Harold Camping’s “real” rapture, October 21, is upon us
Luke Jenner of dance-punk band The Rapture performs at a music festival in Lorne, Australia. No photos of the end-of-the-world rapture were available. Radio host and preacher Harold Camping says the world will definitely end October 21, 2011. Camping previously predicted that judgment day would come on May 21. It didn’t.
Harold Camping "real" rapture day is approaching, with October 21, 2011, now predicted to be the day of judgment, according the radio host and preacher.
Call it Rapture 2011 — take two. Or Rapture 2.0 if you prefer.
Camping, 90, has admitted that his previous prediction of a May 21, 2011 apocalypse was wrong due to an error in calculation.
He had told his followers to prepare for the rapture on that day, when believers would go to heaven and the heathens would be left on Earth to die by horrific natural disasters.
Instead of the apocalypse, some of Camping's followers had to contend with maxed-out credit cards and massive hotel bills.
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Already the jokes are flying on Twitter in anticipation of Camping's latest end-of-the-world date of doom.
"Well I picked the wrong week to start a diet if the world's ending this Friday *reaches for cake*," tweeted @EternalLuddite.
"New Bieber album in #2weeks, Camping's #rapture prediction is off," wrote @StrongAsMeat.
Camping told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter he was "flabbergasted" when the predicted End Times did not materialize on May 21.
He decided that May 21 was actually "an invisible judgment day" in which a spiritual judgment took place, and the real apocalypse will take place October 21, he said in a radio broadcast.
"We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said, according to the Associated Press. "May 21 is the day that Christ came and put the world under judgment."
More from GlobalPost: Harold Camping: October 21 will be real apocalypse
In June, shortly after revising his prediction, Camping suffered a stroke, and he has since been playing a less prominent role with the Oakland, California-based evangelical Family Radio network.
This is the second time Camping has gotten the apocalypse date wrong. He initially said the end of the world would come in 1994. When the date came and went, he said he made a mathematical error.
"Oh Harold Camping, are you sure the world will end on Oct. 21? Did you forget to carry the 2 again?" tweeted @chiujd.