Rupture Comes Not, Faithfuls Wait On
There is a proverb in Bangla—the shaven-head does not go back under the Bell-tree (a tree that produces grapefruit size fruits with hardened shell, strong enough to crack skulls). In the USA, however, the axiom does not hold good. It appears, the more developed a country is, the more dumb some of its inhabitants are!
Harold Camping, the 89 year old retired civil engineer turned prophet, had predicted the end of the world in 1994. In September of that year, the Biblical rupture was to occur which was supposed to place the entire world under Christ's judgement. Notwithstanding, when his prediction failed, Camping blamed it to mathematical error.
Then he predicted a new Judgement Day—May 21st of this year, when 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven before the apocalypse. His Family Radio International at Oakland spent millions of dollars on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs painted with the Judgment Day message.
Family Radio International's rupture message was broadcast in 61 languages—in countries far and wide. Although no information is available on how much Family Radio had spent on advertising, or how much donation they had received to publicize this event, their 2009 tax filings revealed that the organization had received $18.3 million in donations that year, and had assets in excess of $104 million, including $34million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.
Tim LaHaye, co-author of the novel Left Behind had called Camping's prediction “not only bizarre but 100 percent wrong!” He cited the Bible, verse Matthew 24:36, that says none but God knows exact day or hour of the rupture.
Camping's prophecy nevertheless influenced followers such as Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent $140,000 of his life-savings to advertise the rapture in New York. A 52 year old former television producer, Jeff Hopkins spent a good deal of his own retirement savings on gas money to install a lighted sign on the roof of his car displaying Camping's May 21 warning and making 100-mile round trip from Long Island to New York City twice a day to publicize the message.
He later said, “I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face.”
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