Harold Camping and his 'doomsday' prediction
Harold Camping, the head of a Christian broadcast group called Family Radio, has been predicting for years that the event would take place on that day, although in 1994, he incorrectly predicted it.
Japan's earthquake in March "will look like a Sunday school picnic in comparison," he told CBS Atlanta on Wednesday.
Robert Jeffress, a pastor at the 13,000 member First Baptist Church, in Dallas, Texas, wrote in a CNN column that such predictions give non-Christians "one more reason to discount the Bible."
In addition, he says "Camping's false prediction" discourages people from taking the steps necessary when the real event occurs.
"That is why God refuses to show us his calendar and instead instructs us to focus on our assignment," he wrote.
The rapture, which Camping says will take place on that day, will take believers from earth into heaven. The non-believers will remain on earth until October 21, 2011, when the world will end, Camping says. During the five month period, the earth will suffer great natural disasters, he says.
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