Harold
Camping,
failed predictor of the Rapture
and what he termed "Judgment
Day" on
May 21 of this year, has been afflicted by a mild stroke that hampers
his ability to speak. According to a news
report,
Camping was hospitalized on June 9 after suffering his stroke. He has
since been moved to a nursing home, where he has been undergoing
rehabilitation therapy.
A "Special
Announcement" on Camping's Family Radio new website home page
reads as follows:
Harold
Camping, the president and general manager of Family Radio, suffered a
mild stroke on the evening of June 9, 2011. Mr. Camping is receiving
excellent care, and the doctors treating him are encouraged with the
progress that he is making. Mr. Camping's family appreciates everyone's
thoughts and prayers. Any additional information will be updated on
this site. All correspondence should be directed to Family Radio,
Oakland, California 94621.
Every weeknight, Camping aired his "Open Forum." on his Family Radio
affiliates. Since his stroke, Family Radio has been airing re-runs.
Judi Rathbone of Family Radio announced recently that the
month
of June will mark the end of Family Forum. There will be other
programming airing during that time slot.
I wish evil upon no
one, whether he claims to follow Jesus Christ or not. Furthermore, I am
not God, so I do not pretend to know why God permits this or that to
happen.
But
the facts are these.
Harold Camping erred when he originally proclaimed that Judgment Day
would occur on May 21, 1988. He subsequently stated that judgment did
come "upon the churches" on that day, but he has offered no
demonstrable proof other than his tortured hermeneutics
fraught with
numerology. He claimed that Judgment Day would occur on
September
7, 1994. He predicted that the Rapture
might well take place on that date. Again,
nothing demonstrable happened. Most recently he predicted that Christ
would return on May 21, 2011, and that that day would mark "Judgment
Day." As 6 pm arrived around the globe, a rolling earthquake
would ensue. Again, nothing happened.
On a Monday news conference on
May 23, Camping opined that judgment did, indeed, take place
on
May 21, 2011, but that he had erred in thinking it would be literal.
According to him, it was a spiritual event. How convenient.
Harold Camping has
lost all credibility with his failed predictions. Yet he insisted that
on October 21, 2011, the end of the world would take place. When I
heard him offer this opinion, I wanted to ask him if the end of the
world would be literal or figurative.
Unflappable, Camping
maintained his position in his May 23, 2011 press conference. His only
error, he claimed, was that he was mistaken in thinking that judgment
day would be literal. Instead, it turned out to be a spiritual event.
But it did happen! (According to him, of course.)
According to Family Radio's own website, in a document entitled, "What
Happened on May 21?",
Harold Camping or one of his associates has redefined what "earthquake"
and "rapture"
mean. Earthquake
meant not that the ground would quake, but that people around the world
would quake with fear. (See his reference to Genesis
2:7 to justify his absurd redefinition of earthquake.) Rapture meant not
that Church-Age believers would be caught
up to be with the Lord (as 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18
affirms), but that God's salvation program was completed. The document
pronounces that salvation is over. If
someone had not become saved by May 21, 2011, he is forever doomed.
(To be saved is to delivered from the wrath of God. But in Camping's
world, however, only those who have become converted to his
increasingly skewed theology are saved.) The exact words on
the
webpage are as follows: "No one who had not become saved
by that date can ever become saved."
This is
nothing
but abject heresy. The closing words of the book of Revelation still
hold true:
The
Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say,
“Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes
take the water of life without cost. Revelation
22:17
According
to Camping, we are now in a five-month judgment period, the final day
of which will be October 21, 2011. According to him, the entire
physical world and all those not chosen by God will be annihilated on
October 21 and those chosen by God will be raptured.
But
now Harold Camping can no longer defend his indefensible position. One
wonders if he will regain sufficient ability to speak when the
"Annihilation of
the World" and the "Rapture" arrive on October 21 ... and nothing happens.
What authority has God given to Harold Camping to shut the door of
salvation? That door is God's alone to open and shut.
Which leads to a final
question. Did God intervene so that Harold Camping can no longer make
his bizarre predictions using highly massaged numbers based on a
tortured hermeneutic to
persuade the gullible? Did God intentionally give Harold Camping a
stroke so he can no longer claim with his own voice that the door of
salvation has been shut? We cannot know the answer.
But the question is worth asking.
* See an update
on Harold Camping's health and ability to speak. |
