From Where I Stand: Setting the Date

Harold Egbert Camping is awfully sorry. His most recent prediction of the end of the world was just a little off – in other words, it failed. Camping also failed as recently as 1988 and 1994 to predict the second coming of Christ, but with the advent of the Internet, his prophetic affection for May 21, 2011 was even more sensational. Loyal followers (and financial contributors to the tune of millions of dollars) spent that fateless Saturday waiting for his promised earthquake, rolling across the globe as the righteous took flight toward Paradise. Instead, nothing happened, except the blissful insouciance of billions was deepened. We laughed and mocked, but the hidden reality is that our neighbors are now less likely to take our own undated warnings of Judgment Day seriously. Camping, a glutton for attention at the tender age of 89, now promises big things for October 21. The reality is that Judgment Day will come, but the date is unknowable and no obvious signs will precede its arrival. “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36).