What doctrine does Family Radio have of the End of the World? [closed]

Question

I originally asked this question on October 21, 2011. I had received a link to an article on the eBibleFellowship page explaining how we'd been living the Day of Judgment since May 21, and today (ie. Oct 21, 2011) was the End of the World!

We are living in a most unusual time. On May 21, of 2011, mankind entered into the Day of Judgment. This “day” will last for 5 months (153 days) until October 21, 2011. The Bible is teaching us that this period of time is Judgment Day!

The article links to similar teachings of Family Radio (which eBibleFellowship is not affiliated with).

What is the origin of this teaching? Do other Christian groups besides Family Radio and eBibleFellowship teach this? How do they explain the predictions after the date has passed?

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Note that in March 2012 Harold Camping of Family Radio admitted they were wrong and the statements they made were sinful.

Answer 1

The claim

Well, the underlying doctrine behind this is the idea of the rapture. That idea comes out of dispensation premillennialism. This doctrine states that Jesus will have all the Christians pulled out of the world before the tribulation occurs.

This particular prediction was made by Harold Camping. He claims that the Bible was his source for this. However, he also claims to have used a set of cycles to determine this including the Jewish feast days, the lunar calendar, and a close approximation to the Gregorian calendar.

There is no support for this claim outside of his own predictions. The claim has been spread widely due to him being the president for the radio company that is spreading these claims. Furthermore, it should be noted that his background is in radio ministry and not as a pastor, priest, or other doctrinal/biblical expert.

Validity

Regarding the validity of this claim, 2 Peter 3:10 says that Jesus will return like a thief in the night. This indicates that there won't be people predicting his return and attempting to prepare others for it. Furthermore, Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 that no one knows the day or the hour that these events will occur.

Given the strong biblical argument against someone predicting his return, I strongly discourage anyone from believing his methods and following this prediction.

More information here

Answer 2

According to Family Radio, as of March 7, 2012, they no longer believe the end of the world to be May 21, 2011

As written in a statement:

We must also openly acknowledge that we have no new evidence pointing to another date for the end of the world. Though many dates are circulating, Family Radio has no interest in even considering another date. God has humbled us through the events of May 21, to continue to even more fervently search the Scriptures (the Bible), not to find dates, but to be more faithful in our understanding.

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! 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.

We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ’s return. In fact for a time Family Radio fell into that kind of thinking. But we now realize that those people who were calling our attention to the Bible’s statement that "of that day and hour knoweth no man" (Matthew 24:36 & Mark 13:32), were right in their understanding of those verses and Family Radio was wrong.