Yesterday was October the 21st, 2011. A date, which the now thoroughly discredited Mr. Harold Camping had once again set as being the "End of the World" in an apocalyptic nightmare.
Yeah, we know... He said all this before; several times in fact; so who on earth could be taking him seriously?
Well, as the great showman P.T. Barnum used to say, "There's a sucker born every minute", and so there's never a short supply of those Johnny-come-lately "suckers" who Mr. Camping can spell-bind into his following.
You must remember - His so-called "Family Radio" is still a very powerful medium, which he continues to use rather effectively. He's rather reminiscent of Adolph Hitler actually... continuing to issue orders to phantom armies, and lying propaganda messages to the German people from his Reich-stag bunker... even after all hope for his evil empire was crumbling around him. Like Hitler, Mr. Camping refuses to repent, let alone acknowledge his wrongs. No, he will not go until literally rooted out of his bunker. Needless to say: Such a man is most DANGEROUS.
Signs of Mr. Camping's megalomania and apostasy began to emerge long ago. Did you know he was once a "Teaching Elder" with a mainline Christian denomination? Yep, it's true! And I can tell you this: It's not easy to become a "Teaching Elder" with any mainline reformed Church. They're sticklers about such things as, oh... "sound doctrine", avoiding "vain speculations", and "prophetic prognostications". Yes, the Christian (Dutch) Reformed Churches... (at least used to be) very careful about such things.
"ENGINEERING THE END-TIMES SCENARIO"
So what happened? Well, Mr. Camping never attended a Seminary, neither was he trained in theology. No, he was/is an "engineer". And, well you know how "engineers" love to play with numbers! So it seems Mr. Camping could not stand what he perceived to be such disorder and lack of predictability in Biblical prophesy. Remember, engineers simply hate not being able to crunch-out all of the numbers and make it all fit to their satisfaction!
What is it with these "engineers" now-a-days, anyway?! Harold Camping is certainly not the first to try their slide-rules at "rapture-ratios"; you have guys like Chuck Missler, and "88 Reasons Why the End will come in 1988" - Edgar Whisenant, just to name the more prominent ones. They ALL have brought discredit upon Christ, Christianity, and real Biblical teaching with their repeatedly failed prognostications!
Don't they understand that God is also talking to them when He states....
"...my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa 55:8-9)
You just can't figure God out with a slide rule and/or super-computer folks!
I think the seriousness of what these men & women have done, and continue to do cannot be better underscored than by the fact that under Old Testament law, they were to be immediately taken out and stoned to death for even ONE failed "prophecy"; and yet these folks have continued to perpetrate many...and that, for a sizable profit! (cha-ching)!
Thankfully, we live in the age of grace, where instead of stoning, we excommunicate such persons from the life of the Church, and so declare to the world they are in fact "false prophets".
Howbeit, the world hardly listens anymore... and few Churches have the ecclesiastical "manhood" to kick-out such "Pop Culture Prophets".
Men like Mr. Camping are not satisfied with being told - "The SECRET things belong to the Lord..." (Deut. 29:29) And where it concerns the time & date of Christ's return; that is definitely "secret". Jesus himself made that abundantly clear when he said: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." (Mat 24:36 ESV)
It is to the eternal credit of the Alameda Christian Reformed Church that they carried out Matthew 18:15-20 with Mr. Camping. And though he refused to heed scriptural Church discipline as laid down by Christ himself; no-one can say that they did not earnestly try to correct this man of his errors and restore him to fellowship.
Mr. Camping of course had been allowed to go on for far too long, and only balked at their attempts to reconcile him to the truth. And it was at this point that he was "defrocked", and removed from his teaching position with them.
He of course left, in a huff, and by no "coincidence" first began announcing the "End of the Church age" that very day...May 21st, 1988.
Sound familiar? Oh yeah, the Church of Christ is "apostate" now because HE, and his aberrant doctrines are no longer welcome there! Ah yes...shades of Joseph Smith (Mormonism), and Charles Taze Russell (Jehovah's Witnesses), rise up again... False prophets just HATE "accountability", don't ya know. ;)
There's really much more to tell in this story... for those of you "engineers" out there who simply must have all of the dirty details... look here... The Gordian Knot
For me to say more on the particulars than what Pastor Gordon (who knows the intimate details better than I) has to say, would be redundant at this point.
WHAT TO DO NOW
Suffice it to say, yet another false prophet and his false prognostications has come & gone; and the world will hopefully be a better, wiser place for it.
And for those of you who may have gotten "caught-up"... Oh garsk! There I go with those painful puns! I'm sorry, forgive me.. it's not the "end of the world" for me to pun is it? Ooops! I did it again! :-o
Well anyway, for those of you who did indeed get suckered-in by Mr. Camping's scripture twisting prognostications; I do feel sorry for you. But I really must ask the painful question: "Didn't you get the 'memo' on this guy?"
No? Well let me see... Ah yes, here its is!
"Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will NOT come, unless the rebellion (apostasy) comes first, and The Man of Lawlessness (sin) is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God." (2Th 2:1-4)
As this quote from the Apostle Paul reveals, wanna-be "prophets" and prognosticators of the return of Christ and the End times have been with us since early Church times. They are nothing new, though admittedly expected to become more prevalent as the true time of Christ's return nears. All the more reason we should take earnest heed to warnings such as Paul issued us above. That Day CANNOT come until AFTER the great apostasy occurs, and The Man of Sin aka "Anti-Christ" is revealed fully for all to see! And when THAT happens, that's when you can begin to look-up with expectancy for His return will be happening at any time.
The happy conclusion of this is: Christ will assuredly come, but NOT until after the "Man of Sin" is fully revealed, at which point Christ will return, and utterly destroy him, and his followers. It's a promise Christ made, through his true Apostles and not the Harold Campings of the world...
"And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming..." (2Th 2:8)
Until that blessed day comes, I pray you will hold fast to that form of sound doctrine Christ and his Apostles taught (in the New testament), and not be soon shaken in your understanding and faith by false prophets such as Mr. Harold Camping. (Rom. 6:17; Rev. 3:3)
And if you should need help with understanding any of this, please feel free to contact me. Any and all genuine inquiries will be welcomed.
God bless you one & all.
The Paladin
Solid article
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