U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT

DECEMBER 19, 1994

HAROLD CAMPING, THE EVANGELIST

Radio evangelist Harold Camping admits he is "slightly disappointed'' that the world did not end last September.

A civil engineer by training and now president of Family Radio Inc.'s network of 39 Christian radio stations and 14 shortwave transmitters, Camping figured that he had deciphered the Bible's chronological blueprint:

The world began with Adam in 11013 B.C. and was scheduled to end some 13 millenniums later, almost certainly in the first jubilee year after the birth of modern Israel. September 1994, to be exact. That's the time his book 1994 ?, which sold 70,000 copies, predicted that skies would darken at midday and graves would fly open as the dead joined the living to face God's fiery judgment.

Camping's critics say he ignored, or misinterpreted, the well-known passage (Matthew 25:13) where Jesus admonishes his disciples that no man can know the day nor the hour of his return. But Camping, whose radio network will take in some $12 million this year, up 20 percent since 1994 ? was published two years ago, brushes off the criticism.

The 73-year-old father of six says that he is in fact "delighted'' to have a little more time, because he has many friends and family members who are "not yet saved.''

He adds:

"I still believe we are very near the end. Are you ready?''

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