Posted on 05/22/2011 5:36:24 AM PDT by don-o
Harold Camping needs to publicly apologize for being wrong about his doomsday prediction and leading people astray, said a Southern Baptist leader.
The California radio broadcaster’s wrong prediction about the rapture and the end of the world reflected poorly on Christians, said Ed Stetzer, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s missiologist in residence.
Stetzer issued a series of tweets about Camping’s eschatological prediction on Saturday, among which one noted that there was no earthquake in New Zealand after 6 p.m.
“Harold Camping, pls update www.family.radio.com w/your repentance statement & instructions to your now-broke followers,” Stetzer tweeted.
An hour later he tweeted again, “6pm here in Turkey. I’m standing at the Temple of Athena waiting for the Rapture. Nothing happened. ;-)”
For months, followers of the 89-year-old Camping, who previously wrongly predicted the rapture would occur in September 1994, have been warning that the rapture would occur on May 21, 2011. Supporters would hold placards on busy streets in major cities that read: “Judgment Day May 21, 2011.”
Family Radio, a non-profit Christian radio network headed by Camping, was the name seen on the placards, bus ads, billboards and in media coverage on the May 21 prediction.
But surprisingly, many within the California-based radio network do not believe that the first phase of the end of the world begins Saturday.
“I don’t believe in any of this stuff that’s going on, and I plan on being here next week,” a receptionist identified as Esther at the group’s headquarters in Oakland, Calif., told CNNMoney.
Esther said some of her co-workers who believe in Camping’s prediction had bought expensive cars or taken their families on vacation ahead of May 21.
In New York, follower Robert Fitzpatrick, 60, spent his entire $140,000 life savings on 1,000 subway-car placards and ads at bus stops warning about May 21. The ads read: “Global Earthquake: The Greatest Ever! Judgment Day May 21, 2011.”
Another Camping follower, 27-year-old Adrienne Martinez, was planning to go to medical school but decided not to after listening to Family Radio. Martinez and her husband, Joel, had lived in New York City but a year ago quit their jobs and moved to Orlando. They spent their time reading the Bible and distributing tracts, according to NPR. They have a two-year-old daughter and a second child due next month.
“We budgeted everything so that, on May 21, we won’t have anything left,” Adrienne said to NPR.
While some of Camping’s listeners are all-in when it comes to his rapture prediction, Family Radio’s Esther estimates that 80 percent of her co-workers don’t believe their own boss about May 21, according to CNNMoney.
The receptionist is still scheduling appointments for her co-workers after Saturday.
Family Radio has about 350 paid staff working to run 66 radio stations across the nation. The network’s financial documents, according to CNNMoney, shows that it received $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009. But Camping, according to documents, has not been paid a penny from the contributions. He has worked as a volunteer at Family Radio.
Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,
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that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” - Matt 24
The legislature of Connecticut was then in session at Hartford. A very general opinion prevailed, that the day of judgment was at hand. The house of Representatives, being unable to transact their business, adjourned.
A proposal to adjourn the Council was under consideration. When the opinion of Colonel Davenport was asked, he answered,
"I am against an adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause of an adjournment: if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought."
The relevance of this to my post escapes me. Either Mr. Camping believed his own predictions, in which case he was simply in error, or he’s a crook, in which case he has a whole life to repent, not just this one wrong guess.
Those who believe that we can tell when the return of Christ is coming explain away the verses you’ve posted, just as some (for example) explain away the clear statements in the Gospel and in Acts that Christians are not bound by the Jewish dietary regulations.
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Matthew 24:50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Matthew 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Mark 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Look at Mark 13:32.
If Jesus Himself, in His manifestation as the Perfect Man, did not know the day and the hour of His Second Coming, then why would anybody believe any “prediction” made by anyone else?
I agree with Colonel Davenport. I mopped my floors on Friday, just as if we were all going to be here Sunday. And just as if the return of most of my family from camp wouldn’t render clean floors a moot point ... but at least it will be new dirt ;-).
The real accountability will come before the Judge of all. Woe unto Camping on that day.
Hopefully Campy didn’t off himself.
Two thoughts on Rev. Camping and his predictions:
“There’s one (a sucker) born every minute.” -P. T. Barnum
“If God had not wanted them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.” -Bandit Chief Calvero in “The Magnificent Seven.”
There is such a thing as church discipline....it’s a biblical process detailed in scripture.
Indeed.....
It is a very weighty thing to speak for God. Camping misrepresented God Almighty to billions of people. He claimed that the Bible guaranteed the world would end on May 21st, even though the Bible said no such thing. Even though Jesus Himself said that only the Father knew when that day was, Camping claimed to know better. Camping is a false prophet, not just mistaken, and he led many people astray and has given cause for the world to mock Christianity.
Nut Case.
Now I have to do laundry & all the things I put off doing yesterday. Darn
Since only GOD knows the day/hour/second this idiot is just another false prophets, one of many that will crop up before the day GOD gives the order to sound the Trump.
standing on the promises of god
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9ZJPIDkis
“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1st. Thess. 4:16-17).
The imminency crowd reads right over that, or comes up with convoluted explanations to dismiss it's plain meaning.
I guess I'm missing the clear distinction between "false prophet," "honestly wrong," and "just plain crazy," or at least the way we, from the outside, can distinguish which one it is.
Teh interwebs are teeming with people who believe "the clocked started" with the establishment of the modern State of Israel, and that everything from today's weather to the 13-year cicadas to the cat digging up my bean patch "proves" that the End is Nigh. Camping just has a radio network, while most don't.
All Christian personality cults, from Jim Jones to Harold Camping and everything in between, are a debasement of Christianity.
Once you stop preaching what Jesus said and start preaching your own personal special knowledge, you are debasing Christianity.
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Exactly. The sad part about the Camping trip has been that it gives the theologically ignorant and unlearned here on FR the opportunity to display their ignorance by attacking the scriptural doctrine of the rapture. Camping provided the opportunity to set up and knock down theological strawmen.
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