, Reynolds points out that Christians such as the apostle Paul to Martin Luther also believed that to be the case.

"But what is unique in modern America is the persistence of this thought in the face of several high-profile failed prophecies of the end over the last 100 years or so," he said. "For a lot of people, I think the idea that the end times are near allows people to live with a sense of urgency and vitality."

Reynolds said that such a belief in ancient times assisted people who had been marginalized and were suffering, while today, people believe the Apocalypse is right around the corner as a diversion from “boredom and meaningless consumption.”

Having used the Dead Sea Scrolls extensively in his analysis, Reynolds explained that “because these texts contain eccentric, symbolic language that is, at times, bizarre and otherworldly…people often look for otherworldly explanations of the texts.

“But by examining parallels from the very same time period, my book shows that in its own time, the language was not bizarre at all. Once we overcome our modern confusion and discomfort with the language of apocalypses, we are able to use that language to reconstruct the religion, politics and history of the time periods in which they were actually produced.

"The biblical apocalypses do not reveal how the world will end in our lifetimes. We find in them compelling stories of faith in the face of terrible persecution and demoralizing occupation.”

Wow, is that refreshing!

GETTING READY FOR THE PANDEMIC…NO, REALLY!

Okay, I admit, I mock the Doomsday Preppers. I truly believe a lot of them are overwrought and prone to unnecessary paranoia. However, a recent report on the PR Web demonstrates that extreme positions can still result in good ideas.

For example, there’s ContagionSurvival.com. While currently there is an over abundance of survival companies online, Contagion Survival has introduced an “inexpensive pandemic kit that is affordable for an entire family, or even an entire neighborhood.”

While they have a kit with a lot of materials, they introduced one for individuals costing $9.95 and holding some important survival supplies, including:

• Coveralls w/Zipper (blue for adults, white for children)

• Hair Net

• Goggles

• N95 Respirator Mask w/Exhalation Valve

• Latex Gloves 2-pair

• Bio-Hazard Disposal Bag

• PAWS Antimicrobial Handwipes - 2

• Hand Sanitizer Gel Packs - 2

It’s not the be-all and end-all of survival gear, but it is affordable and provides the basics should another pandemic strike. 

“Whether the show scares you or inspires you, ‘Doomsday Preppers’ leaves you with a sense of insecurity that can only be remedied through an active effort in personal preparedness,” says General Manager T. West of ContagionSurvival's parent company FirstAidGlobalWholesale. “Our company has been providing earthquake kits and emergency preparedness supplies for fifteen years, but I never recognized just how vulnerable we would all be during a worldwide pandemic until I became a regular viewer. We’ve already had a major outbreak of Avian Flu in 2003, and the World Health Organization as well as the CDC predict that a devastating worldwide Pandemic is almost inevitable.”

Ok, the forgoing is a sales pitch wrapped in a bit of hysteria. Still, it’s prudent to be prepared.

I’ll leave you with this from the PR Wire story: “According to a recent poll from liveleak.com, 42% have thought about prepping, 42% think that preppers are crazy, while just 18% are avid preppers. The First Aid Global companies are focused on the 42% who have thought about it but haven't done anything yet.”

DOOMSTERS TRIED TO MOVE THE CLOCK BACK!

May Day!

I remember back in the mid-50s when May Day was a day little nippers gave May baskets filled with candy to one another. I think I even recall a May pole around which little nippers danced and sang (reluctantly, I’m certain). That all stopped when the Soviets became using May Day for their annual military parade through Red Square. It was a frightening show of force and military might. Very scary stuff.

Well, here it is, May Day. Not May poles or May baskets and no Soviets parading through Red Square. I suppose, May Day is just a distress call now and the beginning of May Sweeps during which TV networks and channels are rated on their viewership hour-by-hour to determine their future advertising rates.

Yeah, the May Day luster has gone away. However, last year May 21, 2011 had special significance and offered us new fodder for fun.

Huh?

From the Website Judgment Day is December 21, 2012: “God speaks of the end of days, rapture of believers, and Judgment day in the Bible. There are numerous signs that Jesus will return to Earth on May 21, 2011 for Judgment Day of earthly creatures. The Bible tells us that the true believers will be saved, and brought to Heaven, while those who do not believe will live their final days on the Earth that God is preparing to destroy.

“Judgment Day is nearing, we can see that God’s 7 Signs of the Apocalypse are upon us, and that May 21 of this year appears to be the target date for the return of Jesus.”

That was last year’s prediction, the famous Harold Camping pronouncement that didn’t happen. By the by, the website’s name sort of distracts from the pronouncement, doesn’t it? If Judgment Day is 12/21/12 why did they ballyhoo 05/21/11?

And how about those pesky seven signs?

1. The many “false prophets” that will deceive many.

2. Wars and rumors of wars

3. Famines

4. Earthquakes

5. Persecutions and tortures to the true followers

6. Lawlessness . . . the love of many will grow cold

7. This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world

At the risk of sounding like a heathen, doesn’t the foregoing sound like every period in recorded history? In fact, haven’t there been periods in history that make today seem like it’s all rainbows and unicorns?

Well, we know Camping was wrong. He subsequently moved the date to October and he was still wrong. Now we have 12/21/12 to look forward to. Life is good!