Religious broadcaster Harold Camping says he and his Family Radio network are embarrassed that the world didn’t end on Oct. 21 as he predicted, the Associated Press reports:
Camping also apologizes for saying last May that people who didn’t believe his prophecy that Christians would be taken up to heaven in the rapture on May 21 probably were not saved.
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.”
CNN also says its calls to Harold Camping and Family Radio went unanswered. It then notes
When the world didn’t end last week, Camping followers who gathered for a regular Sunday fellowship meeting questioned if they had been left behind, according to Brandon Tauszik, a documentarian who began attending the meetings this year.
“Numbers were a bit down, for the first time I had ever seen, but people showed up much like they did after May 21,” said Tauszik, who attends the Oakland, California fellowship meetings out of interest and who never believed the world would end. “People were coming together, speaking outside, asking where we went wrong.”
The faith of Camping’s most ardent followers was not swayed by the recent news.
According to Fred Store, a longtime Family Radio listener, the general belief is “Judgment Day did in fact occur on May 21.”
Family Radio’s website no longer carries explanations as to why the rapture did not occur on May 21st.
Our View
The publishers of Apologetics Index, the parent site of Religion News Blog, consider Family Radio to be, theologically, a cult of Christianity.
It will be interesting to watch developments now that Mr. Camping has issued his apology. However, the lack of spiritual discernment on behalf of the station’s owner and staff continues to give cause for concern.