Ahh, remember the month of May? Very springy, flushing with new life and flowers, the mornings completely awash in sunshine. Seasonably warm temperatures, with a nice mild breeze about to give way into summer, when all the festivals kick off and Milwaukee becomes party central.

Wait, what am I talking about? This past May has been drenched with rain, blown about by gale-force winds, has been absolutely freezing at times, and has had more fog than sunshine. Not typical May weather in Wisconsin. Well, for most of the country (and the world, it seems), the entire year has started off with a bang – and not a good one. Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, oh my! It really seems as though the “rapture” may well be upon us.

And that is the exact message of one Mr. Harold Camping, the founder of Family Radio, a Christian broadcasting network in Oakland. And unlike the Raiders, people are listening to him. Why?

Well, for one, he does have a great radio following. Family Radio boasts some 1.5 million regular listeners nationwide (exact numbers were unavailable as of this writing), which is a substantial number of persons. But more than that is his latest message: That The End will have happened this year. Specifically, he touted that he had divined the date and time of The Rapture, an event many Christians believe will occur before, during, or after the trials put forth in the Book of Revelations(there is some disagreement as to what order the events take place) •Fun fact: The word Rapture is mentioned nowhere in The Bible. Camping specifically had placed the Rapture at 6:00 p.m. on May 21, 2011. Now THAT’S narrowing it down.

Aside from the question of where Camping gets his numbers, there are some biblical passages that tend to disagree with the idea that Camping really knows. As I remember from Sunday School, The Lord specifically mentions that He alone knows the date and time, and that no man will ever be privy to such knowledge. I mean, even The Son was not given this information. So, what makes Camping so special?

Well, that’s where the story really gets fuzzy. According to Camping, May 21st would have been exactly 7,000 years after the great flood. Then he points out that, according to The Lord, He will unmake the world in seven days. And finally, he highlights that, “….To The Lord, a thousand years is as a day…” which means that time is really irrelevant to God.

Now, I will not discount any believer their belief – what you believe is your right to believe. However, as a rational man, I must question his mathematics. First off, the arbitrary date from which Camping claims the Great Flood happened. Unfortunately for Camping, some evangelists claim that the planet isn’t even old enough to support his theory. Even if, how can we possibly know that May 21 is EXACTLY 7,000 years later?

To give you some perspective, that’s 2,556,750 days. That’s an awful long time between dates, and what if the Great Flood was in a Leap Year? What about when we changed calendars, which only happened multiple times throughout human history? Does that affect it? What about when Pope Gregory XIII skipped ten whole days in 1582? These events should be taken into account.

But that’s not the only issue. Aside from his straw-hat math, Camping seems more to be affronting the Lord by making such a bold claim. The Lord has spoken that He, and only He, knows when The End is coming. So, claiming to have some insight into God’s Divine Plan, would amount to heresy, in the very least – which is not looked upon kindly in the Christian (or indeed, any doctrine of faith’s) world. Isn’t that grounds for not getting into Heaven? So, by spreading his theory about the End Times, he is in fact working counter-productive to himself – which, from my standpoint, is senseless. I should think he would be more concerned with making sure that his atonement is complete, and he is ready for the pearly gates.

But the most bizarre twist in this story is that Camping seems to be manipulating followers by using their faith against them. He has organized several travelling caravans, from Tampa, FL to Pennsylvania, to Texas. What shocks me is that some of these believers have their faith so heavily vested in Camping, that they have simply walked away from their jobs, homes, spouses, children, and everything else – they have simply abandoned their lives for their faith. Now, in the presence of faith, I can’t repudiate someone for answering the call – that would be expected. However, I take issue with the fact that they put their faith in a human, instead of The Lord. The call they heard was not of the heart, but of the radio dial. Some followers didn’t even lock the door as they left – they simply left their homes open as they walked away, expecting to never return.

Again, I can’t deny anyone their belief, be it Christian, Judaic, Muslim, Hindu. However, as a human being, I am offended that this man would take advantage of someone’s spiritual beliefs like that. It wouldn’t be the first time in history, but aren’t we better than that? Convincing someone to leave their entire world behind to stroll across the country spreading gloom and doom – that seems like an abuse of power to me.

Now, my final question: What happens if May 21 rolls on by, no Rapture, and all these people are stuck without the lives they had worked so hard to build, the homes and families they made? I’m not a gambler (anymore), but I’m putting my chips on the bet that on May 22, we will all wake up, and the Earth will have changed, as it always does, but not in the manner Camping prescribes. What will become of his followers?

Author’s edit: Since the first draft of this story, the aforementioned date has transpired, and – SURPRISE! – The Rapture must have simply forgotten to happen. Camping has now resorted to insisting that he got the date wrong (like many of his historical counterparts), but that the world will still be subject to the Tribulations come October 21. It pains me to inform you all that many of his followers that simply abandoned their lives and lost what they had for Camping’s sake are still avid listeners and followers of what can be best described as an unreliable source for divine information. I guess we will see Oct 21. See you in the Fall!

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of Josh Wilke, and do not represent the views or opinions of MATC or its paper, the MATC Times.