Doomsday prophet Harold Camping's failed rapture theory was a product of numerical manipulation which is based on the assumption that Biblical numbers contain encoded spiritual truths.

Camping's outrageous claim that May 21 was the chosen date for the Second Coming of Jesus now stands refuted. He predicted that the day would be punctuated with a massive earthquake and the heavenly transport (rapture) of 200 million believers. The U.S. Geological Society proved the quake claim bogus and a global census is sure to discredit the latter.

Harold Camping, a civil engineer who graduated from UC Berkeley, bewitched his clan of followers by applying abstract math to his apocalyptic madness which is similar to what other naysayers like the founders of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah Witness had used.

The Seventh-day Adventist had its roots in the Millerite movement which was started by William Miller in the 19th century. Religionfacts records that Miller had predicted that the Second Coming of Jesus would take place between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He based his calculation on the book of Daniel 8:14 which reads And he said onto me, unto 2,300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Miller concluded that 2,300 days alluded to 2,300 years and the cleansing of the sanctuary to the second coming of Jesus. Miller believed that the countdown began in 457 B.C.

Similarly the founder of Jehovah Witness movement Charles Taze Russell had predicted that Jesus would return in 1914. Jehovahwitnesstruth explains Russell's theory as being based on 2,520 day calculation. He based his theory on Daniel 4:23-25 according to which he arrived at the date of 607 B.C as the foundation date. The date marked the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel stated that the destruction would continue for seven times. Russell argues that three and half times equals 1260 days (Rev 12: 6, 14). Thus seven times equals 2520 days. Applying the one day is equal to thousand years (2 Peter 3:8) logic it translates into 2520 years with the probable date being 1914 A.D.

Harold Camping the 21st century prophet also worked on similar lines. Camping's theory is based on Noah's flood which according to him occurred in 4990 B.C. He based his theory on Genesis 7:6 -10 which according to which God had warned Noah that rains would start seven days from the day he enters into the ark. He uses the same logic of one day is equal to thousand years and converts the seven day period to 7,000 days. Thus calculating from 4990 B.C onwards the D-Day falls on May 21, 2011.

The irony of the failed theories by Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah Witness' is that the movement still continues to flourish with followers across the globe. Camping's goof-up comes after similar botched prediction in 1994. However, 17 years later Camping still has ardent followers which underscores that such movements don't die.

IBTimes reported earlier that the false prophet would make a public statement on Monday in a public forum explaining why he had predicted May 21, 2011 as the Judgment Day and why it had failed. And while the world awaits an explanation from the soothsayer maybe he will be able to buy time by throwing another mathematical puzzle at the end-of-days obsessed followers.

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