A church leader who predicted the world would end “in fire” on Wednesday has conceded that he was wrong. Now he insists it will end soon… possibly.
Chris McCann, leader of The eBible Fellowship, an online affiliation headquartered near Philadelphia was confident that Wednesday would see the earth annihilated, taking to the airwaves in a series of media interviews to warn the world of its impending destruction.
“According to what the Bible is presenting it does appear that 7 October will be the day that God has spoken of: in which, the world will pass away,” he told the Guardian.
“It’ll be gone forever. Annihilated.”
Moreover, by studying clues found throughout the Bible, McCann was certain that the destruction would be wrought “by fire”.
“God destroyed the first Earth with water, by a flood, in the days of Noah. And he says he’ll not do that again, not by water. But he does say in 2nd Peter 3 that he’ll destroy it by fire,” he said.
McCann based his predictions on an earlier prediction by Harold Camping, a Christian radio host based in California, who gave 21st May 2011 as the date of the world’s destruction. Although the world survived that time too, McCann thinks Camping was nearly correct, in that the date signified the beginning of the judgement of the world.
“October 7, 2015 is the “1,600th day” since God began judgment on the world on May 21, 2011,” he said, and, referencing the Jewish festival of Tabernacles, “the “last day of the Feast of Harvest, which God relates to the end of the world.” Jewish websites actually date the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles as October 4 this year.
As the clock ticked past midnight on Baker and Howland Islands, the last places on earth to reach the end of any given date, it became apparent that the world had, in fact, carried on as normal, forcing McCann to accept that he was wrong.
“Since it is now October 8th it is now obvious that we were incorrect regarding the world’s ending on the 7th,” he posted to the eBible website.
McCann insists that his church was not “lying” about Armageddon this week, as they had always insisted that there was only a “good likelihood” that the 7th would bring the apocalypse.
“According to the good amount of biblical evidence at our disposal it was,” he said. “Therefore saying it was a “strong likelihood” was a true statement. We also openly acknowledged that there was a small likelihood that it would not happen. There was no lie or deceitfulness involved in any way.”
As to what the eBible fellowship will do next, McCann’s response is that they will “keep reading and studying the Bible! Going back to the Word of God seeking truth is plan b, c, d, e, and every other option as well.
And although October 7 was clearly not the correct date, McCann is certain that the end will come “soon.”
“I also know that God knows exactly when that end will come,” he said. “So we’ll keep studying the Bible to see what we can learn.”
He may do well to read Matthew 24:36, which states: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”