The k2p blog

Judgement day is today – according to Harold Camping

Harold Camping, 89, is the leader of Family Radio, an independent ministry which spreads its word via a network on 66 radio stations and online broadcasts. 

Camping has previously written a book called ‘1994?’, in which he wrongly predicted the end of the world in that year, and was later forced to apologise for a mathematical error. 

The Rapture is supposedly the time when God’s chosen people ascend to heaven and the rest are left behind to face apocalyptic scenes of earthquakes and fire.

A period of ‘trial’ on earth for non-believers is forecast to follow and could last six months, but by October 21 all those who have not been saved will be dead, goes the prophecy. 

The concept of Judgment Day is a long-standing one, but the idea of the Rapture is more modern, having first appeared in Christian teaching in the 19th century. 

However, this predicted date is entirely the work of Camping and his followers, who have spent decades studying the bible for coded messages. 

So certain is he of his revised date, following on from his 1994 embarrassment, that he and his followers have spent millions of dollars on billboards across America that have been warning for weeks: ‘Judgment Day is coming May 21st, 2011 – The Bible guarantees it!’

Most Christians barely pay the ‘prophecy’ a second thought but Camping, from Oakland, California, stands by his latest Doomsday warning.

‘We know without any shadow of a doubt it is going to happen,’ said Camping.

‘There’s going to be a huge earthquake that’s going to make the big earthquake in Japan seem like a Sunday School picnic.’

But some more mathematical errors in the analysis will be discovered tomorrow and a new Day of Judgement will soon be forecast. Of course the Mayan end-of-the -world may come first in 2012. And if that is wrong then a world-ending flood when the ice-caps melt may get us in a decade or two — unless another ice-age whittles down the population of the Northern Hemisphere before Global Warming and carbon dioxide poisoning creates Hell on Earth.

I don’t see Mr. Camping and his followers going to the extent of taking a pro-active stand on this to prove the strength of their convictions. Mr. Camping’s organisation is not giving away any of its millions.

In times past Doomsayers could at least be executed by their patrons when their predictions failed.

Tags: end of the world, Harold Camping, Rapture

This entry was posted on May 21, 2011 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Alarmism, Trivia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.