New York: Despite the fact that the 6 pm deadline has passed in many countries without any sign of an armageddon, the debate over whether May 21 is infact 'judgement day' or 'doomsday' still rages on. All eyes are on the man who says his calculations are accurate and the world will end on May 21.

According to the New York Times, there was nothing out of the ordinary happening outside the office of Harold Camping, the man in the eye of the 'doomsday prediction' storm, except a sign saying that the offices were closed. “Sorry we missed you!” the sign concluded.

Camping is the man behind the predictions and his radio enterprise has helped pay for and promore the 'rapture' predictions. A former civil engineer, the 89-year-old Camping has built a small nonprofit empire in radio. According to report, Camping's 'empire' has grown from a single station in San Francisco to more than 200 radio stations and a pair of television stations. He has recently filed financial disclosure showing $34 million in investments, $56 million in assets and $29 million in mortgages.

According to the New York Times, Camping has used those resources to buy billboard space across the country and print millions of pamphlets warning of doomsday.

Pastor Dave Nederhood, of Christian Reformed Church in Alameda, said he had met Mr. Camping on several occasions and had followed his radio broadcasts about the apocalypse closely.

“My concern is for the people that have bought into his lie and have sold their belongings, quit their jobs, left their churches and their families and now they are sitting at home listening to Family Radio and waiting for the end,” Mr. Nederhood said. “I’m terribly concerned.”

Although the Family Radio headquarters were mostly abandoned on Friday, the company’s flagship station — KEAR, 610 AM — continued to broadcast religious music, interspersed with sermons and biblically flavored life lessons.

Doomday calculations

So what is the calculations used by Camping to arrive at May 21, 2011 as the judgement day? It is a a complex formula involving the biblical flood survived by Noah; a 7,000-year clock ticking from that moment; and the subtraction of a year due to a difference between Old Testament and New Testament calendars.

The number 5 equals “atonement”, the number 10 equals “completeness”, and the number 17 equals “heaven”.

Christ hung on the cross on April 1, 33 AD. The time between April 1, 33 AD and April 1, 2011 is 1,978 years.

If 1,978 is multiplied by 365.2422 days (the number of days in a solar year), the result is 722,449.

The time between April 1 and May 21 is 51 days.

51 + 722,449 = 722,500.

(5 × 10 × 17)2 or (atonement × completeness × heaven)2 also equals 722,500.

Thus, Camping concludes that 5 × 10 × 17 is telling us a “story from the time Christ made payment for our sins until we’re completely saved.”

 However,  Camping’s math has proved to be flawed before. He also predicted the end of the world in 1994. But this time around, Mr. Camping said he was supremely confident. “We’re just a few days away,” he said on Monday.

So according to the Camping, all true Christians will be snatched away and rapturously transported to heaven. Everyone else will be left to suffer the prolonged agony of "tribulation" until the final destruction of the universe on October 21, 2011, five months later.

When predictions fail

According to a report in the British newspaper, the Guardian, there have been others who have claimed that the world will end on a specific date and failed.

In 1954 the authors gained access to members of a Michigan cult who believed that there would be a great flood on 21 December, destroying everyone except the true believers, who would be whisked to safety in a flying saucer. However when this failed to happen, instead of abandoning their beliefs and being disappointed, the members of the cult stuck to their beliefs even more strongly.

According to the Guardian, When a prophesy fails, a leader needs to save face, so he denies that he ever made the prediction or that he was misinterpreted. Or he could just say that the date has been postponed. In Camping's case, for all the non -believers he has already postponed the date of 'apocalypse' to October 21, 2011. 

What the nay-sayers say?

There has been a deluge of jokes about the impending 'doomsday'. There is even a Facebook page titled "Post rapture looting" which says,"When everyone is gone and God's not looking, we need to pick up some sweet stereo equipment and maybe some new furniture for the mansion we're going to squat in."
 
And here is a sample of the tweets on the social networking site Twitter :

'I think we should all pretend the #rapture is happening so that when Harold Camping gets left behind later today he'll be livid.'

'Anyone tweeting from Heaven yet? How's the food up there? Is TV one long loop of televangelists? #rapture.'
 
'I guess on Sunday when the #Rapture people feel really upset, we can't console them by saying "Cheer up, it's not the end of the world.'