Raptured?

AS JAMAICA waited on May 21 to roll around, possibly bringing with it the ending of the world as predicted by US Evangelist Harold Camping, several countries had entered May 21 with no news of a widespread rapture or calamitous earthquakes.

On the timekeeping website timeanddate.com (up to news time), over 70 countries (we got tired of counting) were into Saturday. These included Afghanistan, South Africa, Germany, Iran and Israel.

The world-ending prediction has captured the imagination of millions around the globe with stories of people giving up possessions circulating. In Jamaica it was rumoured that many had rushed to get baptized. It was indeed water-cooler and taxi talk.

The prediction originates with Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer from Oakland, California, who founded Family Radio Worldwide, an independent ministry that has broadcast his prediction around the world.

The Rapture is believed to be an event in which Christ will take away the faithful into paradise prior to the period of tribulation on earth that will precede the end of time.

Camping's prophecy comes from numerological calculations based on his reading of the Bible, and global events like the 1948 founding of Israel which he says, confirm his math.