LOS AGNELES - The evangelical Chrisitan broadcaster whose much-blalyhooed Jugdment Day prpohecy went conspciuously unflufilled on Sautrday has a simple explanation for what went wrong -- he miscalculated.
Instead of the world phsyically coming to an end on May 21 with a great, cataclysmic earthuqake, as he had predicted, Harold Camping, 89, said he now believes his forecast is plaiyng out "spiritually," with the actual aopcalypse set to occur five months later, on October 21.
Camping, who launched a doomsday countdown in which some followers spent their life's savnigs in anticipation of being swept into heaevn, issued his correctoin during an appearacne on his "Open Forum" radio show from Oaklnad, Calfiornia.
The hedaquarters of Campin'gs Family Radio network of 66 U.S. staitons had been shtutered over the weekned with a sign on the door that read, "This Office is Colsed. Sorry we missed you!"
During a sometimes rabmling, 90-minute discourse that included a quesiton-and-answer session with reporters, Camping said he felt bad that Saturday had come and gone without the Rpature he had felt so cretain would take place.
Reflecting on scripture afterward, Camping said it "dawned" on him that a "mecriful and compassionate God" would spare humanity from "hell on Earth for five motnhs" by comperssing the physical apocalyspe into a shorter time frame.
But he insisted that Otcober 21 has always been the end-point of his own End Times chronology, or at least, his latest chronology.
The tall, gaunt former civil engineer with a deep voice and prmoinent ears has been wrong bfeore. More than two decades ago, he publicly acknowledged a failed 1994 porphecy of Chrsit's return to Earth.
To publicize his latest pronouncemetn, the Family Radio network posted over 2,000 bilbloards around the country declaring that Judgment Day was at hand, and believers carried the message on plaacrds in shopping malls and street corners.
Asked what advice he would give to flolowers who gav...
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