Exposing Darkness

In my last two articles I have openly charged Harold Camping of Family Radio of teaching false doctrine. I am certainly not alone. In fact just this past weekend I hear a broadcast of Open Forum where a pastor challenged Camping and openly changed him with heresy. I was surprised that Camping got into a 30 min. discourse, which was beautiful. In the end of course there was no hope. Mr. Camping stands firm that his teachings are not “his” but the bibles.  But with that said, I would like to examine some of the claims of Mr. Camping and determine whether or not there is any validity at all to his claims. I have already established that the main issue with Harold Camping is his interpretative methods. His obsession with numerology and allegorical interpretation of scriptures are the real source of his folly. While he appears and claims to be “spiritual”, there is nothing spiritual about his teachings at all.

Is he a Prophet? In his most recent book, “Time Has an End”, Camping claims that Jesus Christ is coming back on May 21, 2011, where Judgment Day will begin for a period of five months culminating on Oct. 21, 2011. How does Camping arrive at this? He claims it is from the bible. And once again based on an elaborate and mysterious calculation of numbers in the bible. This he says is the special revelation from the little book sealed up in Daniel 12 which will be opened in the last days.  While the scripture teaches us that “No man knows the day or hour” Camping will argue that, that was bound only to the church age. In fact he argues that Noah new the day that God would judge the earth, and Jonah new when God would judge Nineveh (40 days). Here is the first major problem- Camping has set himself up as the equivalent of Noah or Jonah. In essence, he is declaring himself a prophet of God. This is a very audacious and bold claim. But if he declares himself a prophet, what does scripture say about a prophet?

Deut. 18:20-21 “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

The Lord has set up a very clear system to evaluate presumptuous prophets who speak in his name. IF what they say does not come to pass, they are a false prophet. The penalty- capital punishment.

First of all, we cannot stone Camping to death, because we are living under the New Covenant which no longer practices the civil law of the Old Covenant. However we can judge Camping by his prior words. Back in the early 90’s Camping did predict that Jesus was coming back in 1994. He placed a ? at the end of his statement to protect himself if he was wrong. But he still was very adamant on his show every day that he strongly believed that the second coming was going to happen on Sept. 6 1994. When the day came and went like an ordinary day, he insisted on his question mark as a cover. The sad part is, many people did believe it. They quit their jobs, sold their homes, and some even committed suicide when they realized they were hoodwinked. When Harold Camping was confronted with this, he simply says, “I didn’t tell anyone to do any of these things.”

That should have been the first indication of the falsehood of Camping’s ministry and he should have abdicated his position immediately. But instead he was able to continue using Family Radio to propagate another lie.

Harold Camping is not the first person to set dates for the parousia, and he will not be the last. In fact Harold Camping is much like the 19th century bible teacher, William Miller. It was Miller who like Camping used numerology and allegorical methods to arrive at a precise date of the second coming of the Lord.Like Camping Mr. Miller got his date, “from the bible”

Basing his belief principally on Daniel 8:14: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” Miller assumed that the cleansing of the sanctuary represented the Earth’s purification by fire at Christ’s Second Coming. Then, using an interpretive principle known as the “day-year principle”, Miller, and others, interpreted a day in prophecy to read not as a 24-hour period, but rather as a calendar year. Further, Miller became convinced that the 2,300 day period started in 457 B.C. with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes I of Persia. Simple calculation then revealed that this period would end in 1843. Miller records, “I was thus brought… to the solemn conclusion, that in about twenty-five years from that time 1818 all the affairs of our present state would be wound up.”

Although Miller was convinced of his calculations by 1818, he continued to study privately until 1823 to ensure the correctness of his interpretation. In September 1822, Miller formally stated his conclusions in a twenty-point document, including article 15: “I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, even at the door, even within twenty-one years,–on or before 1843.” In 1834, unable to personally comply with many of the urgent requests for information and the invitations to travel and preach that he received, Miller published a synopsis of his teachings in a 64 page tract with the lengthy title:Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ, about the Year 1843: Exhibited in a Course of Lectures.

Sound Familiar? It should, Camping is much like Miller.Miller set a date for Oct. 22, 1844. Sadly as many of his devout followers gathered that day waiting for Christ and were gravely disappointed. There were 2 reactions. some totally disavowed Miller and his teachings, and others sought to explain away this error, making excuses for their beloved leader.This gave birth to Adventism, as members of this cult would still try to find out the date of the second coming through numerology and biblical prophecy.   Miller died 4 years later a disgraced man.

Then would come another man who would try to predict the second coming through biblical interpretation. His name was Charles Taze Russel. In 1870, at age 18, he attended a presentation by a well-known Adventist minister, Jonas Wendell. Wendell focused on what Russell considered to be rational, logical matters relating to biblical prophecy and chronology, drawing attention to the future date of 1874 as the supposed date for Christ’s return. He later related that the presentation left him with a renewed zeal and the belief that not only was the Bible the word of God, but that all Christians had a personal responsibility to preach its gospel 1874 came and went and Jesus did not return. Consequently Russel was left to explain his error, and came up with a cockamamie explanation-  Russell believe that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874, and that he had been ruling from the heavens since that date. He predicted that a period known as the “Gentile Times” would end in 1914, and that Christ would take power of Earth’s affairs at that time. He interpreted the outbreak of World War I as the beginning of Armageddon, which he viewed to be both a gradual deterioration of civilized society, and a climactic multi-national attack on a restored Israel accompanied by worldwide anarchy.

The Truth- Russel was wrong. Not only was he wrong but he like Camping had an obsession with chronology and numerology. But it led no where. But what added insult to injury is that Russel started one of the largest cults to this day. The Jehovah’s Witnesses aka The Watchtower Society. His poor hermeneutics and style of interpreting scripture would lead to some of the most destructive heresies since the Arian Heresy of the early church which denied the deity of Christ.

Now mind you both Russel and Miller both claimed that their teachings were in the bible. They both claimed to have a harmonizing interpretative method of scripture, and they both were wrong. The destructive force of their teachings would last for generations misleading many people.

Others would also make false predictions- Joseph Smith, Herbert Armstrong, Hal Lindsy, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn etc. etc. And this has been going on for ages.

So What can we say to Harold Camping? Let’s examine “What the bible says!”

Deut 29:29
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

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

Matt 24:36
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Matt 25:13
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

Only God know when the consummation of the age will end. Jesus will not bow to the call of Camping or any other self proclaimed prophet. He will only answer to the father. For those who think they have the date- think again. Only God knows. Jesus is coming back, and when he does he will come suddenly “like a thief in the night.” That is why we must be prepared every day. Jesus can come at any oment, and we dare not be lazy get despondent. He will come in fury and judgment and he will come with great power. But this is the Father’s business. Our business is one thing- “keep busy till he comes” We must be about the business of the church age- preaching the gospel, declaring truth and righteousness, and living holy and separate, so that we may be ready to meet with Him in the air on that glroious day! Amen!

I hope Jesus returns before May 21, 2011. That would be the hope of all believers. But Camping is dead wrong. He is not a prophet, and has not been endowed with any special gift of reading the bible ina cryptic way to give hims special insights into dates. Others went down that road and they have all failed. I hope when May 21, 2011 comes and goes, Camping will repent. And I pray that his followers will not try to make excuses or contrive some new doctrine to cover up the mess.  The clock is ticking and Camping will once again prove he is a false prophet.

Sole Deo Gloria!