Harold Camping Controversies

Camping's Biblical study regarding time and Christ's second coming is based on the cycles of:

Jewish feast days in the Hebrew calendar, as described in the Old Testament,

the lunar month calendar (1 synodic month = 29.53059 days), and

A close approximation of the Gregorian calendar tropical year (365.24219 days, rounded to 365.2422 ).

He projects these into modern times and combines the results with other information in the Bible.

Camping calculates date of the crucifixion of Christ as Friday April 1, AD 33. Not all commentators agree with that date. Hoehner argues for April 3, 33 A.D. Other students of the subject have placed the event in AD 29, 30, or 31.

Camping further calculates that the Rapture is 722,500 days after the crucifixion of Christ.From April 1 to May 21 is 51 days. Additionally, multiplying using the same math Camping uses returns an approximation of the remaining days. Using his date of April 1, AD 33, a total of 1978 years multiplied by 365.2425 days/year (Gregorian calendar) results in 722,449.66 days. Multiplying by 365.2422 (tropical year, seven significant digits) results in 722,449.07 days. Multiplying by 365.24219 (tropical year, eight significant digits) results in 722,449.05 days. If one accounts for leap seconds, each year is slightly longer than the previous. Since 1972 to 2011, the earth rotates 24 seconds slower. This is a difference of 0.000278 day over 39 years, for an average of only 0.000007 day per year.

In 1992, Camping published a book titled 1994?, in which he proclaimed that Christ's return might be on September 6, 1994. In that publication, he also mentioned that 2011 could be the end of the world. Camping's predictions use 1988 as a significant year in the events preceding the apocalypse; this was also the year he left Alameda Bible Fellowship. As a result, some individuals have criticized him for "date-setting. Camping's latest publications, We are Almost There! and To God be The Glory, refer to additional Biblical evidence which, in his opinion and that of others mentioned by him, pointed to May 21, 2011 as the date for the Rapture and October 21, 2011 as the date for the end of the world.

In an article "Is Harold Camping and Family Radio a Cult?", the evangelical Got Questions Ministries opposed Camping's teachings because they believe his entire method of Bible interpretation is flawed:

"Harold Camping employs an allegorical method of interpreting Scripture. Because of this method, the meaning of any Scripture passage is purely subjective, subject to the mind and imagination of the person. … Camping's use of an allegorical method of interpretation for Scripture, and especially for unfulfilled prophecy, is fatally flawed. It undermines the very nature of communication. God gave us His Word to communicate very specific information.

Silent as Judgment Day tick

Harold family Radio, the Christian stations network headed by Harold Camping which had spread his message of an approaching doomsday, was on Saturday playing recorded church music and devotional messages unrelated to the apocalypse.

Camping previously made a failed prediction Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.

In his latest pronouncement, he had said doomsday would begin in Asia, but with midnight local time come and gone in Tokyo and Beijing and those cities already in the early hours of May 22, there was no sign of the apocalypse.

The Oakland, California, headquarters of the network of 66 U.S. stations, which has international affiliates and had posted billboards around the country warning of a May 21 Judgment Day, were shuttered with a sign in the door that read "This Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you!"

The headquarters, which appears to be normally closed on Saturday, was also shuttered on Friday.

"If it will be"

It was a sunny day in downtown Ferndale when I was first introduced to Family Radio by a rather conspicuous mobile billboard with a rather casual message: "Save the date, May, 21, 2011, Judgment Day." It was the largest invite I had ever received and I did not plan on attending – I had to work.

And I know what you are thinking because I am thinking it, too — why Saturday? Why not Monday morning or Tuesday afternoon, or even Sunday morning when I will want the world to end anyway because of my massive hangover. But according to Bible scholar Harold Camping, Judgment Day waits for no one.

Camping, 89, is the president of the nonprofit Christian religious radio network Family Radio, based in Oakland, CA. He is responsible for discovering – and being very vocal, if I may add — about a theory extrapolated from the Bible that the rapture will take place May 21, 2011.

The rapture is a Christian belief that the faithful will be carried into the air to meet with Christ as the end of the world unfolds.

"That is a very, very serious admonition 'cause that is the nature of the believer," said Gunther Von Harringa, 59, about the thought-provoking advertisements. "God tells us to do it."

The need to spread the word to the masses through a media campaign of fliers, billboards and even motorcade is fueled by the belief that if you know of impending doom and you do not warn others, you are just as responsible for their ill fate.

Ohio-based Harringa is the international director of Bible Ministries and a big follower of Camping's theory. This is the second end of the world prediction for Camping – he also predicted the end of the world in 1994 – but maybe the second time's a charm.

"I would not say it is his belief," Harringa said. "It is more like what the Bible says and what it says he(God) will do.

Harold camping Radio

In 1961, Family Radio began the Open Forum program, a live weeknight call-in program that Camping hosts. Listeners call in primarily with questions about the meaning of certain passages from the Bible, and Camping answers them by means of interpretations, often with reference to other Biblical passages. Occasionally the questions pertain to general Christian doctrine, such as the nature of sin and salvation, and to matters of everyday life conduct, such as marriage, sexual morality, and education. This program has continued to the present time and is broadcast on the more than 150 stations owned by Family Radio in the United States. The Open Forum is also translated into many foreign languages and together with other Family Radio programming is broadcast worldwide via shortwave station WYFR, a network of AM and FM radio stations, a cable television station, and the Internet.

Family Radio runs various programs on its radio stations. Programs that do not conform to Camping's understanding of the Biblical principle of comparing scripture with scripture (1 Corinthians 2:13) are normally removed from programming upon discovery. Before Camping started teaching that the "Church Age" had ended, programs produced outside of Family Radio were welcome provided they did not accept any "extra-Biblical revelation", and were associated with teachings accepted by the historic Christian faith. Now Camping refuses any ministry associated with the organized church. These programs can be heard by radio, satellite, television, short wave and Internet broadcasts.

His organization also utilizes numerous low-power television signals, for example WFME-TV digital television channel 66 in the New York City area. As of April, 2009, that transmitter has been configured to send out ten separate subchannels, with the first (66-1) carrying the main video at a low quality 480i, the second and third (66-2 and 66-3) sending out a blank video image and, respectively, carrying the audio of "Family Radio East" and "Family Radio West". The other seven have no video and are a mix of different audio content, mostly of a religious nature, and NOAA Weather Radio on 66-9.