Harold Camping Update: Some in Family Radio Church Believe 'Real' Judgment Might Come Very Soon
After the end of the world did not happen on Friday, Oct. 21, as famously predicted by Christian broadcaster Harold Camping, his Family Radio network has been struggling to determine what to do next, while Camping has been exercising influence from home, despite his retirement.
During the first sermon after Oct. 21, Camping’s church declared that God's judgment did occur, but that it was "spiritual," a member of the church told The Christian Post.
Brandon Tauszik, who has been attending Camping’s church for the past eight months, told CP Sunday in a phone interview that the congregation is divided. Some seem to believe there is no way of determining when the end of the world will come. However, some believe that doomsday will come at the end of the moon cycle, meaning this Wednesday, Tauszik said.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"The whole service was about that, and about how to move forward since the second date didn’t happen," Tauszik told CP on Oct. 23, right after the service. "Everybody was discussing and trying to get to the bottom of it; figure out where they went wrong, where Camping went wrong."
In the first sermon after the assumed doomsday, on Sunday, Oct. 23, one of the three pastors who have been filling in for Camping, the Rev. John Gomez, told the congregation that it is to wait for the return of Christ on a day-by-day basis, according to Tauszik.
No new specific prediction came from the Family Radio president.
Camping has not been attending church since he suffered a stroke in June. He has also not been able to host his show, "Open Forum," on the Family Radio Stations, Inc., his international Christian media company, except for one pre-recorded address released on the Oakland, Calif., company's website, in which he affirmed his predictions for Oct. 21, though with much less conviction than previously.
All this time, the station has been playing audio clips from a rich library of Camping’s past sermons and Bible teaching sessions. That is how Camping’s legacy might possibly continue. Camping might not be preaching in person, but as long as he passes his views on to his congregation via associated pastors, this might just not be the end of his story yet.
Camping’s words have also been carried over the air via Family Radio, which did comment on the non-event of Oct. 21 the following day, encouraging listeners not to lose hope and, at the same time, to keep supporting the radio network through donations.
"I know that many of us are deeply disappointed that Christ did not come. And I said something like this back in May," a Family Radio announcer said (it was not made by Camping). "But please try to keep in mind that all of us who are believers, all of us who are Christians, are to live in such a way that we are to pray with the apostle John: 'Come quickly Lord Jesus.' "
Camping has also previously predicted that the end of the world would happen on May 21, 2011, causing many of his followers to spend all of their savings on an advertising campaign that reportedly cost several million dollars. When the end did not come in May, Camping announced the date to be that of a "spiritual" judgment and that God's judgment would conclude on Oct. 21.
He has also predicted a doomsday back in 1994.
