end of the world on Saturday were left disappointed.
Still, predictions that Christ’s second coming would herald the “Rapture” – in which believers are delivered to Heaven, while the rest of us are condemned to Hell – certainly lit up imaginations.
As the 6pm deadline passed without Armageddon being unleashed, a tidal wave of doomsday jokes and pictures flooded the Internet.
Although, in fact, the only person to actually disappear was Harold Camping, the 89-year-old retired civil engineer who predicted the Rapture.
Camping, who lives few miles from his radio station, was not home late morning Saturday, and an additional attempt to seek comment from him late in the evening also was unsuccessful, with no one answering his front door.
He has as yet to make any comment about yet another failed doomsday prediction.
He has said that his earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994 didn’t come true because of a mathematical error.
Last month he said: “I’m not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature, there is . . . no possibility that it will not happen.”
Twitter followers revelled in mock disappointment. Gavin Middleton wrote: “It’s 13 minutes past the Rapture here in New Zealand. I’m still holding out hope for the trumpet call.”
One of Camping’s followers who must be truly disappointed is Michael Garcia.
After spending months travelling the country to put up Judgment Day billboards and hand out Bible tracts, he planned to spend Friday evening with his family at home in Alameda, near the Christian media empire’s Oakland headquarters.
“We know the end will begin in New Zealand and will follow the sun and roll on from there,” said Garcia, a 39-year-old father of six. “That’s why God raised up all the technology and the satellites so everyone can see it happen at the same time.”
Camping has built a multi-million-dollar non-profit ministry based on his apocalyptic prediction.
They believe the end of the world today will likely start as it becomes 6pm in the world’s various time zones.
Unfortunately for Mr Garcia – but fortunately for New Zealanders – the world kept on turning.
As Saturday drew nearer, followers reported that donations grew, allowing Family Radio to spend millions on more than 5 000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the doomsday message.
Marie Exley, who helped put up apocalypse-themed billboards in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, said the money allowed the non-profit to reach as many souls as possible.
She said she and her husband, mother and brother read the Bible and stayed close to the television news on Friday night awaiting word of an earthquake in the southern hemisphere. When that did not happen, she said fellow believers began reaching out to reassure one another of their faith.
She said: “Some people were saying it was going to be an earthquake at that specific time in New Zealand and be a rolling judgment, but God is keeping us in our place and saying you may know the day but you don’t know the hour. The day is not over, it’s just the morning, and we have to endure until the end.”
As 6pm approached in California, some 100 people gathered outside Family Radio International headquarters in Oakland, although it appeared none of the believers of the prophecy were among them.
Camping’s radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website are controlled from a modest building sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader’s business.
After the 6pm deadline, the airwaves of the Christian Family radio were silent and has been airing recorded church music, devotionals and life advice unrelated to the apocalypse throughout today.
The station’s website typically allows you to listen live, but the feature has been having problems today, likely due to server overload.
Christian leaders from across the spectrum widely dismissed the prophecy, and members of a local church concerned followers could slip into a deep depression were part of the crowd outside Family Radio International. They held signs declaring Camping a false prophet as motorists drove by.
Rev Jacob Denys, of the Milpitas-based Calvary Bible Church, said: “The cold, hard reality is going to hit them that they did this, and it was false and they basically emptied out everything to follow a false teacher.
“We’re not all about doom and gloom. Our message is a message of salvation and of hope.”
Keith Bauer, a tractor trailer driver who who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3 000 miles to California for the Rapture, said: “I had some scepticism but I was trying to push the scepticism away because I believe in God.”
He started his day in the bright morning sun outside the gated Camping’s Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International.
“I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth. I began my voyage last week, I figured if I worked last week, I wouldn’t have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen.”
In New York’s Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when the six o’clock hour simply came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.
“I can’t tell you what I feel right now,” he said, surrounded by tourists. “Obviously, I haven’t understood it correctly because we’re still here. I did what I had to do, I did what the Bible said.
And as the clock ticked past 6pm, he he tried to shrink into the jeering crowd.
“How can you still stand there? How can you still do that?” Raeed Clark (26) told Fitzpatrick, calling his ploy “the biggest scam in history”.
Many followers said the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith.
Shortly after 6pm online users were mocking the predictions.
“If this whole end-of-the-world thingy is still going on . . . it’s already past 6.00 in New Zealand and the world hasn’t ended,” said another.
Family Radio International’s message has been broadcast in 61 languages.
Sceptics are planning Rapture-themed parties to celebrate what hosts expect will be the failure of the world to come to an end.
Bars and restaurants from Melbourne, Australia to the Florida Keys advertised bashes.
In Oakland, atheists planned a gathering at a local Masonic temple to include group discussions on “The Great Success of Past Apocalypses,” followed by dinner and music.
Camping and his followers believe the beginning of the end will come on May 21, exactly 7 000 years since the flood in the biblical story of Noah’s Ark.
Some 200 million people will be saved, Camping preaches, and those left behind will die in earthquakes, plagues, and other calamities until Earth is consumed by a fireball on October 21.
In the Philippines, a big billboard of Family Radio ministry in Manila warned of Judgment Day. Earlier this month, group members there distributed leaflets to motorists and carried placards warning of the end of the world.
Christian leaders from across the spectrum have widely dismissed the prophecy, but one local church is concerned that Camping’s followers could slip into a deep depression.
On Friday afternoon, a small group of eccentrics, gawkers and media opportunists convened outside Family Radio’s closed office building. A sign posted on the front door said “SORRY WE MISSED YOU!”
Some people wanted to make sure their pets receive good treatment, no matter what happens. Sharon Moss, who founded AfterTheRapturePetCare.com to provide post-apocalypse animal care, said a new wave of customers has paid US$10 to sign up in the last few weeks.
“A lot of people have said you should be out there saving souls not saving pets but my heart says ‘why can’t you do both?'” said Moss, who identifies herself as Protestant.
Camping’s prediction has been dismissed as ‘flat-out wrong’ by one leading Christian author, who has accused Camping of abusing the current climate of fear rendered by natural disasters to make money.
“Nobody knows the exact day when these things are going to happen,” Steve Wohlberg, who has written more than two dozen books about the End of Days, told the New York Daily News.
“They’re looking at all of these disasters and everything that’s going on in the planet, and this is creating a climate of deep interest in Biblical prophecy.
“In my mind, Harold Camping has quite an account to render with God when judgment day comes.” – Daily Mail.

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