IF YOU’RE READING THIS, you survived. Yesterday, October 21, was due to be the date of the apocalypse, according to American preacher Harold Camping.
The Californian evangelist, who is best known for his broadcasts on the Christian radio network Family Radio, claimed to have established mathematical proof that the end of the world was to occur on October 21.
Camping’s calculations had been revised after his original prediction of May 21 – a date he had predicted to be the culmination of a slew of natural disasters.
That date was not due to wipe out the entirety of mankind, he had claimed – but the people who survived the events of that date would continue to live in torment.
Camping’s original prediction in May had led to worldwide fame and notoriety, largely because of the high-profile media awareness campaign waged by his ministry to educate people about their impending doom.
The fallibility of that claim led to significant worldwide ridicule – causing his ministry to take a more understated approach this time around.
“[This time] it looks like it’s going to be the final end of everything,” Camping had claimed in a recent audio clip posted to Family Radio. ”There’s going to be no big display of any kind… the end is going to come very, very quietly.”
Camping’s daughter told a Canadian newspaper that the family had been advised not to speak to the press, and there has been no comment from the ministry since yesterday’s rapture failed to materialise.
Camping himself has not fulfilled his usual broadcasting slots on Family Radio since May, after being hospitalised following a stroke.
