The End of the World: Again!

The real fire that apparently began with the Big Bang, is,  and has been burning on the outer edge of the Universe, so it seems to me that the individuals who believe that they want to (and deserve) to be beamed up yonder, would be better off if they remained in the safe haven of earth, where they belong the first place.  Just ask astronauts,  astrophysicists and astronomers what happens when you leave Earth's atmosphere.

Folks, I Never Thought I Would Say This but: thank thank you Reverend Camping, for I have been looking for someone to prove that what I have been writing, teaching and saying along, over the past few years, is the truth. The truth about what? That it is time to move on, and to put religion in its proper historical context, for truth is bigger than religion! I had to modify my message, many of my peers, need to do the same thing.

Let's consider who this man is first of all? Reverend Camping is a man, a Civil Engineer and a preacher by profession. He graduated from the Engineering Department at the University of California at Berkeley, one of my favorite haunts. I love to conduct research at the library above Scenic Drive, which is a part of the Graduate Theological Union, and to roam around below in the Eucalyptus tree groves.

Reverend Camping, in my opinion, is a man of no mean spirit. In fact, he is a man, who in his zeal, has studied, embraced and teaches from the bible like no other. He believes that every word in it, is the unadulterated word of God, regardless of all proof to the contrary - and no one is going to tell him any different. All of us have known, worshipped with or worked with someone like this before. Their minds are made up, therefore you would be wasting your time if you ever attempted to confuse them with facts.

Given his sincerity, a man who is in love with his mental processing power and his purported unique ability to understand what no one else can, he should not be accused of quackery, something that his latest foray into end-time predictions, has caused people to believe. He simply believes in his own unique  powers of comprehension. Again, he may appear to be a quacked, but how many religious people do you know, who are just like him?

And trust me, they could not conceive of being looked upon as a quack, similar to Reverend Camping,  they believe that they are different than Reverend Campingand that their abilities to comprehend the truth and the scriptures are intact.

The majority of them are simply misguided too.  They are also unreasonable and unteachable,  in the manner that the Apostle Paul was  for a period of time.  Eventually, he had to give up all that he knew too!    For example, before God provided him with a drop kick to the ground on the road to Damascus, the Apostle Paul, who  studied and graduated from the Hillel School, at the feet of Gamaliel  a famous teacher and nephew of Hillel no less, he set out on his personal crusade himself.   


I'm certain that he believed at the time of his first zeal, that he was launching his crusade in the name of God, just as many religious people feel that they are doing today.  You know, what happens, once you learn a few scriptures from the Bible, you believe that you have been called to began a crusade among the great unwashed?   Paul was no different, and he began his crusade in a misguided manner:  Paul sat out to stop people, who didn't see things as he and his counterparts were able to following his religious indoctrination.  He also believed that he had, along with his courage, the  keen ability to understand what other people could not.  Can you recall meeting other religious people who were of that ilk?

He was so zealous, that he went and gained permission to pursue, arrest and persecute  the misguided religious souls, who were primarily members of a group called 'The Way'. This man, in other words, acted upon what he believed, in the most strenuous of ways,  to be true - just as Reverend Camping is doing today.  These people really do believe that they are right, mind you. Members of the Way were martyred and jailed as a result, and similar to what occurred with Stephen, the clothing of the martyred ones were laid at the misguided feet of Paul.  All the time, he felt pretty good about himself, for after all  he believed that his misplaced zeal was being exercised for and apparently directed by God.

If he would have simply sat down, both times, in order to be taught and to experience a true conversion, he would not have to have been stopped by God himself. Why would God have to stop the Apostle, and other people like him, some today?   Answer: Because no one else will be able to stop them, that is without knocking them down off of their self-righteous mounts. What a hard-headed man the Apostle was?   What is also interesting is, that God, after stopping him on the road to Damascus, had to send him to one of the lowly members of the group that he disdained, the Way, to a man named Ananias, in order to be guided 'the right Way!    He subsequently received his sight, after having been blinded, however, their was a price to pay.  His chronic ophtalmic condition, was likely a reminder, to see things though eyes, other than his owns. 

People like these, you can't teach them anything, because what they have is a psychological problem, to accompany their huge egos - typically, it takes something quite drastic or unusual to stop them in their tracks. Even after Ananias finished with him, Paul did not go up to Jerusalem to continue to be taught by the other more experienced Apostles (some of them unlearned men), he took off again with a theology, that differed from what the Apostles in Jerusalem received.  This time, he received a personal revelation, unlike before, a religious teacher was not the culprit.  At the time, Paul, was not an Apostle himself. Reverend Camping, reminds me a lot of  Paul, so let's get back to Reverend Camping and his visit to the KGO Radio station in San Francisco.

In the spirit of the cartoon character 'Foghorn Leghorn', "Uh boy, I say boy, who told you that you were a chicken hawk, and that everyone of the rest of us are just chickens"?  Elijah made fun of prophets before, therefore, so can I!

I enjoyed listening to Reverend Camping, this past Sunday, on KGO Radio, a session (not an interview)  that was  hosted by professor Brent Walters, a born again Christian, who teaches in the Religious Studies Department of San Jose State University,  a personal acquaintance of mine.  Professor Brent Walters, graciously invited him to speak, uninterrupted by the radio audience,  in the 3^rd segment of his 3-hour long Sunday morning radio show.  Reverend was 15 minutes to the show, er herm.  Get it, late to the show - he is not very good at keeping time.  

Reverend Camping’s prediction, that the 'Rapture of the Saints' would occur on May 21, 2011, followed by the end of the world five days afterward,  has not been hidden from the public eye. All across the country, the prediction that the world is coming to an end … has been posted on billboards, talked about in the media, and preached over the air and and in rest of the media.  Reverend Camping has also appeared as a guest on several News Talk Shows!

Again, to  many other preachers and scholars who won't agree with him and his prediction, he appears to be a complete idiot, and they will share the same with their listeners and followers!

But what is it that he is really saying. Just look at his website www.family radio.com, and you will appreciate more what he is predicting. This is important because when he was interviewed by Professor Walters of San Jose State University,  he repeated what is written on his website, that: “The Bible Guarantees It!”   In other words, it's not him doing the predicint, he is simply reporting what he believes is declared in the canon.

Most of us who were raised in the Church (regardless of which religious group or denomination) we hailed from, are aware of the following scripture, Matthew 24:36. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only". That day is, what for sure most Christians but not only Christians only, are waiting for - the day when God comes to get them.  God will remove them from the rest of the great unwashed. Man, these people hate the worl, that they helped to ruin, to the extent that they cannot wait to get out of here.

Well, fine I say, for after the majority of them have been beamed up to the Mother Ship, then you and I can enjoy the San Francisco Bay area easier, and with less traffic congestion.  Now if you are acquainted with some of these as I am,  you would recognize that God would be doing the rest of us a favor, if he were to beam them up.  Why?  The rest of us can can get on with pursuing what God intended, if you will, for us in the present reality, in the first place.  The rest of know that both the beamers, and the rest of us still need to do some work.  The beamers, don't recognize that fact.  .

From what I can see, there is a lot more hear for us to learn, and clearly, we have wasted the last 2,000 years in our quest, because people like Reverend Camping and others wh, only need the bible and a few commentaries to conduct their lives and ours too, continue to hold man and womankind back.   Most of these  individuals have limited outlooks, and have restricted their viewpoints and aspirations to a false sense of piety.  They have used religion as a a front, which makes as a show, so that they would not appear to be like other lowly humans.  And as a result, many have gotten 'fat rich', off of religion.  The rest of us who believe in and have experienced the God phenomenon, would simply 'smite our breasts', we could never be so arrogant as to believe that we are better or more righteous than anyome else!

Trust me, Reverend Camping, a bible literalist, is very aware of Jesus' pronouncement that "...no man knows the day or hour...", just as most believers and non, are aware.  Which explains why so many people are disgusted, and equally dismissive of his prediction of the Rapture followed by the apokalupsis on 5/21.  Too bad, people of his understanding, didn't predict 9/11, roughly 10 years ago.  What is this fascination with the end of the world?

Anyway, why would he put himself out on a limb like this, one that could destroy his one hundred-million dollar? Does Hale Bopp, come to mind.   It is simple and I repeat: He is only reporting, based upon his years of research, what the Bible guarantees. He is not making a prediction, based upon his own feelings or what God told him – It is what the Bible guarantees!  For too many of religious people, Constantine's and other sacred texts, are the word of God, Allah ...

What do I believe about all of this, and especially biblical and other eschatology? Well, there are historicists, post-millennialists, premillenialists, amillenialists, pretribbers, posttribbers within the Christian faith …, and neither camp agrees  with the other. So what does that tell you? And don't forget that Apostle Paul, a man who often shot from the hip himself, believed that he would apparently be a part of the rapture, without going to sleep, based on what is written in his letter that was sent to the Thessalonians, or the church at Thessaloniki if you prefer.   Apparently, that was not the case or was it - I will come back to that later.

Remember, there are over 50,000 Christian Christian denominations, and millions of preachers and teachers (and all of the other billions of religious believers and sycophants), who will have an opinion about the end of time, and some about Pastor Camping.   What they will have to say is: He, Reverend Camping, is wrong, but  each one of them in their respective camps will say, but we or one of them personally is right.  Let's see the late Reverend Armonstrong ... comes to mind, how about the JW's?

Well, somebody's wrong.  I can recall many of the prognosticators of the past, who named the day and hour when Jesus would return, the Rapture would occur and the world would come to an end.   So why do Christians and non. engage in this kind of eschatological canard? One of the reasons that I will speak to (which will explain why they do so), is because religious people are fascinated, when it comes to this particular theme and the mystical, just as religious people in the common era was.  What did the Prophet Ezekiel actually see, in the Chapter 1 of Ezekiel? 

And having become bored with being conversion alone, religious people have to find something other to do,  like theosyphying, performing or witnessing to a miracle here or there, or figuring out riddles that they can only they can deciphet ...   And the final reward will be when they are separated from the great unwashed, beamed up to the Mother Ship, so that they can exclusively, go and live with God.  


In most Christian circles, Constantine's Canon, is the undisputed word of God, so don't waste your time saying other, because they believe that Constantine's Canon is the inerrant, and seeing how the Canon appears to read that they will be beamed up and there is nothing else to talk about!

And again, even with proof to the contrary, don't try to convince them otherwise, for you will be wasting your time. It is for the rest of us, who believe that there is something that we refer to in our culture, as the God phenomenon, to continue to pursue what is real. We know that, what believer sycophants refer to as God is bigger, and far beyond where most religious people, even Christians take their point of departure and have st0pped there.

We know that it will be for us to sensibly pursue an understanding, contact with or joining with Christians and others refer to as God, or as I refer to as IT and the God phenomenon.  I know that there is something, but I believe that it excels the prelude to it, that was written about in the canon.   Who was the brother, secularist, who wrote the book: The God of the Brain?   I have forgotten his name, but the brother was on to something. Perhaps, the connection exists in the brain of some of us. The rest, I would have to agree, may not have a brain. Okay, that was not nice of me! 

The author  believed that God was hard-wired in certain human's brains, and apparently not in the brain of others! My thing is: I don't care. Jesus, was pretty much saying, don't worry about it, and  just do your righteous thing while you are on Earth, because otherwise you will be preoccupied with an event that will occur, that you cannot predict anyway.  So what do religious people do, they ignore Lord and Savior Jesus, and engage in predicting the end anyway.  There time would be better spent stopping religious hatred, bigotry ...

Let's see, how many human beings have, for many years, hours and days waited for that day to come. Sadly, Jesus did not have either Reverend Camping or Constantine's canon to tell him when the Rapture would occur.  He admitted that he didn't know!

So why am I writing this piece? It is  to thank Reverend Camping for making my point about religion. It is what I have been writing about and saying along, that in a 21^st Century context, we simply need to move on, because much learning from and about Constantine's bible and religion in genral, has simply made too many humans mad.

The second reason for writing on this topic is to explain that we cannot possibly understand all of what was being said or written 2000 years, or to decipher what was meant. And this is just one other reason that religious people need to move on, thank you Reverend Camping!

Now let me add this and I said that I would come back to this point:  In a non-linear or 3-D world, perhaps what we refer to as the Rapture occurs everyday.  Remember, we believe that God is time independent (eternal), and that the God phenomenon has the ability to view the past, present, future along with other dimensions all at the same time.  

Or perhaps what the canon reported or the way that it was translated, was a misinterpretation, misrepresentation or an error.  Ouch, what kind of Reverend would say such a thing?  I know that I'm not going to receive a ticket to get on the beamus up ship now!  Again, I simply believe that what is, happens to be light years beyond what religion teaches!

BTW Reverend Camping, if you are still alive on May 22nd, would you bequeath or donate some money to Hope for Outdoor People in San Jose California. The organization that I am president of, is trying to help 'outdoor citizens', in the manner that Jesus did, to get them going again - I can only imagine what $100M could have done to help jumpstart a lot of lives.

And, seeing how you, and the truly righteous, 200 million did you say on the show, anyway, I will put that money to good use - helping other people, who will be left behind with me.

Also, may I have the keys to all of your homes, cars, yachts, credit cards, 401Ks … that will be abandoned, so that I can use them to house the individuals who will be left behind. Many of them will likely be here either trying to figure out how they got 'left behind', and whether another ship will be coming by to get them soon.  On the other hand, many of them will experienced what they never did, when the truly righteous are gone, incomes, homes, sanity ...

Perhaps I will get some of them to listen, once the distraction of religious distract0rs, who have skewed the message, have been removed to an another plane.

Earth, is really a wonderful gift, and sadly, after abusing it too many want to be translated to a better  place?  So far the earth has been underutilized, religious people have been too busy fighting internecine and spiritual combat.  And as a result, not everyone has been able to benefit during their time on earth or eat of the good of the land..  Why, because religion, in part, is responsible for teaching individuals to hate, fight, war against  and to kill in the name of an invisible potentate.

I want to teach a new paradigm, one that will put people in touch with what put them here in the first place – so they can live, afterward, in a non-religious paradise on Earth.  And that can only happen when the rigid, I AM RIGHT ANYWAY, teachers and their self righteous followers are gone.  Remember, at best, we are all sinners under grace, and as one late Biship often said, 'none of us have made it yet'?  Made it where is the question?

Clearly religion, and most religious teachers are not helping at all.  Too many have become a distraction, as well as  an embarrassment to what we refer to in general, as God! Reverend Camping will prove that Constantine's canon should not be our only source, I believe.  Solomon, not Camping, who said, 'that we should  eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die - he apparently did not know about the rapture.  At one time, no blacks would have been included in the rapture, given what we know about Christians in forermly racist white America.  And sadly, these white Christians expected to be, exclusively, be beamed up too!

By the way, does anyone else have any claims on South Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay? If not, I will take it, after I help the outdoor citizens to get going again!  And does  any one else wonder what the real message, was, the one that was  intended to be?

Finally, 'we will know them by their love', not as a result of one's ability to memorize and misquote scriptures.   Why are there so many homeless and hurting people in America alone, if all of the people who plan to be beamed up to the mother ship, know anything about love?  If quoting scriptures and a false sense of piety is a litmus test, many religious people will make it.  Beam 'em up Scotty.  

And for those of you who know me across the country that I have preached and taight, and you currently  believe that I have lost it and gone over to the wrong side of the force, trust me!  I believe that there 'is something wrong in the force', and that it is time for all of us in religious circles to face that fact.  We have been faithful to religion, however, religion has not been as good to us - there is more to the story I believe - than religion has done already or can ever tell us.  If I am wrong, I will admit it!  If you are wrong, will you ever admit that you are or were wrong?

My objective in writing this pieces:  Iis to help restore civility to a discipline that has been sereiously degraded, and to encourage others to step outside of the box and let's move ahead!   

Solomon