Thomas B. Slater is a professor of New Testament at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta. He has said that Family Radio’s billboards claiming that Jesus would return on May 21, 2011, were inherently misguided.

Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He is the author of several books on Revelation and lives in South Carolina.

Bishop Terry Wiles is leader of Crossroads Community Cathedral in East Hartford, Conn. The church lists a literal belief in the Rapture as central to its members’ faith and membership.

Wilfred Hahn is founder of Mulberry Press, publishers of the Eternal Value Review. Part of the company’s mission statement is to proclaim the imminent return of Jesus, which it does by keeping watch on world economic developments.

Harold Camping is president of Family Radio and its attendant ministries. He predicted the Second Coming of Jesus on May 21, 2011, followed by the end of the world on Oct. 21, 2011. Camping previously predicted the end of the world in 1994. He lives in Alameda, Calif.

Read a March 23, 2011, story from Religion News Service (published in USA Today) about Harold Camping and his prediction that the world as we knew it would end on May 21, 2011.

Read a March 9, 2012, ABC news story about an online post in which Harold Camping acknowledged being wrong about a 2011 doomsday.

Read a Nov. 19, 2012, article from Catholic World News about the reactions of religious leaders to the end-of-the-world mania. Mainstream religious leaders, like Pope Benedict XVI, said Christians should focus on Jesus and not on doomsday prophecies.

George L. Murphy is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and has a doctorate in physics. He can discuss theology and science. He lives in Tallmadge, Ohio.