Failed Rapture predictions ..the gift that keeps on giving ...
BBC May 22, 2011 - 'Rapture': Believers perplexed after prediction fails
Followers of an evangelical broadcaster who declared that Saturday
would be Judgement Day are trying to make sense of the failed prediction.
Some believers expressed bewilderment or said it was a test from God
of their faith, after the day passed without event
the evangelist at the centre of the claim, Harold Camping, has not been
seen since before the deadline.
The 89-year-old has used broadcasts on a Christian network and billboards
to publicise his ideas as part of a campaign that went global.
He said biblical texts indicated that a giant earthquake on Saturday -
which he said would begin at 1800 at various time zones around the world -
would mark the start of the world's destruction, and that by 21 October
all non-believers will be dead.
After 1800 passed and nothing had happened, he said: "I do not understand why...
I do not understand why nothing has happened."
"I can't tell you what I feel right now. Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly
because we're still here."
Other followers said they had had their doubts about the prediction.
"I had some scepticism but I was trying to push the scepticism away because
I believe in God," said Keith Bauer, who travelled 3,000 miles (4,800km), from
Maryland to California, where Mr Camping's Family Radio is based, for the Rapture.
"I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this Earth,"
said Mr Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, who took the week off work for the voyage.