The New Year often seems to bring about a fresh flurry of apocalypse stories, the passage of time evoking a peculiar interest in the idea of finality. This Press Association piece focuses on the wacky ad campaign inspired by the latest prophet of a particular doom, but there are worrying notes in the article, as when an organiser of the campaign says blithely that, “If May 21 passes and I’m still here, that means I wasn’t saved. Does that mean God’s word is inaccurate or untrue? Not at all.” It’s always a concern that – as other end-of-the-worlders have done before and will do again – those not wanting to be “still here” after the doomsday date could bring about their disappearance by other than supernatural means.

If there had been time, Marie Exley would have liked to start a family. Instead, the 32-year-old Army veteran has less than six months left, which she’ll spend spreading a stark warning: Judgment Day is almost here.

Exley is part of a movement of Christians loosely organized by radio broadcasts and websites, independent of churches and convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011.

To get the word out, they’re using billboards and bus stop benches, traveling caravans of RVs and volunteers passing out pamphlets on street corners. Cities from Bridgeport, Conn., to Little Rock, Ark., now have billboards with the ominous message, and mission groups are traveling through Latin America and Africa to spread the news outside the U.S.

“A lot of people might think, ‘The end’s coming, let’s go party,’” said Exley, a veteran of two deployments in Iraq. “But we’re commanded by God to warn people. I wish I could just be like everybody else, but it’s so much better to know that when the end comes, you’ll be safe.”

Continues: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110103/ap_on_re/us_rel_apocalypse_soon