Preacher says world ends in 5 days

OAKLAND, Calif., May 16 (UPI) -- An American radio preacher gives the world as we know it less than a week to go.

Harold Camping's Family Radio network, based in Oakland, Calif., has put up signs across the country warning of "Judgment Day May 21."

Without support from churches -- which he says are ruled by Satan -- Camping gives mathematical formulas he says are encoded in the Bible as proof that on Saturday, believers will be "raptured" into heaven and the rest of mankind will endure torment and tribulation until God destroys the world Oct. 21, The Denver Post reports.

He says the Rapture will begin with a great earthquake on the Pacific Rim.

Camping, 89, once was a member of the Christian Reformed Church but now writes: "On May 21, 1988, God finished using the churches and congregations of the world. The spirit of God left all churches, and Satan, the man of sin, entered into the churches to rule."

Camping says the Bible's great flood occurred in 4990 B.C., and "God ... was declaring that sinful mankind would have 7,000 years to find refuge in the salvation provided by Jesus Christ."

So time is now up, he says.