Doomsday Q & A
A JewsOnFirst Discussion of The Dynamics of Doomsday Events with Prof. John Hubers
JewsOnFirst..org, May 22, 2011
When the "Rapture" or "Doomsday" predicted for May 21st by fundamentalist preacher Harold Camping became national headline news, we thought it would be useful to explore the underlying dynamics of such events. We turned to John Hubers, a professor of Religion at Northwestern College in Orange, Iowa, who observed that "doomsday soothsayers" offer structure and certainty to followers whose ranks swell in times of uncertainty. Hubers also noted the effect on many Christians of end-times novels and discussed the difference between Camping's predictions and the end times beliefs of Christian Zionist. Continue.
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Doomsday ministry scrubs end of world predictions from website
Dan Merica, CNN, October 28, 2011
(CNN) - The Christian radio broadcasting network that touted Harold Camping's failed doomsday predictions may be getting out of the prophecy business, adopting what appears to be a vaguer vision of the end times.
"We are to live so that we are ready for the return of Christ, and even pray for it," according to a Family Radio statement obtained by The Christian Post. "But we also rejoice in every new day, that we've been given another day to occupy and serve our Lord." Continue.
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Radio host says Rapture actually coming in October
Garance Burke, Associated Press, May 24, 2011
OAKLAND, Calif. – A California preacher who foretold of the world's end only to see the appointed day pass with no extraordinarily cataclysmic event has revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.
Harold Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before catastrophe struck the planet, apologized Monday evening for not having the dates "worked out as accurately as I could have."
He spoke to the media at the Oakland headquarters of his Family Radio International, which spent millions of dollars_ some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message. Continue.
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Apocalypse not now _ and how we saw it
Ted Anthony, Associated Press, Forbes, May 22, 2011
NEW YORK -- Where were you on the day the world didn't end?
Did you, like many thousands of others, turn to a social network and confess to the world something you had kept hidden? Did you laugh it off and make jokes about not having to go to work Monday? Did you pick your favorite end-times pop song and blast it on the car stereo?
Did you maybe scoff a little while wondering - just a teensy bit, in a tiny place in the very back of your head - what you might do if Saturday were indeed your final day on the planet? Continue.
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Will the rapture, like everything else, get here late?
Lauren Bishop, Cincinnatti Enquier, May 20, 2011
If Judgment Day is indeed Saturday, as some believe, perhaps there's no better place to be than Cincinnati.
That's what 31-year-old Jonathan Goolsby of Clifton figures, citing the quote often attributed to Mark Twain, but never verified: "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always 20 years behind the times."
"If the rapture does happen (Saturday), will it actually happen here in Cincinnati, or will we get a 20-year grace period while everyone else is dying?" Goolsby wondered. "I guess we'll have to call Indianapolis or Columbus and see if they pick up." Continue.
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Harold Camping: The Man Behind 'Judgment Day,' May 21, 2011
Jaweed Kaleem, Huffington Post.com., May 19, 2011
Behind thousands of “Judgment Day” billboards on rural highways and city skylines, responsible for a small army of volunteers traipsing across the country to warn that the world will end on May 21, is a frail, 89-year-old California multimillionaire who runs one of the largest Christian radio networks in the world.
Each day, Harold Camping’s slow and sonorous Bible readings and his Open Forum call-in show broadcast for hours from the Oakland, Calif. headquarters of Family Radio, where Christian gospel and shows with titles such as “Beyond Intelligent Design” and “Creation Moments” punctuate his words. Continue
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In the end, rapture believers weren't going anywhere
To many who put stock in Harold Camping's prophecy about the end of the world, disillusionment was profound. It ended up being apocalypse … not
Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2011
Sue Espinoza was planted before the television, awaiting news of her father's now infamous prediction: cataclysmic earthquakes auguring the end of humanity.
God's wrath was supposed to begin in New Zealand and then race across the globe, leaving millions of bodies wherever the clock struck 6 p.m. But the hours ticked by, and New Zealand survived. Time zone by time zone, the apocalypse failed to materialize. Continue.
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Harold Camping is at the heart of a mediapocalypse
Doomsday predictor Harold Camping is less than rapturous over the focus on him as a result of his prediction that the world will end Saturday.
Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2011
Reporting from Oakland -- Harold Camping's promised final show Thursday night was much like his others. For an hour and a half, before a backdrop of wood paneling and fake plants in an Oakland studio, the self-styled scriptural scholar fielded calls from the devout, the derisive and the curious. He is 89 and bone-thin, making the leather-bound Bible on his lap seem enormous, and his voice was slow and unflappable.
Near the show's end, Camping cut short a caller to announce that this would be his last appearance on the "Open Forum" TV and radio show he's hosted for decades. After all, he explained with a warm smile, the world would be ending Saturday night. Continue.
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At Apocalypse Central, Preparing for What Happens, or Doesn’t
Jesse McKinley, New York Times, May 20, 2011
OAKLAND, Calif. — If Harold Camping and his followers are correct, Gertrude Stein’s famous comment about Oakland — that there is no there there — may finally be true. If not, some local churchgoers say they will set up encampments outside the headquarters of Mr. Camping, the self-proclaimed biblical soothsayer who has prophesied the end of the world on Saturday, with an eye toward consoling the disappointed.
Continue.
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The End is Near? The False Teaching of Harold Camping
The church is not to be arrogantly setting dates, but instead to be eagerly waiting for him. Of that we can be truly certain.
Albert Mohler, Albert Mohler.com,, May 16, 2011
Harold Camping is now warning the world that the Day of Judgment will begin at about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2011. The 89-year-old founder of Family Radio has made such pronouncements before, most recently in 1994. He now says that he simply miscalculated then, but he is absolutely certain that he has the right calculation now. You have been warned.
Actually, millions of people in America have been warned through Camping’s radio program and by means of the more than 1,200 billboards his ministry has put up across the nation. According to press reports, Family Radio has put up 2,000 billboards in other nations, as well. Continue.
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Divining Doomsday: An Old Practice With New Tricks
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, National Public Radio, May 12, 2011
Margaret Pease stands on a corner in downtown Pittsburgh, handing out doomsday pamphlets.
"JUDGMENT DAY FOLKS!" she yells with a volume that would make a drill sergeant proud. "May 21, 2011!"
For the past seven months, Pease has been crisscrossing the country in a caravan with eight others, warning anyone who will listen that God's wrath is near. Continue.
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