Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (JN 8:32)

N.America

Monday, May 21, 2012

Harold Camping Update: Family Radio Website Removes Doomsday Warnings After Failed Predictions

Is the 'Rapture' Radio Network Looking to Change Its Image?

  • family radio
    (Photo: The Christian Post / Hudson Tsuei)
    Family Radio is headquartered in Oakland, Calif. Its president, Harold Camping, continues to cause a stir as he predicts the exact date of the end times. Most of the staff at Family Radio do not believe in Camping's predictions.
By Ray Downs , Christian Post Reporter
October 25, 2011|9:06 am

For the past five months, Harold Camping's Family Radio website had posted on its main page an "explanation" of why the world did not end on May 21 and why it would truly end on Oct. 21. Four days after Camping's failed doomsday date, however, that explanation has been removed, suggesting that Family Radio may be out of the rapture prediction business.

The move comes soon after Brandon Tauszik, a documentarian who has been attending Camping's Oakland, Calif., church for eight months, confirmed with The Christian Post in an exclusive interview that the Bible preacher has informed those close to him that he will effectively retire.

Additionally, Tauszik told CP that Camping has changed his views about the possibility that one can know the exact date of the end of the world, a notion that Camping has maintained for at least 20 years; the doomsday prophet made his first public end of the world prediction in 1992, claiming the world would end in 1994.

There has been evidence of a "softer" apocalypse message from Family Radio, with more emphasis placed on perpetual readiness for judgment from God rather than a specific date on a calendar to prepare for.

Recently, a host on the station told listeners, "I know that many of us are deeply disappointed that Christ did not come. And I said something like this back in May, but please try to keep in mind that all of us who are believers, all of us who are Christians, are to live in such a way that we are to pray with the apostle John: 'Come quickly Lord Jesus.'"

The network also released an official statement that promotes a similar message:

Like us on Facebook

"Thy command is still to occupy until he comes," Family Radio said. "We are still to go teach and tell. We are to share his word by reading it, teaching it, and singing it. We still have a unique tool and that tool is radio on which we can bring comfort and encouragement. Every day we, who are Christians, live in attention. We are to live so that we are ready for the return of Christ, and even pray for it. But we also rejoice in every new day, that we've been given another day to occupy and serve our Lord."

If it is true that Family Radio is looking to change its image as an end-times predictor, it would be in line with many of its employees.

"I don't believe in any of this stuff that's going on, and I plan on being here next week," a receptionist at Family Radio's Oakland headquarters told CNNMoney during the May doomsday prediction.

In fact, the receptionist said at the time that 80 percent of her co-workers do not believe in Camping's predictions.

Top Stories

Expert: Excessive, Not Low, Self-Esteem Drives Bullying

Anti-bullying expert Paul Coughlin says serial ...

Chinese Dissident Chen Guangcheng Arrives in US

Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who ...

NAACP Endorses Same-Sex Marriage Amid Opposition by Black Pastors

The National Association for the Advancement of ...

Joplin Church Emerges Stronger Than Last Year's Tornado

A year after a devastating tornado killed at ...

David Axelrod: Romney's Mormonism Should Not Be a Campaign Issue

David Axelrod, a top adviser for President Obama's reelection campaign, said Sunday that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's Mormon faith should not be made an issue in the election. He criticized Romney, ...

Sebelius Talks Separation of Church and State at Georgetown Ceremony

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen ...

Crystal Cathedral Considers Relocating to Nearby Catholic Church

Crystal Cathedral's newly minted president said ...