Harold Camping, who wrongly predicted world’s end, suffers stroke

Harold Camping, the California radio preacher who predicted a May 21 rapture, has reportedly suffered a stroke.

Camping, 89, the head of the Oakland-based evangelical Family Radio network, was taken to a local hospital last Thursday, according to a message posted on Yahoo by a manager at his station.

Camping was reportedly "doing good," though it may impact his radio show, according to the Oakland Tribune.

"His speech appears to be a little bit slurred but otherwise he's OK,” the Tribune quotes a neighbor as saying. “The only thing that's affected is his speech."

Camping had been insisting with absolute certainty that May 21, 2011, would be "Judgment Day," a day when believers of Lord Jesus would be “raptured” to heaven and the rest of the world's population would be killed off by earthquakes and other natural disasters. The prophecy set Twitter and regular news feeds abuzz.

Camping, after carefully studying the Bible for years, timed the Rapture to take place at 6 P.M. in each of the world's time zones.

But 6 p.m. on May 21 passed and nothing of note reportedly happened. The day after, Camping told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter he was "flabbergasted" when the predicted End Times did not materialize, CBS reports.

However, he quickly rallied, saying the rapture would now occur on October 21.

What do Camping's religious brethren think? The Christian Post on Monday ran a telling headline: "Harold Camping Stroke: God's Wrath vs Just Plain, Old Age?"