Predicted date of the rapture
American Christian radio host Harold Camping stated that the rapture and Judgment Day would take place on May 21, 2011, and that the end of the world would take place five months later on October 21, 2011.
Camping, who was then president of the Family Radio Christian network, claimed the Bible as his source and said May 21 would be the date of the rapture and the day of judgment "beyond the shadow of a doubt". Camping suggested that it would occur at 6 p.m. local time, with the rapture sweeping the globe time zone by time zone, while some of his supporters claimed that around 200 million people (approximately 3% of the world's population) would be 'raptured'. Camping had previously claimed that the rapture would occur in September 1994.
The vast majority of Christian groups, including most Protestant and Catholic believers, did not accept Camping's predictions; some explicitly rejected them, citing Bible passages including the words of Jesus stating "about that day or hour no one knows" (Matthew 24:36). An interview with a group of church leaders noted that all of them had scheduled church services as usual for Sunday, May 22.
Following the failure of the prediction, media attention shifted to the response from Camping and his followers. On May 23, Camping stated that May 21 had been a "spiritual" day of judgment, and that the physical rapture would occur on October 21, 2011, simultaneously with the destruction of the universe by God. However, on October 16, Camping admitted to an interviewer that he did not know when the end would come, and made no public comment after October 21 passed without his predicted apocalypse.
In March 2012, Camping "humbly acknowledged" in a letter to Family Radio listeners that he had been mistaken, that the attempt to predict a date was "sinful", and that critics had been right in pointing to the scriptural text "of that day and hour knoweth no man". He added that he was searching the Bible "even more fervently [...] not to find dates, but to be more faithful in our understanding."
Rationale.
Camping presented several arguments labeled "numerological" by the mainstream media, which he considered biblical proofs, in favor of the May 21 end time. A civil engineer by training, Camping stated he had attempted to work out mathematically based prophecies in the Bible for decades. In an interview with the "San Francisco Chronicle" he explained "... I was an engineer, I was very interested in the numbers. I'd wonder, 'Why did God put this number in, or that number in?' It was not a question of unbelief, it was a question of, 'There must be a reason for it.'"
In 1970, Camping dated the Great Flood to 4990 BC. Using this date, taking the statement in Genesis 7:4 ("Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth") to be a prediction of the end of the world, and combining it with 2 Peter 3:8 ("With the Lord a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as a day"), Camping concluded that the end of the world would occur in 2011, 7000 years from 4990 BC. Camping takes the 17th day of the second month mentioned in Genesis 7:11 to be May 21, and hence predicts the rapture to occur on this date.
Another argument that Camping used in favor of the May 21 date is as follows:
Camping said that 5 × 10 × 17 is telling us a "story from the time Christ made payment for our sins until we're completely saved."
Camping was not precise about the timing of the event, saying that "maybe" we can know the hour. He has suggested that "days" in the Bible refer to daylight hours particularly. Another account said the "great earthquake" which signals the start of the rapture would "start in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 pm local time hour, in each time zone."
In Camping's book "1994?", self-published in 1992, he predicted that the end times would come on September 6, 1994. When the rapture failed to occur on the appointed day, Camping said he had made a mathematical error.
Criticism.
Camping's rapture prediction, along with some of his other teachings and beliefs, sparked controversy in the Christian and secular Western worlds. His critics often quoted Bible verses (such as ) they interpret as saying that the date of the end will never be known by anyone but God until it actually happens. However, Camping and his followers responded that this principle applied only during the "church age" or pre-Tribulation period and did not apply to the present day, citing other verses (such as ) in their rebuttal.
In a 2001 pamphlet, Camping asserted that believers should "flee the church", resigning from any church they belong to, because the "Church Age" is over and the "Great Tribulation" has begun. This assertion was controversial and drew "a flurry of attacks".
Edwin M. Yamauchi critiqued Camping's dating of the Flood when Camping first published his ideas in 1970.
Criticism of the May 21 prediction ranged from serious critique to ridicule. Theology professor Matthew L. Skinner, writing at the "Huffington Post", noted the "long history of failed speculation" about the end times and cautioned that end-of-the-world talk can lead Christians to social passivity instead of "working for the world's redemption". Some columnists mocked the prediction with humorous essays. A group of Christians set up a website called RaptureFail with the stated intention of undermining "this embarrassment to the Body of Christ."
Evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins dismissed Camping's prediction, writing that "he will inevitably explain, on May 22, that there must have been some error in the calculation, the rapture is postponed to ... and please send more money to pay for updated billboards." California Director of American Atheists Larry Hicock said that "Camping's well-intentioned rapture campaign is indicative of the problems with religion".
Prediction for May 21, 2011.
Information campaign.
In 2010, Marie Exley of Colorado Springs made news by purchasing advertising space in her locality, promoting the alleged rapture date on a number of park benches. After that, more than 5000 "Judgment Day" billboards were erected in locations across the world, including the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Lesotho, the Philippines, Tanzania and the United States. Some people adorned their vehicles with the information. Many who believed in the prediction took time off work to prepare for the Rapture. Others spent their life savings on advertising material to publicize the prophecy. One retired transportation agency worker from New York spent $140,000 on advertising.
Family Radio spent over US$100 million on the information campaign, financed by sales and swap of broadcast outlets. On October 27, 2010, they launched "Project Caravan". Five recreational vehicles announcing on their sides that Judgment Day was to begin on May 21, 2011, were sent out from their headquarters in Oakland, California, to Seattle, Washington. Upon arrival, teams were sent out to distribute tracts. The caravan subsequently made stops in many states in the U.S. and Canada.
Impact.
Camping's prediction and his promotion of it via his radio network and other promotional means spread the prediction globally. Some followers of Camping gave up their jobs, sold their homes, stopped investing in their children's college funds and spent large sums promoting Camping's claims.
About 5,000 ethnic Hmong gathered at a remote town in Vietnam's Mường Nhé District in Điện Biên Province in early May, where they planned to await the arrival of Christ. The Vietnamese government broke up the gathering and arrested some people, describing them as "extremists". Pastor Doan Trung Tin indicated that a translated version of Camping's prediction had influenced about 300 of his parishioners to go to the assembly point, selling their belongings to be able to afford the journey via bus. Many of the Hmong Christians who escaped arrest were reportedly forced into hiding after the gathering.
On May 19, 2011, the search term "end of the world may 21st" reached second position on Google Trends, based on the popularity of the search term in the United States. The related searches "Harold Camping", "May 21 doomsday", and "May 21 rapture" were also represented among the top 10 positions. The New York Police Department stated: "We don't plan any additional coverage for the end of the world. Indeed, if it happens, fewer officers will be required for streets that presumably will be empty."
Reaction.
Reaction from Family Radio and Harold Camping.
On the weekend of May 21–22, the Family Radio headquarters was closed with a note stating, "This office is closed. Sorry we missed you!" The Family Radio network remained on the air during May 21 and May 22, mostly broadcasting its normal schedule of programming, but with no mention of the rapture and without the usual replays of Harold Camping's program "Open Forum".
On Sunday, May 22, Camping emerged briefly from his home, saying "Give me a day, no interviews today ... I've got to live with it, I've got to think it out." He said he would make a public statement on Monday, May 23. Camping said he was "flabbergasted" that the rapture did not occur, that he was "looking for answers," and would say more when he returned to work on May 23.
On May 23, he returned to his "Open Forum" radio program, with members of the press in attendance, and, departing from his typical format, took questions from the reporters present instead of from callers. He stated that May 21 had been an "invisible judgment day" which was purely spiritual in nature, and that he now realized that the physical rapture would take place on October 21, simultaneously with the destruction of the universe. "We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said. "May 21 is the day that Christ came and put the world under judgment." He offered no apology for his earlier interpretation and said that all of his predictions had actually been fulfilled: on May 21, 1988, judgment came upon the churches; on September 7, 1994, judgment continued on the churches; then on May 21, 2011, judgment came upon the entire world.
He said that the publicity campaign would not continue, explaining that since God's judgment had already occurred, there was no point in continuing to warn people about it. He added, "We're not going to put up any more billboards – in fact they're coming down right now." Responding to a question, Camping said his organization would not return money donated by followers to publicize the May 21 prediction, saying "We're not at the end. Why would we return it?"
As October 21 approached, the Family Radio website stated:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;What really happened (on May 21) is that God accomplished exactly what He wanted to happen. That was to warn the whole world that on May 21 God's salvation program would be finished on that day. For the next five months, except for the elect (the true believers), the whole world is under God's final judgment. To accomplish this goal God withheld from the true believers the way in which two phases were to be understood. Had He not done so, the world would never have been shaken in fear as it was.
A Family Radio staffer suggested that the delay might be God's way of separating true believers from those willing to doubt the "clear biblical warnings."
Reaction from Harold Camping believers.
Individual followers who had spent time and money promoting Camping's prediction were "crestfallen" after May 21 passed without evidence of the rapture. A New York man commented "I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face."
There were rumors that people had killed themselves or attempted suicide to escape the predicted Judgment Day. There was one documented case, in which a 14-year-old Russian girl killed herself on May 21. Her family told a Russian tabloid, "LifeNews", that she did it because of her fear of the "terrible sufferings" predicted by Camping.
Reaction from other Christians.
A group from the Calvary Bible Church in Milpitas, California offered a session to comfort those who had believed in the prophecy. Church deacon James Bynum told a local newspaper that "We are here because we care about these people. It's easy to mock them. But you can go kick puppies, too. But why?"
Reaction from non-believers and protesters.
In response