The evangelical Christian broadcaster whose much-ballyhooed Judgment Day prophecy went conspicuously unfulfilled on May 21 has a simple explanation for what went wrong — he miscalculated.
Instead of the world physically coming to an end on May 21 with a great, cataclysmic earthquake, as he had predicted, Harold Camping, 89, said he now believes his forecast is playing out “spiritually,” with the actual apocalypse set to occur five months later, on Oct. 21.
Camping, who launched a doomsday countdown in which some followers spent their life’s savings in anticipation of being swept into heaven, issued his correction during an appearance on his “Open Forum” radio show from Oakland, California.
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
The headquarters of Camping’s Family Radio network of 66 US stations had been shuttered over the weekend with a sign on the door that read, “This Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you!”
During a sometimes rambling, 90-minute discourse that included a question-and-answer session with reporters, Camping said he felt bad that May 21 had come and gone without the Rapture he had felt so certain would take place.
Reflecting on scripture afterward, Camping said it “dawned” on him that a “merciful and compassionate God” would spare humanity from “hell on Earth for five months” by compressing the physical apocalypse into a shorter time frame.
But he insisted that Oct. 21 has always been the end-point of his own End Times chronology, or at least, his latest chronology.
The tall, gaunt former civil engineer with a deep voice and prominent ears has been wrong before. More than two decades ago, he publicly acknowledged a failed 1994 prophecy of Christ’s return to Earth.
To publicize his latest pronouncement, the Family Radio network posted over 2,000 billboards around the country declaring that Judgment Day was at hand, and believers carried the message on placards in shopping malls and on street corners.
(REUTERS)
基督教福音派的廣播節目主持人,大肆宣揚五月二十一日的審判日預言明顯破功,不過到底是哪個環節出問題,他給了個簡單的解釋─他算錯了。
八十九歲的康平預言五月二十一日有巨大且激烈的地震讓地球毀滅並未發生,而他轉而說他相信他的預測正在「精神層面」上演,而真正的世界末日應該是五個月後,也就是十月二十一日。
康平大肆宣揚世界末日已進入倒數階段,且讓一些篤信末日審判會成真的追隨者,花盡畢生積蓄以期「被提升天」未果後,他卻在加州奧克蘭的廣播節目「開放論壇」現身,發布更正聲明。
康平所屬的家庭廣播網,在美國六十六個頻道播出,電台總部整個週末百葉窗緊閉,門上標語寫道:「本辦公室已關閉,抱歉錯過你。」
在一場九十分鐘演說,包括給記者的問答時間,康平表示他很難過五月二十一日來了又走,他原本打包票會發生的「被提升天」卻沒發生。
康平事後回溯經文,才「頓悟」原來「慈悲憐憫世人的上帝」為了赦免人類「長達五個月的人間煉獄」的痛苦,所以把肉體的末日時間壓縮了。
不過他堅稱十月二十一日在他的「天地終結」時間表已經是盡頭。或至少是他最新版時間表的盡頭。
這位身材高挑瘦削的前土木工程師,有一副深沉的嗓音與突出的耳朵之前就出錯過。二十多年前他公開承認其一九九四年預言耶穌基督返回地球是錯的。
為了廣傳他最新的聲明,家庭廣播網在全美張貼超過兩千個佈告板宣稱審判日即將到來,且信徒拿著此訊息的標語牌,在購物廣場與街頭上宣傳。
(路透/翻譯:林亞蒂)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110