(Detail of Michelangelo's Judgment Day fresco Christ the Judge, and the Virgin at the Vatican's Sistine Chapel)
A U.S.-based Christian group took to the streets of Manila earlier this week to preach that the end of the world is fast approaching — on May 21 at sunset, to be precise. Volunteers from the religious group Family Radio, a Christian radio network in the United States, donned neon-coloured t-shirts and walked along Manila’s main thoroughfares, handing out pamphlets to passerby with warnings of impending Judgement Day.
The designation of May 21 came from Family Radio president Harold Camping, who predicted that date through a series of mathematical calculations and the unravelling of codes behind the Bible story of the great flood. He was convinced that God gave hints of doomsday in the scriptures and that it was their job to decode them.
One volunteer, Kenji Hoffman, left his family and his successful job as a mechanic in the U.S to join the Family Radio crusade around the world, used his savings to get to the Philippines. He said he believed God had left clear signs that the world was coming to an end.
“He gave Abraham warning, he gave Noah warning, he gave Lot warning and he gave Ninevites warning, and so he’s giving us warning that he is about to come,” Hoffman said.
(Photo: A poker table in Atlantic City, New Jersey, March 14, 2009/Tim Shaffer)
