The Prediction and Credibility of Harold Camping

1018 Words3 Pages

Not many people know who Harold Camping is just by hearing his name. However, people do know what he did without the name. Camping shows why credibility is important and how his actions affect it. He has given us this lesson of credibility by predicting something that would change the world and it did not happen. He tried to blame it on a mathematical error and other mistakes. He asked for forgiveness and due to his actions lost a lot of credibility. He later suffered from a stroke and died at 92 (Doomsday Harold Camping Dead at 92). Here is the timeline of his lifetime events leading up to the fail predictions.
Harold Camping was born on July 19, 1921 in Boulder Colorado. He was one of five brothers raised by Dutch immigrants who were apart of the Protestant church. He later went to college at the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated in 1942 with a degree in civil engineering. He then married Shirley Vander Schuur in 1943 and they had six children and lots of grand children (McFadden). He made a prediction that the world would end in 1944. When that did not happen he said, “I am not embarrassed about it, it was just the fact that it was premature, there is no possibility that it will not happen” (Burke). Then when he started making predictions later on in 2011-2012 Christian leaders from over the world and ignored them and atheists made fun of them (Doomsday Harold Camping Dead at 92).
In 1946, he founded a construction company and by the age of 35, was a millionaire. In about the 1950’s he started devoting over eight hours a day to reading the Bible. In 1959, he and two other men founded the Family Radio Station where he began preaching on the air. This network grew to over 140 stations across the world, reaching A...

... middle of paper ...

...ctions and I do not think, if he were still alive, he would try and predict another date of Christ’s return.

Works Cited

Burke, Garance. "Believers' Reactions Mixed to Unfulfilled Doomsday." Msnbc.com. 2014 NBCNews.com, 22 May 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Clark, Fred. "Time Ends for End-Times." Slacktivist. Patheos, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
"Doomsday Minister Harold Camping Dead at 92." USA Today. Gannett, 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
James, Scott. "Seeking to Unplug The Voice of Doomsday." The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 June 2011. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.
McFadden, Robert D. "Harold Camping, Dogged Forecaster of the End of the World, Dies at 92." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.
Tenety, Elizabeth. "May 21, 2011: Harold Camping Says the End Is near." OnFaith. 2014 Faith Street, 3 Jan. 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.

Open Document