No New Zealand Earthquake as Apocalypse & Rapture 2011 Prediction Falters

This was supposed to be it. A worldwide earthquake was supposed to begin in New Zealand at 6 p.m. local time on May 21, 2011 and then travel around the world, ushering in the Rapture and subsequent apocalypse.

At least that’s what Harold Camping predicted.

The Family Radio found and Biblical scholar claimed to have deciphered the “secret code” hidden in the Bible that revealed when the world would end.

Some people used their own money to pay for billboards touting the May 21st doomsday prediction. Others began lucrative businesses in an attempt to profit from the madness.  Multiple parodies of the impending doomsday had even started popping up all over the web.

In the end, however, it seems that Armageddon was a dud.

Camping, 89, had incorrectly predicted the end of the world back in 1994, but had said that this time he was absolutely sure of himself, telling New York Magazine:

“It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. I don’t even think about those kind of issues. The Bible is not — God is not playing games. I don’t even want to think about that question at all. It is going to happen.”

As 1 a.m. EDT Saturday morning came and went (6 p.m. in New Zealand), it quickly became clear that the Rapture was not coming.

One has to wonder what will happen to those who spent their life’s savings and/or quit their jobs in preparation for the big event that never came.

Over at the Family Radio website, there are no updates, no recent messages indicating that Camping’s prediction was wrong…just a message indicating that there are “00  Days Left” until Judgment Day.

The Twitter universe seems to be taking the news pretty well, with most people taking it all in stride and wondering what Camping’s rationale will be for blowing the prediction.

In the end, it appears that the Biblical passage found in Mark 13:32 is correct about Jesus’ return after all:

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

What do YOU think? Did you believe Harold Camping?