WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- If you feel like the world has been crumbling down around you lately, the Jehovah's Witnesses say - you're right. It is.
In fact, beginning this weekend, they'll be holding a series of public lectures entitled "How to survive the end of the world".
"It's imminent. It's at hand," says local Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman Travis Telfair.
Local Witnesses will be holding 14 consecutive 'conventions', as they call them, at their convention center on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard - formerly the West Palm Beach Auditorium.
They hold such gatherings each year, but this year's theme is, admittedly, far more alarming. Spiritually surviving an imminent apocalypse! When?
"No one knows the day or the hour," says Telfair, "but we know we're in the last days of this system of things."
Jehovah's Witnesses believe the beginning of the end started around 1914 with World War One.
Since then, there have been plenty of natural and man-made threats to contend with. But the bible, they say, offers specific events to "keep on the watch" for. An escalation in natural disasters, crime, war. Even diseases like Swine Flu.
"These are all things Jesus said would be increasing in intensity in the last days," says Mario Beltrami, also a Jehovah's Witness spokesman, "and we're seeing that. I think most people agree that these are probably the most critical times we've seen."
Sure, the prospect of a cataclysm may sound a bit - terrifying. But witnesses say it's not their intention to scare people. Rather, it's to provide believers with a revelations roadmap. A spiritual survival guide to emerge from Armageddon intact.
"They will be hearing things as far as how they can avoid Satan's snares. Because we know that the goal of Satan is to hamper people from surviving," says Telfair.
The lectures begin this Friday, and they're open to the public. There's no admission fee. No collection plate being passed. Just an analytical approach, they promise - to let people know why they believe the end is near.
For more information about the conventions, you can call (561) 491-5300.
