“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” – 2 Timothy 2:24-26
As expected… nothing happened! TODAY is not a day for gloating that we were right and Camping was proved wrong yet again. It should be a day of much PRAYER that God would give the gift of REPENTANCE to many Camping-ites who have abandoned the Churches and the proper and careful interpretation of the Bible.
This is no laughing matter. While the Bible itself is still true, Harold Camping has been proven to be an extremely dangerous false teacher. Families have been completely torn apart by this, decades old friendships have been destroyed, many animals have been put to sleep, while others have squandered their entire life savings buying ads in newspapers, renting billboards, printing materials, seeking to warn others of impending doom. Furthermore, scoffers will feel that they have been given fresh material for their scoffing, entrapping them further in their rebellious unbelief for which they shall one day face God’s certain judgment. Some will feel that their confidence in the Bible has been totally undermined (not realising that it is their faith in a false teacher and his false interpretations that have been exposed). Deceived people continue to deceive people and heresy is not a victimless crime.
Camping’s wreckless interpretations of the Bible were noted long before he came up with today’s date (May 21, 2011) for the greatest of all earthquakes to take place all around the world and for the rapture of the Church. It remains to be seen what the result of all this whole sorry mess will be.
A very small consolation; there is perhaps ONE good thing that did emerge in all this mayhem – many of us have found a very cool website that shows the time around the world here.
… but back to the topic….
Pastor Dan Phillips writes (at the pyromaniacs website) about 17 ways Harold Camping unknowingly and unwittingly is glorifying God here.
Dr. Kim Riddlebarger is not a happy “camper.” He writes:
“I see this tragic episode as one gigantic mess, which God’s people will be cleaning up for years. I, for one, am not very sympathetic to Mr. Camping, or to those who follow him. Here’s why:
1). He’s done this before. 1994? anyone??? If Camping lives much longer (he’s 89), he’ll likely do this again. As one of my favorite philosophers, Dirty Harry, once put it when his police superior questioned whether the serial killer (so wonderfully played by Andy Robinson) would continue to kill, Harry replied, “Of course he will. He likes it.” You cannot tell me that however Camping came to this particular date for the Lord’s return, and however sincere he might he be in his calculations, that the man does not love the media attention. Why else spend all that money on an “in your face” ad campaign with buses and billboards across the country? Camping likes the hubbub way too much. Since someone’s past behavior is the best predictor of their future behavior, if given the chance, Camping will do it again.
2). Camping was disciplined by his church, and never once demonstrated the slightest hint of repentance. When Camping was removed from his office for his unbiblical speculations, Camping’s response was to declare that the church age was over, and that people should leave their churches! (see Bob Godfrey’s account of this–Godfrey on Harold Camping ). Harold Camping is not some grandfatherly old man who has weird views on things (every church has a few of these). This is a man, who, when he did not get his way, sought to create widescale schism and division in the church. How can we not conclude that many among his followers are schismatics who have followed their master in his sin?”
more here.
…. and my friend, Dr. James White at www.aomin.org writes:
As of the time of the posting of this article, Harold Camping has been proven a false prophet (again). Why? Because it is now 7pm standard time (yes, I remembered to factor in the daylight savings thing) in Guam, one of the first places on earth to experience the time of the “rapture” that Camping has predicted as a guaranteed biblical truth for years now.* And, according to the US Geological Survey (the clearing house for earthquake information from all over the world), no earthquake 10 or above on the Richter scale has taken place in that time zone…anywhere. Camping said the earthquake would be greater than anything known before, so I figure that’s at least a 10, probably more (since he said it would open all the tombs and throw the bodies of the dead out of their graves to be “shamed in God’s sight”). So, we begin the documentation,** which will continue through the day, of what some of us have been saying for a very, very long time: Harold Camping is a cult leader, a false teacher, and it is high time his followers finally admit it.
I have thought of some time of writing a lengthy open letter to Camping’s followers. I may well do so after the dust has settled, it all depends. I was thinking today about the categories of Camping followers, and I think I would break it down into three groups: 1) the hard-core, unsaved cultists, who love novelty and gnosis, not truth, and if they don’t keep following Harold, they will find someone else to follow, but will never follow truth; 2) the unsaved, simple, ignorant who found something compelling in his teachings; and 3) the few Christians who will, we are assured, be restored to truth and abandon his falsehoods. I would have something different to say to each of those groups, to be sure. I would be brief with the first; the second would require a lot of discussion that would be best done in person; and the third simply need to repent and return to their first love.
In any case, I will be glad when this day is over, the case is settled, the controversy over. I do not think my time has been wasted in refuting Camping: the lessons to be learned are many. But there is much else to be doing, and we must get to it.
One of the things we need to be doing is confessing, unashamedly, that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and that He will, in fact, return someday. We just need to do it biblically, just the opposite of Harold Camping and his sign-toting followers.
*I thought about using Christmas Island as my example, but after reading the incredibly complex discussion of just what time it is on Christmas Island…I decided not even the Lord could make heads or tails out of that mess, so I stuck with something a bit more…mundane.
** Don’t forget to visit www.rapturefail.org to register your “Rapture Fail” as well!
I appreciate your post on this tragic matter. I couldn’t agree with you more when you say that Mr. Camping is an “extremely dangerous false teacher”. It seems to me that the closer to orthodoxy a false teacher is the more collateral damage they cause in the true church.
May God be merciful to this man’s followers.