According to a tranche of ominous headlines in the press recently, you may be spending this Saturday wrestling with more than just your hangover.
While Biblical doomsday claims have come and gone, the latest has several media outlets reporting this day as the end of the world.
The date in question has been calculated by Christian researcher David Meade, who states that a “heavenly sign” as seen by the Apostle John will occur on 23 September, a highly significant 33 days after the August total eclipse.
“Jesus lived for 33 years. The name Elohim, which is the name of God to the Jews, was mentioned 33 times [in the Bible],” Meade told The Washington Post.
He added: “It’s a very biblically significant, numerologically significant number. I’m taking astronomy. I’m talking the Bible… and merging the two.”
A video published to the YouTube channel of Unsealed, a Christian prophecy site, illustrates the apparent significance of this date by depicting a virginal goddess descending from the heavens and giving birth in front of a serpent with seven heads.
Because much of the media at large has interpreted this yet another one of those end-of-days predictions, Meade has felt prompted to defend his work.
Citing the Book of Revelation, Meade insists the heavenly sign as prophesied in the Bible will appear above Israel and Jerusalem on Saturday and that a series of global catastrophes will then begin, as triggered by a secret planet called Nibiru passing the Earth on Saturday.
He clarified: “The world is not ending, but the world as we know it is ending. A major part of the world will not be the same the beginning of October.”
(In the interests of balance, NASA has been denying the existence of Nibiru for years – and in 2012 stated: “Nibiru and other stories of wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims.”)
Unsealed – which is featuring a countdown clock until this fateful date - has reflected: “This is not a countdown to the rapture, second coming, or any other end-of-the-world event, but only to the prophesied sign in the heavens, because we do not know for sure the exact day or hour of those events and they might happen many weeks or months after the sign.”
Unsealed blogger ‘Gary’ has also responded to the media attention, writing: “Revelation 20:1-10 tells us that before God creates ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (thus the end of the current world and the creation of a new one) Christ will return to earth and establish a Kingdom that lasts for 1,000 years. Therefore the end of the world can never be closer than 1,000 + 7 years from now (the extra seven years being the length of the coming Tribulation.)”
Thanks for clearing that up Gary.