ALAMEDA, Calif. — California preacher Harold Camping on Monday said his prophecy that the world would end was off by five months because Judgment Day actually will come Oct. 21.
Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before Earth was destroyed, said he felt so terrible when his prediction did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife.
His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions — some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.
But Camping said he has now realized the apocalypse will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. He had earlier said Oct. 21 was when the globe would be consumed by a fireball.
Saturday was “an invisible judgment day” in which a spiritual judgment took place, he said. But the timing and the structure are the same as they have always been, he said.
“We’ve always said May 21 was the day, but we didn’t understand altogether the spiritual meaning,” he said.
