If you haven’t heard, Harold Camping and FamilyRadio.com claim the Rapture will happen tomorrow and that Judgement Day will begin. The tribulation will last five months and on October 21, the world will end.
The sad part of all this, is that they claim the Bible teaches this and that God has revealed this to them. There has been a world-wide advertising campaign to warn people. The message has been spread via RV caravans, billboards, radio, and more.
The problem is Camping has predicted this would happen back in 1994 too, and will likely recalculate his numbers and come up with a new date once this one fails. Never mind that, his signs say “the Bible guarantees it”.
He gets to May 21 as the date of the rapture, through a far ranging use of Biblical numerology and assumptions. Since “begat” can indicate a father – son relationship or also a ancestor – descendant relationship, it is assumed it always refers to a time period rather than a direct father – son connection, unless other factors make it clear the Bible declares the two names are related as father and son. Because a day in the Bible can sometimes refer to a thousand years, it is assumed that days do refer to thousand-year time periods at important places in the scheme that results in May 21, 2011 being the date of the Rapture. Numbers can have an association or meaning, and then that meaning is applied universally. As in 23 is the number of wrath, 17 is the number of heaven, etc.
The result is a Biblical timeline of history that has a widespread corroboration with numerous numerological twists given to various time periods given in the Bible. For more on the Biblical timeline of history see this explanation. And several links on the left of the FamilyRadio.com website take a deep dive into the numerology.
The story is making headlines around the world. See the New York Times article here, and another story here. USA Today found that many of Camping’s staff don’t actually believe that May 21st is the day.
I’m saddened by the many followers who are being led astray in this. The Bible isn’t a mysterious collection of numbers to be figured out by experts. It has a plain and clear message of God’s redemptive plan for mankind. Jesus may return tomorrow, or even today. I believe that. But if He doesn’t, then Camping has revealed himself to be a false teacher and people should not follow him. I’ll probably say more about this in the future, it will be interesting to see what they say if the Rapture doesn’t happen tomorrow. I’ll leave you with a link to a video clip from FamilyRadio.com. May God help these people realize once and for all that this teaching is dangerous, and it trivializes the Bible’s message to a watching world.
According to them, when he set a date in ’94, it had a question mark behind it. In fact, I was told by them that his book was called ’94?’. Supposedly, back then he had said that the if the date was not going to be in 1994, that it would be in 2011. I know some people who buy this and one of them has been following Harry for years. I pray that God grants them repentance tomorrow and that we can also be blessig to them and show them the true gospel, not some “pre-creation annihilation of Christ” gospel. But, we can’t allow them to set another date. We must fight against this nonsense.
Interesting. I think it is sad. What is the “pre-creation annihilation of Christ” teaching you’re referring to. I’m not all that up to speed on Camping.
Jeremy may be referring to Camping’s teaching that since Rev. 13:8 says (in the KJV) “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world,” that this was when Christ truly propitiated the Father on behalf of the elect, and his death on the cross in time was just a picture of the prior event. In other words, Camping preaches a false gospel. The cross is no longer central.
If I may, I’d like to recommend an alternative to Family Radio for any of your readers who listen to it, and don’t know where to go. There’s a new Reformed Radio network in the Northeast called Redeemer Broadcasting. They have a good weekly program called “A Plain Answer.” Today’s episode addresses Camping. Like Family Radio, Redeemer plays conservative, traditional Christian music, but unlike Family, it won’t offer any creative interpretation of Scripture.
Visit http://www.redeemerbroadcasting.org
Here’s the link to A Plain Answer’s current episode: http://www.redeemerbroadcasting.org/podcasts/apa_052111_May_21_Harold_Camping.mp3
thx, John
8:36 pm and all clear in the USA.
The joke about Camping is not that he did this before or his twists of numerology. The joke about his rapture thing today was not just the particular day, but the whole idea of “rapture”, “meeting up in the sky” and people left behind. The whole package is hilarious. Christians I know who made fun of today’s rapture thing may think it is only the date thing, but I think inwardly they really realize the whole package is incredibly silly. And today it was in their face. This hurt Christianity again — as it should.
There are many versions of the endtimes — I sketched most here. I yours is different, please tell me so I can add another. Thank you.
Thanks, Sabio. I’ll check yours out.