Judgement Day — May 21?

The topic I want to deal with is “Judgement Day.” Sometime ago I received a tract which said “The RAPTURE WILL OCCUR May 21, 2011”.

According to the tract the date was calculated from the Bible and the flood of 4990 BC–the one in which Noah built the ark. This year is judged to be “exactly 7,000 years after.”

The tract goes on to provide how the date was calculated. Two followers of the Jehovah Witness faith I told about the coming Judgement Day scoffed and cited the Bible saying basically that no man will know the hour. In typical Trini form, the jokes were inevitable. Reasoning that the believers of the Judgement Day would have no need for their material possessions, I was asked, “They going to sell their house and land? Tell me when. They going to give away everything? They would have no need for money.”

Advertisements have been appeared locally alerting the citizenry of the event but I don’t know who took it seriously. The pronouncement of the Judgement Day has actually been taken up as a news story since January. According to the Huffington Post online, the date of Rapture was calculated by Harold Camping, the leader of an independent Christian ministry–Family Radio Worldwide, from Oakland California. According to the story other groups have taken up the call to proclaim the end of times. Time magazine’s online edition devoted an article entitled Judgement Day: Will May 21, 2011 Be the end of the world? The story was accompanied by a photo of a large hand reaching out through some ominous looking grey clouds.

There have been some strange happenings which may lend credence to the view that something bad is looming. In January scores of dead birds fell from the sky in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Sweden. There have also been episodes with dead fish washing ashore. There have been reasoned possible explanations for these events although I have not seen any follow-up stories regarding the actual causes. Therefore, there may be no divine warning in any of these happenings. This year we had massive flooding in parts of South America, and Australia had both flooding and fires. There have been large earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan. Across in the Middle East there have been uprisings and overthrows of government and currently the situation is very volatile in Libya. All of these may be regarded as signs of the end of times and people have even been taking seriously the predictions of Nostradamus. Yet every year has been marked by war, natural disasters, disease and death. We have the technology and various mediums to alert us about events as they happen. Morality is another area in which many have forecast the end of times. They may argue there is more vice and immorality in today’s society than Sodom and Gomorrah. But that also may be questionable because human nature really has not changed over the years. We could safely say that those structures which regulated behaviour such as the Church, home and family have lost influence in many lives for many different reasons.

If Judgement Day really were to come I am wondering how TT people would really prepare.

One can imagine there would be more people going to church. While at the other extreme persons who do not subscribe to the End of Times thinking may take it nonchalantly and use it as another opportunity to play mas — in May. There would be Judgement Day parties as entrepreneurs seek to capitalise on the Trini love of a good time like the days of the Coup parties in 1990.

According to one Christian, “You cannot play mas and fraid powder, what is to be will be.” She referred to Bible’s reference to the end of this world but no man really knows the hour. “Not even Jesus knows that,” she said.

“Let the Lord come and do over the world. I believe the world ends and starts again,” said a young lady who said she had things to do before the end and wanted to have David Beckham’s baby. While there are people who believe that the end will come from above, looking at how humans have treated their environment and each other tells me that it could come from below. There are some events which are totally beyond our control–just ask those people in Japan and elsewhere. Mother nature cannot be underestimated. The quest for wealth and power has also caused moral and spiritual destruction. A Judgement Day can put things in perspective–money and power cannot give us more time. The prospect that life can end can make us reflect on the lives we have lived. The sad part would be to have accumulated years but never have truly lived and enjoyed life. Have you heard that 2012 is also supposed to mark the end?