2011 The world does not end.
“The Bible guarantees it”, said broadcaster Harold Camping, predicting that the world would end on May 21, 2011. Camping (1921-2013) was an American engineer who had assembled a chain of radio and television stations and made himself a popular preacher and scriptural interpreter. He soon developed an interest in Biblical chronology and end-times prophecy, writing over 30 books and tracts. In 1970, Camping published The Biblical Calendar of History, in which he dated the Creation of the world to the year 11,013 BC and the Flood to 4990 BC.
His first prediction about the world’s end was that it would occur on September 6, 1994. When this date proved incorrect, he blamed it on a mathematical error. (Followers later said he was referring to the end of “the church age,” a time when human beings in Christian churches could be saved.) His media ministry remained popular despite this set-back but in 2010 Camping made a new set of calculations that foresaw the Rapture on May 21, 2011. On that date, he said, those predestined to salvation would be carried away to Heaven, followed by five months of brimstone and plague before the final destruction of the planet. His Family Radio ministry spent millions of dollars buying billboards and mobile signs advertising this prophecy. His followers are said to have sold businesses and houses in anticipation of the date.
When that day came and passed without planetary destruction, Camping claimed that a “spiritual” judgement had been rendered, which would be executed on October 21. In the absence of the Apocalypse on that date, Camping issued an apology and abandoned his claim to be able to foretell the end times. He suffered a stroke shortly after and died in 2013.
