Posted on 05/07/2011 9:27:55 PM PDT by tlb
May 21, "starting in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 p.m. local time hour, in each time zone, there will be a great earthquake,". The true Christian believers will be "raptured": They'll fly upward to heaven.
"and on top of all that, there's no more salvation at that point. 153 days later that the entire universe and planet Earth will be destroyed."
"I no longer think about 401(k)s and retirement," he says. "I'm just a lot less stressed, and in a way I'm more carefree."
Brown is married with several young children, and none of them shares his beliefs. It's caused a rift with his wife — but he says that, too, was predicted in the Bible.
But it appears that many became believers in 2009 after turning on Family Radio, a Christian network. Camping's predictions have inspired other groups to rally behind the May 21 date. People have quit their jobs and left their families to get the message out.
"Knowing the date of the end of the world changes all your future plans," says Adrienne Martinez.
She thought she'd go to medical school, until she began tuning in to Family Radio. She and her husband decided they wanted to spend their remaining time with their infant daughter.
"Why are we going to work for more money? "
"We budgeted everything so that, on May 21, we won't have anything left," Adrienne adds.
I've asked a dozen of Camping's followers the same question. Everyone said even entertaining the possibility that May 21 would come and go without event is an offense to God. They all hope they'll be raptured.
"If I'm here on May 22, and I wake up, I'm going to be in hell," says Brown
On the other hand, he will presumably have lots of company.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
1 Thessalonians 5
The Day of the Lord
1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Just wait: on May 22nd they’ll all be walking around wearing trusses.
That is because 'the end' will come not because of a preselected date, but because of the 'condition' of man.
And when it happens, no one will really even notice it happened, at first. It is likely it may have already occurred.
As far as the 'rapture', we might not really notice that either. How many true believers are there left?
How many people die or disappear each day on an ongoing basis?
Frankly, with the number of walking spiritual corpses I've met who came from "semetary" I'd say your plan's no sure formula for success, either. Knowledge and seminary training just ain't "all that"; "knowledge puffs up, love builds up," wrote the most highly theologically trained contributor to the New Testament. So, obviously, there's a good deal more that's necessary than just the knowledge and training.
One of Camping's core problems is that he is accountable to NOBODY, which should set off deafening alarm bells for every sane person.
I have sat under the preaching of some VERY well-known men of towering spiritual stature, and I know they had — to a man — made themselves accountable to others.
Unfortunately, some of the people currently going Camping will be going camping after May 21st.
Well... should be exciting.
IRONY: The fact that if Mr. Camping ever turns out to be right, he will never be able to get credit for it.
Predestination is simply the 'path' that God puts us on during our material existence. I.E. he decides 'what' happens to us.
Free-will is how we 'react' to what happens.
I used to listen to Camping in the eighties and early nineties. I was not a new Christian, but had some basic principles of bible interpretation.
I had just enough to come to the place where he had me very confused.
I never really believed JC would come in 1994, but I didn’t understand WHY Camping’s methods were so flawed. I do owe him - he made me realize I had to understand hermaneutics more- and I went out of my way to truly study the subject. Walter Martin had a good six cassette set on the subject and it was funny - almost every rule he brought up, Camping had broken.
But I can understand how an undereducated or new Christian could fall for his stuff, and how devasting it could be on their future faith.
I remember coming home from the South in 1994 Sept and seeing bedsheets over the parkway railings “Christ is Coming”. There were people in my town who sold everything they had in prep.
The world shall end for all of us, likely one at a time.
One should never say never however...
I am dying as are you. Would it not be interesting to perish with all of humanity at one moment...?
Obviously there are some who desire this.
It is a peculiar, catchy taste.
Now CUT THAT OUT!
You’re only the 5,239th person in my life who’s misused those two verses.
You err in that you stop too soon, and so mistakenly think the passage (addressed to Christians, as it is), is saying that The Church will all just be totally taken by surprise at Jesus’ coming.
I say to you with utmost emphasis: NO, SHE WILL NOT.
Read on...
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
The passage makes a stark contrast between believers and unbelievers as regards awareness of the coming of the Day of The LORD. Those for whom that day comes “as a thief in the night” are referred to in v. 3 as “they”; that is in contrast to “ye” — the church, to whom the epistle is addressed.
3 For when THEY shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon THEM, as travail upon a woman with child; and THEY shall not escape.
Now comes v. 4 to draw the sharp contrast
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
THEY — the unbelieving — are caught completely unaware.
YE — the believers — are awake, in the light, watching.
PLEASE, do not any longer use just vv 1 and 2 to try and portray that God is even keeping believers totally in the fog about the coming of the end; that is absolutely untrue.
The arguments concerning predestination and free will vary widely - and if put together from all centuries past would eclipse the number of words written on FR many times.
Wars have been fought over it.
I have a friend who has a teeshirt. The front says, I chose this shirt, and the back says, This shirt chose me.
It makes those of us who understand the debate laugh every time we see it.
http://www.zazzle.com/calvinism+this+chose+me+tshirts
I will not be taken by surprise when the moment arrives.
For I have been taught all the signs.
But to the day and the hour they will occur.....
Mat 24:36 ¶ But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Any man who claims to be able to name the date and time is a liar.
Jesus said so.
Eschatology is available those who remain steadfast in their study through faith in Christ, but Camping’s interpretation is very far off track.
2 points point immediately to error in his presentation.
1) Giving a date and time of the 2nd Coming/Rapture and
2) Alluding no salvation during or after the Tribulation within a pretrib premil framework.
1) The Rapture is imminent, not immediate, i.e. nothing is required prior to it occurring within Prophecy. Nobody knows the day or hour of the 2nd Coming, including the angels and even God the Son. Only God the Father has that knowledge.
2) The Church Age ceases with the Rapture. Nothing says salvation is still not possible after the Rapture, rather the body of Christ will have been completed and the first resurrection of the Church completed. Separate passages address a remnant, who are also believers. Other passages refer to those receiving salvation even in the Millennium.
Some interpretations attempt to combine different passages into conclusions beyond what is stated, but nowhere is it explicitly stated salvation no longer exists after the Rapture. During this Age, we have salvation through faith in Christ, as in any age. During this Age, believers remaining in fellowship will be Raptured and also saved from the Great Tribulation.
I’m a catholic, we never worry about these things. : )
I assume that you have read Boethius.
I prefer listening to someone who actually knows.
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
Harold Camping will answer to G-d for misleading his Sheep.
This scripture relates to the Sabbath..You can bring in the Sabbath early, by lighting the candles early. Thus, you should always be prepared, because no one knows when the candles will be lit.
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