Skeptics call Saturday rapture a ruse

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE/AP) - As the clock winds down on the latest end of days prediction, skeptical Christians are speaking out.

Billboards across the country warn that the Christian rapture will take place on Saturday May 21st, 2011. California Christian Preacher Harold Camping, owner of Family Radio , is behind the prediction. His prophecy comes from numerological calculations based on his reading of the Bible. Camping believes this Saturday, Jesus Christ will return to earth to gather the faithful into heaven.

His prediction might not have gained a lot of followers, but the attention is what's concerning the Christian mainstream.

The Rev. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the "Left Behind" series of Christian prophecy novels, said Camping "trivializes the very serious study of Bible prophecy by ignoring Jesus' statement that everyone seems to know except him, and that is that no man knows the day nor the hour" that Jesus will return.

"I think it certainly makes Christians look confused," said Steve Webster, a teaching pastor at Blackhawk Ministries in Fort Wayne. "It makes them look as though they don't really know what's going on."

Like LaHaye, Webster believes the rapture could happen at any time, even Saturday, but that the Bible says no one can predict the time or date.

"The sad thing about all of this is that it takes the attention away from Jesus and puts it onto people who like to carry his name around. People who are making claims tend to make a lot of money."