You can come out now Harold! Doomsday prophet remains in hiding as world survives Rapture... AGAIN



We can all let out a sigh of relief, the Apocalypse doesn't seem to be now after all.



According to Doomsday prophet Harold Camping October 21 was meant to be the end of the world.



California preacher Harold Camping had already stirred a global frenzy when he prophesised humanity would be wiped out in the rapture on May 21 with a series of earthquakes followed by months of torment for those left behind.

Harold Camping: The radio preacher made a name for himself and Family Radio by predicting the world would end on May 21 - then again on October 21

This time around, his ministry has avoided the media and perhaps a repeat of the international mockery that followed the last supposed day of apocalypse.



Mr Camping's daughter Susan Espinoza told Winnipeg News: 'I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we at Family Radio have been directed to not talk to the media or the press.'

Calls to the ministry in Oakland went straight to answerphone message and were not returned.

However Mr Camping's prediction of the Rapture came with an edge of caution this time around.



Now what? Followers were crestfallen when the rapture did not occur, particularly those who had quit their jobs or donated their life savings

He said: 'I really am beginning to think as I've restudied these matters that there's going to be no big display of any kind. The end is going to come very, very quietly.'

And it appears that Mr Camping is at least partially right with that prediction.

Doomsday believers were conspicuous by their absence after their highly visible presence across American cities back in May.

There were also none of the 5,000 billboards posted around the country that declared Judgment Day was at hand.

It's about to happen... er, no it's not: Activists who believed that 'Judgement Day' would happen on May 21 this year took to the streets of New York

Mr Camping, who suffered a mild stroke three weeks after his prediction failed to materialise in May, still spreads the word through his Family Radio International website.

God's judgement and salvation were completed on May 21, Mr Camping said in a message explaining the mix-up in his biblical math.

He said that Christ put the 'unsaved' into judgement on that date, but that it will not be physically seen until today.

Quieter return: There have been no billboards put up like the ones before May 21

Spread the word: Followers of Mr Camping had paid for 5,000 billboards to be put up around the country

'Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgement of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21,' he wrote on the website.

Followers were crestfallen in May when the rapture did not occur, particularly those who had quit their jobs or donated some of their retirement savings or college funds to spread the judgement day message.

Mr Camping said that doomsday would not be marked by natural disasters or blasts of hellfire.

Mr Camping, a retired civil engineer, also prophesied the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but said later that didn't happen because of a mathematical error.

They think it's all over: A history of failed doomsday predictions

Many scientists accept that our planet will one day be consumed by the Sun, but most have calculated that that will not happened for several billion years.

That hasn't stopped mankind repeatedly predicting that the world is about to end though. In fact, doomsday prophecies have been made ever since we started using calendars, with flood, famine, incoming asteroids and nuclear wars among the favoured causes of annihilation.

Biblical scholars point out that in the Book of Matthew, Jesus himself implies that the world will end within the lifetime of his contemporaries, while a host of scholars made similar predictions in the first millennium.

Prophets: Christopher Columbus, left, predicted the world would end in 1656, while Sir Isaac Newton said the rapture would come in 1948



The craze appears to have reached a peak in Europe in the Middle Ages. In 1500, Protestant reformer Martin Luther proclaimed that 'the kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown' within 300 years.

Others to get in on the act included Christopher Columbus (1656), mathematician John Napier (1688) and astrologer Sir Isaac Newton (1948).

More recently, the fad for making Doomsday predictions has become popular amongst Christian groups in the U.S. According to website Armageddononline, prophecy teacher Doug Clark announced in 1976 that President Jimmy Carter would be 'the president who will meet Mr. 666 - soon',

Doomed: One group announced in 1976 that the world would end while Jimmy Carter was president



And about 50 members of a group called the Assembly of Yahweh gathered at Coney Island, New York, in white robes, awaiting their 'rapture' from a world about to be destroyed on May 25, 1981.

'A small crowd of onlookers watched and waited for something to happen. The members chanted prayers to the beat of bongo drums until sunset. The end did not come,' the website notes.

The year 2000 was also expected to usher in an apocalypse of sorts, with aeroplanes falling from the sky and computer systems crashing. The planet survived.

In the days leading up to September 9, 2009, fans of Armageddon insisted that the world would end - 9/9/9 being the emergency services phone number in the UK and also the number of the Devil - albeit upside down. Surprisingly there wasn't the same hyperbole on June 6, 2006.

But if the world does manage to get through today unscathed, believers won't have to wait too long before another popular Doomsday prediction date looms.