Not so. I understand that it's very clear in context that Smith is wishing/speculating about the return of the Lord.
For example, I am convinced that Christ will return in my lifetime. I have said it before. (Yet, I don't have the assurance that Simeon had about seeing the infant Jesus.)
Am I a whacko for that reason? Cannot faithful Christian brothers and sisters still offer their modifications/refutations/rebuttals/refinements of my statements?
Apparently the next words after Chuck Smith said he was convinced that the Lord would return before 1981 was "I may be wrong, but....
Yeah he was wrong. but who hasn't been wrong? I know if you ask him today if he thinks the Lord will return in his lifetime he will say (I will paraphrase what he has said) that he really isn't convinced of that anymore, that he had always believed that the Lord would return in his lifetime but now he's not so certain and if he doesn't then he won't be upset because the second he leaves this life he will step into the presence of the Lord.
I do not believe there have been too many generations of Christians who have not had the hope or the expectation that Christ will return in their lifetimes. I have that hope and expectation. The good news is that at least one generation will be right.
The problem is that if you state your conviction too strongly and too publicly, you may live to regret it. There are some sins that Christians can never seem to forgive. Chuck Smiths's optimistic predictions three decades ago seem to be numbered among them.
The above is the more complete quote.
In other words, Smith was NOT trying to be a prophet or a seer. As I said, he was simply expressing a WISH and a HOPE.
He did not introduce any new theology of numerology in which he added years and days and months and epic events of history and bible to arrive at the date of 1981.
He was looking at how bad the situation was at that JIMMY CARTER era: Soviets on the march in Afghanistan, hostages in Iran, Communism creeping in Nicaragua, Atomic Weaponry, liberalism, abortion...
And his eschatology led him to wish for a soon return of the Lord. But then he said, "I could be wrong..."