Harold Camping, the radio evangelist who predicted the apocalypse would begin Saturday, May 21, 2011, said today his understanding of God's plan was just a little off.

Speaking outside the headquarters of his media empire near the Oakland, Calif., airport, Camping said his prediction that the Rapture would occur Saturday might have been wrong, but he stands by his prophecy that the world will come to an end as forecast on Oct. 21.

The end is still near, radio preacher Harold Camping said in a broadcast Monday night, but the world will be around until Oct. 21.

Camping, the 89-year-old East Bay preacher who gained international fame with his prediction that the rapture would come at 6 p.m. Saturday, said that he misinterpreted the Bible and that May 21 was not really the end of the world but the spiritual beginning of the physical end.

False Doomsday prophet Harold Camping has told the International Business Times (IBTimes) that he would be making a public statement on or by tomorrow night in a “public forum” explaining why he had predicted May 21, 2011 as the Judgment Day and why it had failed.

What? We’re still here? Well, hell’s bells. I guess Harold Camping was wrong about that end of the world thing. I’m sure he’ll figure out where he went wrong, though, and come back with the real date for the end of the world. But unless he comes up with something a few million years from now, we can be quite certain that he’s wrong again.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t blow up the place ourselves before Earth’s natural end comes about. We’ve sure got the capacity to do that, and our own politicians seem to have no problem edging us in that direction whenever and wherever possible.

But now that we’ve dodged this bullet, maybe we should all take a deep breath and another look at what we’ve wrought here.

But what made this prediction different was the lavish spending that accompanied it. Camping and his followers spent more than $100m worldwide on billboards and posters, financed by the sale and swap of radio stations. Advertising popped up across America and the globe from Iraq to Lebanon to Israel to Jordan, the Philippines to Vietnam, where thousands of the Hmong ethnic hill tribe gathered together on the Thai border in anticipation of the event. The campaign was backed up by Camping's radio show, which can be heard worldwide, and a website that featured, naturally, a countdown clock. Yesterday that clock was at zero underneath the banner headline: "Judgment Day: the Bible guarantees it."

With every second ticking by, the chances of Family Radio President Harold Camping being denounced as a false prophet are becoming stronger and his followers are visibly devastated and their faith shaken.

Camping had prophesied that the End of the World would come on May 21, 2011 at 6 p.m. Basing his prediction on Bible verses such as Genesis 7:4 (“Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth”) and 2 Peter 3:8 (“With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day”), he said 200 million people will witness Rapture while the remaining will be left behind to witness the destruction of the earth which will be complete by October 21, 2011.

The destruction would come about through a series of natural disasters, including violent earthquakes which would make the Japan’s earthquake look like “a Sunday school picnic in comparison”.

 

For ardent devotees of radio broadcaster Harold Camping’s dating of Judgment Day to May 21, the ability to adapt will depend on how much they had banked on it and how little they were prepared for a future. If they gave up life savings, family relationships and jobs, it will be especially tough to start over.

While Camping’s prediction is obviously false, thousands of his followers believed it to be fact, so much so that they maxed out credit cards, emptied life savings, and told their loved ones good bye, including their children, who they were told would/could be destroyed.

Today, I was going to write one of the most interesting articles ever published on Newsvine, but as I was gathering information for the article a funny thing began to happen.

First I started feeling a weird rumbling in my stomach, then minutes later I began feeling like something was getting ready to explode from within. The pressure kept getting stronger and stronger, and I was wondering what was going on...until I happened to look at the time on my watch. I see it is close to 6:00 PM, close to the time the rapture is supposed to occur. It must be my soul fighting its way out of my body!

I run outside with my eyes to the sky. I know the world is ending and I am among the...

Everyone needs a playlist today, those who are going, those who are watching, those who are scratching their heads.

3.  The concept is far too complicated for the main stream media to understand.  ***

"A great earthquake will occur the Bible describes it as 'such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.' This earthquake will be so powerful it will throw open all graves. The remains of the all the believers who have ever lived will be instantly transformed into glorified spiritual bodies to be forever with God."

On Saturday, so the latest apocalypse theory holds, a few hundred million faithful Christians will be lifted into heaven during an event called the Rapture. What follows is a time of tribulation, wherein anyone not saved will confront all manner of atrocities. Of course most, including mainstream Christian denominations, have denounced these prophecies as absurd.

But we say: Better safe than sorry.

Just in case you're facing a sea of hellfire in the coming hours, we've found answers to frequently asked questions about the end of days, and compiled some tips for surviving.

Believing Saturday could be their last day on earth has put a lot of pressure on people who are trying to figure out how to spend it. For Patti Rowlson and her 19-year-old daughter Kelsey, the big question is what to wear.

The Rowlson family has responded to evangelical preacher Harold Camping's prediction that the end of the world is set for May 21 by having an "end of the world party" in their home town of Everson, Wash.

"We think that if the world is going to end we want to be hanging out and celebrating with friends," Rowlson told AOL Weird News.

 

If you are one of the lucky people who will be whisked up in the rapture on Saturday, 5/21/2011, and don't want to worry your friends and relatives who are left behind, leave a message for them in the comment section here. Feel free to let us pass any messages whatsoever on to them that you like, and don't forget to leave your bank account numbers so your friends and loved ones can put all your affairs in order once you are gone.

We will make sure to let your friends and relatives know that you are okay and they are the ones who've been left behind. It would be terrible to make them worry, and this way they will have peace of mind.

If you want your messages moved to the top of the list, so your friends and relatives can be notified without any wait, send all your money and possessions to the author...he will personally take care of everything for you. *wink* *wink*

When Jesus lived in the land of Israel about 2000 years ago, he gave a very simple and concise answer when someone asked him when he would return: He explained that no one knows the hour or the day, except for God the Father (Matthew 24:36).

http://www.100prophecies.org/page9.htm

If you haven't heard by now, there's still time to do whatever you think you need to do to get ready.

For Judgment Day on Saturday, that is.

As we've previously reported, an evangelical radio broadcaster who has said before that the end of the world was coming, has predicted that this time it really will happen on May 21.

What would you listen to as humanity came to an end? Hard rock? Classical? Something on the lighter side?

We've put together some of the quintessential end of the world songs below, but we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to tell us about your doomsday soundtrack below, but then again none of that's going to matter in a few days anyway.