September 6, 1994
Harold Camping and September 1994
Well documented Prediction was later revised End TimesBiblical NumerologyDate SettingEvangelicalismModern PredictionsFailed Predictions
Quick facts
- Predicted date
- September 6, 1994
- Who predicted it
- Harold Camping, Family Radio
- When announced
- 1992
- Reasoning
- A custom Bible chronology combined with numerical patterns. Exact steps vary between his publications.
- What happened
- September 1994 passed without the expected events. Camping said that he had made an error in his calculations and that the date was wrong.
- Historical status
- Well documented. The prediction and its date appear in primary or reliable secondary sources.
- Outcome label
- Prediction was later revised
- Editorial certainty
- Medium: reliable secondary sources
- Editorial review
- Pending. This entry has not yet been checked line by line against its sources. Treat details as provisional.
Prediction
What did Harold Camping predict?
In his book 1994? (1992), Harold Camping argued that Christ would return in September 1994. After the date passed he said he had made a calculation error and later named 2011.
Interpretation by the author
Why did they believe it?
Camping developed a chronology of the Bible that he used to date the creation, the flood and the crucifixion, and then looked for numerical patterns in the intervals. The details of his 1994 argument are given in his book.
Scripture as used by the author
Biblical basis cited
Camping's system drew on the genealogies of Genesis and on numbers found in Revelation and Daniel. He taught that the Bible itself contains the means to date events.
Method
How the date was calculated
A custom Bible chronology combined with numerical patterns. Exact steps vary between his publications.
Historical record
Historical context
Camping was a civil engineer who taught the Bible on Family Radio. His book was issued through a subsidy publisher, and the 1994 date attracted attention in the Christian press.
Historical record
What happened when the date passed?
September 1994 passed without the expected events. Camping said that he had made an error in his calculations and that the date was wrong.
Historical record
What happened afterward
He revised his chronology. Later teaching placed the flood in 4990 BC and led to the 2011 date.
Interpretation
Later reinterpretation
See the entry on Camping and 2011.
Scripture
Passages cited
-
Genesis 7:11 (KJV)
The date of the flood is central to Camping's later chronology.
Excerpts are from the King James Version (public domain). Listing a verse here does not mean this site agrees with how the author used it.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- Harold Camping. 1994?. Vantage Press. 1992. Primary source The exact September 1994 date and the details of the calculation should be checked against the text.
- Daniel Wojcik. The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America. New York University Press. 1997. Academic
Found an error or a better source? Send a correction. See also the methodology.