{"id":17494,"date":"2013-12-18T09:43:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T14:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=17494"},"modified":"2013-12-18T09:43:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T14:43:38","slug":"harold-camping-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Harold Camping dies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Radio evangelist Harold Camping has died at the age of 92.\u00a0 Best known for predicting that on May 21, 2011, Jesus would come back, Camping\u2019s most harmful teaching was that all church bodies were heretical and that people should just listen to his radio broadcasts instead of going to church.<\/p>\n

Longtime readers of this blog might recall some good discussions we had about Mr. Camping\u2019s predictions and his theology, including with one of his followers.\u00a0 (See, for example,\u00a0 here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From Harold Camping, radio host who predicted world\u2019s end, dies at 92 | Religion News Service<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Harold Camping, the radio preacher who convinced thousands of followers that Jesus would return on May 21, 2011, to usher in the end of the the world, has died, according to a statement released late Monday (Dec. 16) by his Family Radio network. He was 92.<\/p>\n

Camping died Sunday evening, an employee at Family Radio confirmed. He had fallen at his home on Nov. 30 and had been in weak health due to a stroke since 2011.<\/p>\n

Camping first predicted Jesus\u2019 return in 1994, but his most recent forecasts gained national attention through advertisements and the Family Radio network of stations he founded. He warned that \u201cjudgment day\u201d would occur in May 2011 and said the world would end in October 2011.<\/p>\n

When his prophecies turned out to be false, he declared in March 2012 that his May 21 prediction had been \u201cincorrect and sinful\u201d and said his ministry would get out of the predictions business.<\/p>\n

The ministry sold its prominent stations and laid off staffers, with assets dropping from $135 million in 2007 to $29.2 million in 2011.<\/p>\n

Pressed by reporters after his May 21 prediction failed to materialize, Camping said he had miscalculated \u2014 it must be Oct. 21, he said. \u201cI\u2019m not a genius,\u201d he said. \u201cI pray all the time for wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting in the 1950s, Camping broadcast his views via Family Radio, a global network of Christian stations for which he served as unpaid president and primary on-air talent. His teachings aired worldwide five nights a week via \u201cOpen Forum,\u201d a call-in show that draws listeners as far away as China and Ghana.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for calling \u2018Open Forum,\u2019 \u201d Camping said countless times in his trademark baritone, \u201cand shall we take our next call, please?\u201d<\/p>\n

Camping was once well-regarded in among evangelicals, both for his encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture and his radio network. But in the late 1980s, when he began teaching that churches had strayed from the Bible embracing a false doctrine, he lost much previous support.<\/p>\n

He also discouraged his listeners from joining a church, saying modern churches were heretical and that the \u201cchurch age\u201d had ended as the end of the world was near.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Radio evangelist Harold Camping has died at the age of 92.\u00a0 Best known for predicting that on May 21, 2011, Jesus would come back, Camping\u2019s most harmful teaching was that all church bodies were heretical and that people should just listen to his radio broadcasts instead of going to church. Longtime readers of this blog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20,47],"tags":[755,990],"class_list":["post-17494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-history","category-theology","tag-end-times","tag-harold-camping"],"yoast_head":"\nHarold Camping dies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Radio evangelist Harold Camping has died at the age of 92.\u00a0 Best known for predicting that on May 21, 2011, Jesus would come back, Camping's most harmful\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harold Camping dies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Radio evangelist Harold Camping has died at the age of 92.\u00a0 Best known for predicting that on May 21, 2011, Jesus would come back, Camping's most harmful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-18T14:43:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/\",\"name\":\"Harold Camping dies\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-18T14:43:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-18T14:43:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Radio evangelist Harold Camping has died at the age of 92.\u00a0 Best known for predicting that on May 21, 2011, Jesus would come back, Camping's most harmful\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/12\/harold-camping-dies\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Harold Camping dies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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