HAROLD EGBERT CAMPING for those who can stand his show.
Posted on 08/27/2010 8:16:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Christian radio host Harold Camping says Jesus is coming back in nine months: May 21, 2011. Then the world will end, according to his calculations, on October 21, 2011. He's been announcing this on his Family Radio broadcasts for several years.
The good news is that we won't have to deal with that pesky 2012 Mayan calendar apocalypse.
The bad news is that people are taking Camping seriously.
The Colorado Springs Gazette tells of a woman there who paid $1,200 to buy advertising space for bus benches in the area to help get the message out.
Marie Exley is unemployed but feels it's important that people have time to prepare for Christ's imminent return...even though the prediction makes her sad.
From the article:
Exley has bittersweet feelings about Camping's prediction.
"There are things I felt I always wanted to do -- get married, have a kid, travel more," she said. "But it's not about what I want out of life. It's about what God wants."
Since apparently it's rapture week here at O Me of Little Faith...and since I got my start as a writer by making fun of End-Times mania, I guess I could spend the next few paragraphs waxing sarcastically about Camping and his failed end-of-the-world predictions and the dumb, complicated mathematical code he uses to arrive at them. After all, he's been playing up this 2011 date for several years, since Jesus failed to come back when Camping originally predicted it in 1994. (Camping says it's because he made a mathematical error with that date, but now he's corrected it. Score one for calculators.)
But today is one of those days when I just don't find any humor in this kind of thing. Today, Camping's brand of apocalypticism just makes me sad. His super-confident, trust-me-I'm-an-expert teaching causes people like Exley to spend money she doesn't have on useless advertising, and it makes her think that this is her last year on earth. It depresses her now, a little -- she's missing out on marriage and a family -- and it sets her up for disappointment later, when Jesus doesn't come back next May.
I'm already disappointed and sad at this kind of reaction, because not only does it play on people's fears, but it manipulates them because of their hope.
Camping himself has little to lose. He's an old man. If he's right about Christ's return, he's already lived a full life and he'll be hailed as a prophet. Camping, FTW! But if he's wrong -- which he WILL be -- well, he'll get through it just like he did in 1994. He'll blame the math or something and eventually retire. The sooner, the better. He'll survive.
But people like Exley have much more to lose. They'll spend this next year in limbo. Why get a job if Jesus is coming back in May? Why plan for the future? Why save anything for retirement, or fall in love, or start a family if the world's about to fall into chaos? She'll suspend her life until May 21, 2011, and when Jesus fails to adhere to Camping's timetable, she'll have to start over...spiritually, emotionally, and culturally. She'll look like an idiot. She'll have wasted a good chunk of money. She'll have put her hope in something and see it fall to pieces.
Camping's faith will survive the failed prediction, just like it did in 1994. But what about Exley's faith? What will happen to the faith of his thousands of listeners who have invested their hope (and money) into this scenario?
We can laugh all we want at the stupidity of End-Times date-setters who are wrong. They've been wrong for two thousand years, and they'll be wrong in the future.
But it's hard to laugh at the gullible people who believe them. If you want to be mean, you can call them mindless sheep. But don't forget that they're also a kind of victim: Victims of hope, victims of religious fervor, and victims of certainty.
How do people not get “no man knows the time or day”.
Stupidity abounds. Calclulations? What calculations? Show your work.
SnakeDoc
Blasphemy. “But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone.”
“How do people not get “no man knows the time or day”.”
Well, he’s got to get his ‘15 minutes of fame’ somehow! /s
End-time prophets fall into this category.
exactly! Love your tag line by the way!!
Don’t forget to buy your ascention robes and Charles Miller tee shirts.
Only a false prophet would identify a date certain.
Having said that, Jesus is coming for His bride - in the timing of the Father. Believers should be rejoicing & looking forward to that fact.
Yeah, in Calculus class you gave up the 15 points if you didn’t show your work. The least he could do is publish his computations ... I’m a mathematician by profession and a committed believer in Christ. I would be happy to give the computations a fair shake despite my bias going in.
"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
Looks like I’ll have to change that dental appointment.
Thank you for calling and sharing
RE: Calclulations? What calculations? Show your work.
Here is a sample from Harold Camping’s latest book entitled: “We are Almost There!”
The church age embraced, to the very day, exactly 1,955 years in that it began on Pentecost day, May 22, A.D. 33, and ended the day before Pentecost on May 21, 1988 (A.D.). (p. 29)
As we have noted, God further solidifies or locks in this date, May 21, 2011, by placing the day of shutting the door, when the rapture will occur, on the 17th day of the second month of the Biblical calendar. Significantly, the number 17 links perfectly to the fact of the rapture because spiritually, the number 17 signifies heaven.
Moreover, the number 2 (second month) spiritually identifies with those who have been commissioned to bring the Gospel. Is it not amazing that they will be raptured on the 17th day of the second month? Is that coincidental?
We also have learned that the last day of the earth’s existence, October 21, 2011, is the 23rd day of the seventh month of the Biblical calendar. The number 23 normally signifies God’s wrath being poured out. The number 7 (seventh month) signifies the perfect fulfillment of God’s purposes. Could this also be coincidental, that the final completion of God’s punishment on the unsaved occurs in the seventh month on a day that features the number 23, which is a number that completely identifies with God’s wrath, thus signifying God’s perfect wrath on the unsaved? (p. 61-62).
By Camping’s understanding, the Bible was dictated by God and every word and number carries a spiritual significance. He noticed that particular numbers appeared in the Bible at the same time particular themes are discussed.
The number 5, Camping concluded, equals “atonement.” Ten is “completeness.” Seventeen means “heaven.” Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.
“Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.,” he began. “Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that’s 1,978 years.”
Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days – the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.
Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.
Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.
Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.
“Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story,” Camping said. “It’s the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you’re completely saved.
“I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that,” Camping said…
Rick LaCasse, who attended the September 1994 service in Alameda, said that 15 years later, his faith in Camping has only strengthened.
“Evidently, he was wrong,” LaCasse allowed, “but this time it is going to happen. There was some doubt last time, but we didn’t have any proofs. This time we do.”
Would his opinion of Camping change if May 21, 2011, ended without incident?
Actually that pesky 2012 Mayan calendar aligns quite nicely with Revelations!
An Apocalypse (Greek: Ἀποκάλυψις Apokálypsis; "lifting of the veil" or "revelation") is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an...
IMO, We are about to witness a new beginning here on Earth. We first have to get through the next 5-1/2 years of tribulation.
He's about 167 years old and rambles on in a droning monotone about nonsense. He makes the children cry when they want to watch Spongebob. It's fun!
Camping is a dirty old man end-times Bernie Madoff.
Leni
RE: I would be happy to give the computations a fair shake despite my bias going in.
Want to see how Camping does it ? You have to read his book.
Here’s a sample :
“Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.,” he began. “Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that’s 1,978 years.”
Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days – the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.
Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.
Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.
Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.
“Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story,” Camping said. “It’s the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you’re completely saved.
For one historical point that should be of interest , the crucifixion was a couple of years earlier than that, hence the “rapture” according to Harold Camping’s “1,978 years logic” should have been no later than May of 2009 (33 A.D. for the crucifixion year has been eliminated by most serious biblical scholars). His followers should take the time and look at what the Bible does and does not teach–as it does not teaching many of the calculations that he is teachings.
Notice the basis for the 1,978 years according to Harold Camping:
1978 = 2 x 23 x 43
Number 2 symbolizes those who are to bring the Gospel.
Number 23 symbolizes wrath
Number 43 symbolizes judgment
Thus, by the number 1,978, God is emphasizing that judgment will fall on those who had been commissioned to bring the Gospel (2) and are still subject to the wrath of God (23 and 43). (We are Almost There!, p. 64)
I sure hope he's wrong. USC is scheduled to play Notre Dame in South Bend the next day.
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