May 21 the End of the World? Why you should enjoy the day and not worry

So it's all over the news, even the secular media, the world is ending on May 21. Here I will give reasons why this is nonsense responding to the information behind the idea at http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/outreach/tracts/may21/:

1. Jesus didn't even know the day or the hour. Despite his claims, we can't take this guy seriously! When he appeals to Dan 12:4, 9 it is nonsense, Jesus specifically taught we don't know when it will happen, and then gave a series of stories in Matt 25 to tell us to be ready on that basis – no one knows. There will be signs, but it will come as a thief in the night.
   
2. His method of working through to the end of the world is nonsense. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TUSYbrXplk; http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/may-21-2011-harold-campings-calculations-for-the-end-of-the-world/2011/05/18/AFja9b6G_blog.html. It is a form of Gnosticism, so common among Christians. They think they have the secret 'code' which gives them the gnosis ('knowledge'). It is nonsense because:
   
   1. The chronology of the Bible is incomplete and you cannot build anything certain on it. So the date of creation (11,013 BC), date of the flood (4,990 BC) is gloriously humorous and flawed.
      
   2. The specificity of dates is nonsense assuming certainty of the date of the birth of Jesus, 7BC. Who says? We are unsure, sometime 8-4BC likely. The date of Jesus' death is disputed by scholars, might be 33 AD April 1, but could be three years earlier.
      
   3. The idea that 1988 is the end of the church age is even more ridiculous. What is the 'church age'? It is not even mentioned in the Bible. Why are people at church now then? That is, to put it bluntly, wack!
      
   4. Quite why the tribulation has to be then and 23 years long is beyond me. Bizarre! Wonder if there are drugs involved.
      
   5. The idea that 1994, Sept 7 is the end of the tribulation, I have no idea! What tribulation? I am not aware that things were worse in the period he mentions! Then the time of the latter rain began? What is this time, not mentioned in the Bible again. He talks of a great multitude of people being saved? Where? Asia, there has been many, Africa? Christianity continues to decline in the west. This is, as Paul might call it in Phil 3, skubalon.
      
   6. The sequence of thought, 7 days (Gen 7:4)- 7,000 years - 'day is like a thousand years' (2 Pet 3:8) – certain numbers are divine – is abject futility. Who says the world is to last 7,000 years and that we should connect these ideas? Rubbish. On what basis does one connect these verses?
      
   7. Not sure why the world has to end 13,023 years after creation. Sounds random at best.
      
   8. I kind of think the world is a little older than this, even though my 6-day creationist friends will disagree.
      
   9. The idea that Amos 3:7 should mean Harold Camping has the knowledge too, is fanciful.
      
   10. I love that the ark was shut on the 17^th day of the second month of Noah's calendar – one can see the logic then of May 21... Tui Ad!
       
3. The whole rapture idea is bunkum in my view:
   
   1. Matt 24 speaks not of believers taking off into the air, but the believers are the ones left behind as in the Flood analogy. None of the other texts give the impression of people leaving other behind.
      
   2. It is likely that Jesus will return, the end will come, and we will live on in this world, and not be whisked away to heaven. The millennium ideas says this, if it is literal (and I am not convinced). Romans 8 says this. The visions of the prophets and Revelation speak of a world with nations and God living with humanity. Sounds like this one renewed to me.
      
   3. Even it if is the way things will go, the dating stuff is classic.
      
   4. The idea of a rolling rapture around the world at a set time is even more stupid – God help us and this man.
      

So the idea that May 21^st is Judgment Day with the rapture beginning ending a 23 year great tribulation is the most outrageous and non-biblical argument I have ever heard. As one of those biblical scholars who apparently does not have time to study the bible properly, and do not have the inside word, Harold Camping in my view will be proved to be a false teacher and so a dangerous man – people are taking it seriously and selling up etc. I hope to see him come on global television and repent when it doesn't happen. There is nothing to suggest that this is correct. Paul and Jesus warned of people like this man who would lead people astray.

IF THERE IS ANYONE OUT THERE TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY, PLEASE RELAX, DON'T SELL UP, DON'T PUT YOUR PETS DOWN, DON'T GIVE YOUR MONEY AWAY, DON'T BE A FOOL! Talk tomorrow.