Religion News Service
Adelle M. Banks
March 8, 2012
Radio evangelist Harold Camping has called his
erroneous prediction that the world would end last May 21 an "incorrect
and sinful statement" and said his ministry is out of the prediction
business.
"We have learned the very painful lesson that all of
creation is in God's hands and he will end time in his time, not ours!"
reads the statement signed by Camping and his staff and posted on his
ministry's website.
"We humbly recognize that God may not tell his
people the date when Christ will return, any more than he tells anyone the date
they will die physically."
The "March 2012" letter, which included
multiple mea culpas, was released with a note from the board of
California-based Family Radio.
The group intended to mail it to listeners first, but
immediately posted it "to avoid confusion" after it was leaked
online.
Camping said people have continued to wish for another
prediction, but he is now convinced that critics were correct about the
biblical admonition that "of that day and hour knoweth no man."
"We must also openly acknowledge that we have no new
evidence pointing to another date for the end of the world," he wrote.
"Though many dates are circulating, Family Radio has no interest in even
considering another date."
The letter makes no reference to Camping's explanation
last year that he had miscalculated by five months and the world would instead
end on Oct. 21, 2011.
The dual predictions landed Camping in the No. 7 spot of
the Religion Newswriters Association's list of the top 10 religion stories of
2011.
http://www.religionnews.com/faith/leaders-and-institutions/harold-camping-says-may-21-prediction-was-sinful