Factbox: Learning About the Life of Harold Camping

May 21 will be Judgement Day, according to Harold Camping anyway. So who is Harold Camping and why haven't we heard of him before? Why is he the authority on the end of the world? Why is he so confident that Saturday will be Judgment Day? These are just a few questions on the minds of billions across the world.

* Camping is the president of Family Stations Inc. He hosts a live program every weeknight where people can call in called the "Open Forum" program.

* He is the author of nearly 30 different booklets and books. Most of these are free and available through Family Radio.

* Harold Egbert Camping holds a Bachelor's of Science in Civil Engineering. He received this degree from the University of California at Berkeley in the year 1942.

* Until 1988, Camping and his family belonged to the Christian Reformed Church. There, he was a Bible teacher and an elder.

* Shortly after World War II ended, Camping started his own construction business. This is how he earned his living.

* With two other people, in 1958, Camping started Family Stations, Inc., a non-profit ministry. He served as the president. Eventually, Camping became a full-time volunteer employer as general manager and president of Family Radio. Once he did this, he sold his construction business. He had his construction company from 1954 to 1973.

* Camping "teaches that God has done away with the church, and thus there should be no more local congregations, elders, deacons and ordinances such as baptism or the Lord's Supper," according to James R. White of the Christian Research Institute. "He maintains that the Holy Spirit has left the church as an empty shell with no power to proclaim the gospel."

* Camping wants his followers to use his teachings to form their own fellowships and flee the churches. He interprets the Bible in his own way and wants the world to see it his way. This is where the Rapture and Judgment Day come in.

* "Camping is best known for a prophecy of the second coming of Jesus in 1994 and for his current prediction of the second coming in May 2011," according to eNotes.com.

* While he primarily grew up in California, he was born in Colorado.

* Camping says not only will Judgment Day fall Saturday, but the world will end Oct. 21.

* Camping also predicted that the world would end in September of 1994. He was, of course, wrong. When asked about this, he said, "In 1992, two years earlier than that, I had already begun to see that there was a good likelihood that 2011 would be the end, but at that time when my research in the bible was not nearly complete -- there were whole books of the bible that I had not gone through yet very carefully -- I thought that at that time there was a possibility it might be 1994, and so I wrote the book '1994?', but I put the big question mark after it, and in the book it also indicated that 2011 was also a good possibility," reports New York Magazine.

* Camping says that everyone will know when the Rapture is hitting them because the biggest earthquake ever will hit. He says that the Rapture will affect each part of the world at 6 p.m. local time Saturday.

* Harold Camping, though he has an incredible amount of doubters, refuses to answer questions about what he will do when the world is still up and running May 22.