One More Round with Harold Camping

Uh oh, here we go again.  Remember this back in May, and this as its result? This week it is Harold Camping, Round 2 

I predict the same result.

"He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority." (Acts 1:7 ESV)

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.   (Mark 13:32 ESV)

What Camping Missed

In all has searching of the Bible for numbers, codes and calculations of dates, Harold Camping seems to have missed something very important. In fact, he missed the center of the Bible's message - He's missed Jesus!

From Cranach: The Blog of Veith:

"...it is what a certain Mr. Harold Camping missed this weekend. I’m certain that you’ve heard of him. The media has paid an unusual amount of attention to him and his prediction that the end of the world was going to begin yesterday. I don’t want to go into the details of all that he said. But you know what he missed? Christ. Not that he’s not a Christian. I’m not saying that. I don’t know what’s in his heart. But in all his study of the Bible, he looked for numbers and clues and codes and all sorts of things . . . but he missed Christ. And that’s what the Scriptures are all about. They’re not about hidden clues, secret teachings, mysterious numbers, and being able to calculate days and times. They’re all about Jesus. About his death and resurrection. That dying and rising with Jesus is the truth, and the way to eternal life."

That's something important for all of us to remember:  If your thought and message are centered on anything other than Jesus, you've missed the point.

Amateur End Game

From: The Sacred Sandwich:
  
BTW, Harold Camping now says the end is October 21, 2011.  Wish he would just return to "The End is Near."

The New Corrected Billboard

May 22, 2011: The Pastoral Challenge and Opportunity

It is past 6 pm in my time zone, and we're all still here. 'Nuff said about  that

It is easy to make fun of Mr. Camping, but we must also remember compassion on those who fell for his deluded teachings, and the Pastoral Challenge and Opportunity When the Rapture Doesn't Happen.  Here are some kind and wise words from Eric Landry (via Justin Taylor):

We must be very careful about how we respond. Will we join our friends at the “Rapture Parties” that are planned for pubs and living rooms around the nation? Will we laugh at those who have spent the last several months of their lives dedicated to a true but untimely belief? What will we say on Saturday night or Sunday morning?

History teaches us that previous generations caught up in eschatological fervor often fell away from Christ when their deeply held beliefs about the end of the world didn’t pan out. While Camping must answer for his false teaching at the end of the age, Reformational Christians are facing a pastoral problem come Sunday morning: how can we apply the salve of the Gospel to the wounded sheep who will be wandering aimlessly, having discovered that what they thought was true (so true they were willing to upend their lives over it) was not? If this isn’t true, they might reason, then what other deeply held beliefs and convictions and doctrines and hopes might not be true?

It’s at this point that we need to be ready to provide a reasonable defense of our reasonable faith. Christianity is not founded upon some complex Bible code that needs years of analysis to reveal its secret. Christianity is about a man who claimed to be God, who died in full public view as a criminal, and was inexplicably raised from the dead three days later appearing to a multitude of witnesses. When his followers, who witnessed his resurrection, began speaking of it publicly, they connected the prophecies of the Old Testament to the life and death and resurrection of this man who claimed the power to forgive sins. This is the heart of the Christian faith, the message that deserves to be featured on billboards, sides of buses, and pamphlets all over the world. It is also the message that needs to be reinvested into the hearts and lives of those who found hope and meaning in Harold Camping’s latest bad idea.

 Amen to that!

End of the World Humor

Today is May 21, 2011.  If I am still around after 6 pm today, thus proving Harold Camping to be wrong once again, I'll be sure to let ya'll know!

Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy the day.

To the Followers of Harold Camping

Unfortunately, there are a lot of deluded people that are going to need to hear this come Sunday, May 22. From Walking Together Ministries comes a very wise Open Letter to the Followers of Harold Camping:

To The Followers of Harold Camping,

I am not writing this letter to offer you more of the condemnation you no doubt are already receiving from many quarters. I am writing instead to plead with you to think clearly in what will soon be the aftermath of the failed prophecy that you have embraced. I do so not to rub salt in the wound, but because you will soon find yourselves at an interesting crossroads in life at which you will be faced with many options. I am writing to encourage you to reject the bad options and embrace the wise ones.

I believe that you are sincere people. I believe that many of you sincerely believe in the Lord Jesus and I believe that many of you sincerely trust in the scriptures. Unfortunately, in embracing the prophecies of Harold Camping, you have sincerely believed in a false prophecy and a false prophet.

On Sunday, May 22nd, many of you are going to face feelings of confusion, loneliness, isolation, and even shame. Many of you will likely become objects of derision and punchlines in jokes made at your expense. You will reach a point where you will begin to wonder how what you previously believed in with such certainty could have been so very untrue. In light of this fact, let me offer you some words of perspective and encouragement for the future:

Much more at the link. I agree with all of it.

Should Christians Care about Harold Camping?

From CT Magazine, Should Christians Care about Harold Camping's, May 21, & Doomsday?  The Article features comments from Al Mohler, Tim LaHaye, Ed Seatzer and Lee Grady

The Harold Camping Follies (Continued)

Based on this latest update post from Robert Godfrey, I must conclude that Mr. Harold Camping (the end of the world on May 21, 2011 billboard guy) is even more off the theological reservation than I had earlier thought. Please see The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 5) by W. Robert Godfrey at Ligonier Ministries Blog. I knew Camping was off in his date setting for the judgment day, as well as his wacky numerology approach to interpreting the Scriptures. However, I did not  know that he is also teaching non-evangelical things about salvation and the nature of God. Godfrey concludes:

"Camping’s presentation of God’s mercy is from beginning to end unbiblical and unchristian. He has no Trinity, no cross, no faith alone in Jesus alone, and no assurance. His vision of God and mercy is more Muslim than Christian. If Camping still believes in the Trinity, in Jesus and his cross, and in justification by faith alone, then his recent teaching shows that he is a failure as a teacher of the Gospel and his call to repentance lacks enough content for sinners to find salvation in Jesus."

I suggest that everyone should avoid Camping and his teachings like a spiritual plague!

May 21: Harold Camping's Folly

Have you seen one of these billboards? There are different versions appearing throughout the USA, including a couple of them in my vicinity - I pass one going to church each Sunday.

Harold Camping of Family Radio ministries has "calculated" that the rapture will occur on May 21, 2001. He and his followers are paying for these billboards and traveling the country warning folks to get ready. Brother Camping apparently believes that Matthew 24:36 does not apply to him. He has made a career out of trying to predict the date of Christ's second coming, most notably previously predicting a return in 1994 (I certainly don't remember it happening, so I guess he was WRONG!)

W. Robert Godfrey at the Ligonier Ministries website has done us all a service by digging into and explaining the background of our misguided brother, Harold Camping. You can read it at:

The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 1)
The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 2)
The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 3)
The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 4)

The Lord could come back whenever He so chooses, although I'm pretty sure it will not be May 21, 2011 (but He is certainly free to prove me wrong!). We need to pray for these confused and deluded people when we all wake up on May 22nd.  And I hope no one ever pays any serious attention to Camping again.

Addendum:  Chaplain Mike at IMonk comments here.

Update on 4/26/11- It's worse than I thought.  See Part 5