Is the World Ending on May 21st?

The world could come to an end on Saturday so get you bucket list and your credit card ready!

(Time) reported that a guy by the name of, Howard Camping, is the head of a fringe Christian sect called Family Radio.  He is predicting the world when come to an end this Saturday, the 21st.

So Camping wants to make sure we know that May 21st, 2011 wasn't just an arbitrary pick.  He put some actual math into it.  And here's how he got there:

1.  Noah's flood was in 4,990 B.C. Camping says he figured out the date for the great flood based on other dates and ages given in the Bible.  And that flood was the first apocalypse.  Saturday will be the second.

2. Add 7,000 years. Genesis 7:4 says that the people had seven days to prepare for the flood back in Biblical times.  And one way to interpret the verse at 2 Peter 3:8 is to say that when it comes to God, 1,000 years are like a day.

So Camping put those two verses together and determined that for this apocalypse, we've had 7,000 years to prepare.  Since there's no year zero, 4,990 B.C. plus 7,000 brings us to 2011.

3.  Month two, day 17. The great flood occurred on the 17th of the Hebrew month of Iyar in 4,990 B.C.  This year, that date corresponds to May 21st on the modern calendar.

If all this seems pretty arbitrary . . . like, for example, why he mashed up the Old and New Testaments to get that 1,000-year multiplier . . . yeah, we get that feeling too.  So if the world doesn't end on Saturday, try to look surprised.