So, he didn't take the state of Israel into account? He was busy making his numbers work for folks he could connect with. He's been putting this out for awhile now -- why hasn't any Christian 'leader' stepped forward before this week to denounce him publicly?
Camping just brought the whole end times obsessed crowd to the logical conclusion: A big disappointment.
Yes, satan has a plan.
Harold Camping was marginalized, marginalized himself actually, decades ago. The “end times obsessed crowd” as you put it understands that no man knows, not even the Son knows, only the Father. This knowledge comes from actually reading the Bible and what it has to say upon the matter.
That the news media have seized upon this and have had such a field day, for such an already discredited fringe figure, is more a symptom of their disdain for all Christians than for anything specific that one Christian might be compelled by pride to use to try to embarass another.
I’ll freely and frequently say Camping was wrong, is wrong and will continue to be wrong so long as he pretends to have some special, hidden knowledge that the Bible itself directly contradicts the possibility of his having. I know this because I know my Bible. Anyone else who knows their Bible knows this as well.
The individuals who have been drawn in by this, on the other hand, do not know their Bible and would rather believe and follow a man, a man who has been wrong on this very subject in the past.