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Reno advertisements proclaim that May 21, 2011 is the "Rapture"

A sign warning of the Judgment Day can be seen near the corner of Kietzke and Moana lanes in Reno. / Liz Margerum/RGJ

In the occasion you believe the billboards and shuttle buses noticed in Reno and throughout the nation that proclaim in large letters that Saturday is Judgment Day, also referred to as the "Rapture" and the "Second Coming of Jesus," then at the moment is your last day to organize before your imminent death -- following a mighty earthquake and probably a blazing fire.

If God decides to "unsave" you, then you definitely'll be left to rot in a world of horror and chaos until every last individual on the planet finally dies -- by the very newest on Oct. 21, in preserving with Harold Camping and his Oakland-primarily based Christian Household Radio station's website.

Cell telephones and digital cable also probably won't be engaged on Saturday. Starbucks will probably be closed, too.

But when God desires to keep away from wasting you, then you definitely'll get to hitch him eternally in paradise, said Camping, 89.

In the meantime, Reno agnostics or "free thinkers" will as an alternative as we speak be preparing for a downtown pub crawl this evening to socialize over what they are saying is a "non-occasion" and an "apparent fraud."

So what's behind the man whose finish-of-the-world prediction has prompted a media buzz, jokes and threats of looting all through the Twitter and Facebook universe?

Camping is the president of the multimillion-dollar nationwide Christian radio station, Household Radio, which he started with two other men in 1958, in accordance with Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based mostly group that helps people determine on where to make charitable donations. He stated during a Wednesday telephone interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal that the Bible clearly states that Might 21, 2011, is Doomsday. Camping said he's the one one on the earth with authority to proclaim this as a outcome of "God laid his palms on me as a result of I had an intense want to review the Bible the final 50 years."

Reaction supplied

Local spiritual leaders say the prediction is not possible as a result of the Bible clearly states that you do not use the Scripture to predict the end of time. And for some residents, Tenting's idea is providing them one thing to chuckle about as a substitute of fear.