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May 23rd, 2011
05:04 PM ET
Preacher now says end of the world will happen in 5 monthsBy Kim Hutcherson and Dan Gilgoff, CNN (CNN) - Harold Camping is sticking to his apocalyptic guns. In his first radio broadcast since his doomsday prediction failed to pan out in a spectacularly public fashion, the California preacher insisted his was an error of interpretation, not fact. What's more, he has another calculation for the day the world will end - October 21, 2011. Camping had kept a low-profile since Saturday, the day he had forecast for the return of Jesus Christ to Earth. He and his devoted followers have been warning for months that on May 21, a select 2% to 3% of the world's population would be taken to heaven. Those left behind would face months of tribulation before perishing in the Earth's destruction, which Camping said would happen on October 21. This is the basis for his new prediction, which Camping claims is not new at all. He told listeners on his Family Radio broadcast Monday that God is "loving and merciful," and had decided not to punish the humanity with five months of destruction. But he maintains that the end of the world is still coming. "We've always said October 21 was the day," Camping said during his show. "The only thing we didn't understand was the spirituality of May 21. We're seeing this as a spiritual thing happening rather than a physical thing happening. The timing, the structure, the proofs, none of that has changed at all." However, Camping said his group would not be mounting another advertising push. In the months leading up to May 21, Family Radio billboards popped up across the country, warning that the end was near. "We're not going to be passing out tracts," Camping said. "We're not going to put up any more billboards. We're not going to be advertising in any way. The world has been warned. We did our little share and the media picked it up. But now the world has been told, it's under judgment." Fred Store, who led one of four RV caravans that toured the country in recent months to spread the word about judgment day, said he and other followers heard Camping's broadcast "and we were quite happy - it will be interesting to see what the next couple of months will bring." "It appears as though this whole [rapture] thing happened in a spiritual, rather than a physical way," said Store, 66. The retired electrician said that he and the other nine members of his five-RV caravan were still at an RV park where they waited for the rapture to arrive on Saturday. He said the park was within 100 miles of Boston, Massachusetts, but didn't want to disclose the specific location. He said the caravan was waiting for word from Camping's ministry, Family Radio, about arranging the return of the vehicles to the broadcaster's Oakland, California, headquarters. Store said he and the others in his caravan were not disappointed that the dramatic events associated with the rapture had not come to pass. "We think that judgment day did happen," he said. "It didn’t result in an earthquake, and there were a number of things that weren't exactly the way we said they would be, but we were only reading from the Bible. We’ve been humbled by the whole experience." Camping founded Family Radio, a nonprofit Christian radio network with about 65 stations across the country, in 1958. It received $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009. He first inaccurately predicted the world would end in 1994. Despite his poor track record, he has gathered many followers. Some gave up their homes, entire life savings and jobs because they believed the world was ending. Reporters who were allowed to ask questions during the broadcast Monday pressed Camping on this issue, but he would not admit that he bore any blame for his followers' predicaments. "I don't have any responsibility," Camping said. "I'm only teaching the Bible. I'm telling ... this is what the Bible says. I don't have spiritual rule over anybody ... except my wife as the head of the household." Experts in apocalyptic movements said that reinterpretations like Camping's are not uncommon in the wake of failed doomsday predictions. “Historically, failed prophecies tend to result in disillusionment, with members deserting the group, or, more typically, a faith-saving (and face-saving) statement to the effect that while divine revelation remains infallible, human calculation is not,” said Lorenzo DiTommaso, author of the forthcoming book “The Architecture of Apocalypticism” and an associate professor of religion at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. “In short: The math was off, and it’s back to the drawing board,” he said. “If the logic seems a bit self-serving, recall that in the apocalyptic mindset, faith precedes theory, and theory informs the evidence." –CNN's Jessica Ravitz contributed to this report. soundoff (4,998 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Notice its not too distant in the future since he wants to be alive when it happens. Notice how these knuckleheads are never under the age of 35 when people haven't lived their full lives yet. These false prophets always have a selfish agenda since they are already at the end of their life. Why do these kooks have a platform AFTER they've been proven wrong? At this point, this guy has no more credibility than any drunk bum on the street. They're probably more accurate than this weirdo.
Another calendar reset and we can go through it again in five months. Why doesn't the "word of god" spell it all out for us and we wouldn't need all these interpreters.
Because the 'word of god' is a scam. Always has been, always will find people just stupid and gullible enough to believe.
you are crazy, you are not our God to tell his people when the judgement day is..........i feel so sorry for you who calls himself a christian. you need help!
Well at least now we have until October 21st, don't worry be happy until then.
he got all of us talking about jesus. so he is kinda winning.
The only thing he got me to do was go to a couple of really good parties.
There he goes again, looking for another "infallible" proof for a new date.
why is this nut,not in a nut house with with the rest of his followers,
It's hard to imagine that Harold Camping would smoke crack at his age but clearly he 's firing up some rocks on a daily basis! What a nut case! In 5 months when the world doesn't end what will be his excuse than?!?!?!?!?! lol What a moron!!!!
If god is perfect he has a perfect plan for humanity, i ask all the preachers if they will burn they children if they did something real bad no one ever said they would and, then i tell them that they are better than god cause they keep saying he is going burn all of us in hell i also remind them that Jesus was a Jew and he did not made a new religion and the only time he used force was a the temple with those dealing with money and this is very common today.I believe in god no in religions.
P.T. Barnum was indeed right!
P.T. Barnum did not say that, David Hannum did.
Can't wait to hear what he has to say on Oct 22.
The Holy scripture says: "NO man knows the day nor the hour." Anyone who says that they know, is a liar! plain and simple.
Thank you for not using the scroll button or checking out other pages. Otherwise, you might have seen that every fourth post says this exact same thing. Way to add to the conversation.
FRAUD, both in the charlatan sense and also FRAUD as in the FELONY attempt to separate someone from their money using religious deception and coercion. This guy is a Jesus SCAMMER. Lowest order of Charlatan around next to Radical Religious TERRORISTS. He should be arrested. There is a point where Freedom of Speech and Religion cross a MARKED LINE into Felony Fraud.
Fast forward 5 months from now and his story will change again and the simple minded fools that empower this charlatan will keep sending "contributions." Religion is a crime against humanity.
This Camping guy has his math all wrong. The true date where all the popping, whooping and shaking will begin is July 4th at sunset. Send me your checks. I also accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express and PayPal.
God and I talk all the time.
I know when the end is coming.
Send me all your money and I'll email you the date.
Why are you giving these idiots a platform to spew their religious stupidity?
So people like you have something to post a comment about.
F This FREAK!!!!
LOL He is on a mission! Wow $80 mio of contributions in 4 years, not bad...
Mathew 13;32
Counter point: Matthew 24:34
Also Luke 21:32 and Mark 13:30