Back in 1994, Harold Camping's predictions regarding the end of the world did not come true. The world continued on. He has new predictions that the rapture will occur on May 21, 2011, with world continuing for another 153 days from then. (link to interview) One of his predictions, as you will see in the clip, is that there will be a massive earthquake that is large enough to open all of the graves of, in essence, everyone who has ever been buried. I hope that those who have been following Camping's teaching will realize on May 22, 2011, that this was a serious mistake.
Mr. Camping's method of Biblical interpretation is flawed. Rather than using the grammatical-historical method of exegesis, Mr. Camping applies a highly arbitrary method of trying "decode" a "hidden meaning" in the text of Scripture. The arbitrary method permitted him to predict late 1994, and now permits him to predict May 21, 2011. If that date fails, it will permit him to pick a new date, and again and again.
What's more, folks should be aware that Camping is running his organization this way: "we make decisions as if the end could be quite far away ... contracts are negotiated as if the future was altogether indefinite ... " (source - Time Has an End).
May I strongly urge those who have gone along with Mr. Camping's teachings to please at least imitate this aspect of Camping's organizations. Continue to make plans for the future beyond May 21, 2011. When the earthquake does not arrive, find a Bible-believing church near you and join yourself to that fellowship.
-TurretinFan
(Many thanks to Mr. James Swan for bringing this clip to my attention.)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
21 comments:
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I have never heard of Camping, perhaps he is big in the USA...but in the UK he does not seem to be on the radar.
ReplyDeleteHe's fairly well known amongst (especially) Reformed Christians here, but I wouldn't say he's "big."
ReplyDeleteHis followers are all over paltalk jumping in and out of rooms telling everyone to get ready.I will feel sorry for them for when it doesn't happen, they may doubt God instead of Mr.Camping. But I would not be surprised if he starts to admit his miscalculation, and say something did happen ( like in the heaven atmosphere) and comes back with a new date. I truly hope he see's his error and repents for misdirecting many people. Families have been divided because of this man.
ReplyDeleteMat 25:13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
ReplyDeleteOne interpretation I read goes something like this, it was prescribed that at the end of the month and the last day of the month, to count the next month two witnesses had to go to a place and look to the eastern sky. When both witnessess saw the sliver of the "new" moon, they recorded it and came promptly back to the High Priest so he could complete the previous month of days, whether or not it was 29 lunar days or 30. Depending on the sighting of the sliver of the new moon gave them two facts. One, the previous month was counted as either a 29 or a 30 day month so there would be either 12 or 13 months that year. And they would know what day the next count of 29 days or 30 days began so they would be accurate in their counting of days of the month and months of the year so as to stay lined up with God's "beginning of days" as told to Moses in Exodus:
Exo 12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
Exo 12:2 "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
Exo 12:3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.
Supposedly, now, the Jews have recovered sufficient records from their historical past so that they are now on track again, accurately, with counting the days, the new moon and the months of the year so that all anniversary days for the three main festivals are being celebrated according to that beginning of days, Exodus 12:2.
They don't want to celebrate Passover on the wrong evening and incur eternal wrath!
Exo 12:24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever.
and
Exo 12:41 At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Exo 12:42 It was a night of watching by the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the LORD by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.
That being said, we are still left with "not knowing" the day or the hour of the sighting of the new moon so as to predict the end of the world and the soon quick return of Christ to rap this heavens and earth up and the new heavens and earth period begins wherein dwells only righteousness!
What a wonderful thought and anticipation?
Look up today for the day of the Lord draws near. And, as for each of us who have this "Hope" begun in us, one thing is a fact, we are now closer to it than that first day we began believing and "Hoping for and looking for that Day"! :)
Question TulipWife, wouldn't it be even more sorrowful for them if the day of the Lord came much sooner than any of us expects and that day came before May 21, 2011?
I will seek the Lord every evening and morning, anticipating His return or my passing, whichever comes first is fine by me! And frankly, I have no say in the matter. Ought we all just live each day the same then, as though it were our last?
TF,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how you've attracted the perennial Oneness Pentecostal gadfly Manuel Culwell, but take it as a positive sign.
He seems to be attracted to light, if for no other reason than to flutter around with his gossamer unitarian wings in a vain effort to obscure it.
In Christ,
CD
If anyone can demonstrate to me where in the debate Mr. Camping made a statement or statements that can be construed as him having embraced some kind of modalistic view of God, please direct me there. As I said, I've listened several times to the debate and just can't find it. It may just be that the statement is more subtle than I am able to discern.
ReplyDeletePilgrimsarbour,
ReplyDeleteIt's best not to feed the trolls. Manuel has asked these same tired old questions, and been given the same Biblical answers probably hundreds of times, yet he persists in resisting the teaching of scripture in favor of the doctrines of the Oneness Pentecostal cult while ironically claiming the truth of scripture to be "the traditions of men".
Of course as born-again believers we should always be ready with an answer for the hope that is within us, yet we are also to shake the dust from our feet and not cast our pearls before swine when after many admonitions a heart demonstrates only more obstinate hardness.
Such, in my opinion, is the case with Manuel. This being said it would be a wonderful miracle and testimony if he were to be born-again and turn his zeal for the false god of Oneness Pentecostalism towards the proclamation of the One True and Living God of the Holy Bible.
In Christ,
CD
1) This post has nothing to do with Oneness theology. Mr. Culwell, your blog is the place for your comments relating to your continued attempts to accuse Dr. White.
ReplyDelete2) Dr. White's accusation that Camping had engaged in modalistic error was based, if I recall correctly, on comments made by Camping on Camping's call-in radio program. I don't know whether any of those comments are in print, and I don't know when the program in question was aired, or whether one can still find any recordings of it.
3) Camping's website provides this:
Caller: What is the Biblical teaching about the trinity? Is it three in one or is it three different beings?
Mr. C.: “Trinity” is not a Biblical word, but it means “three.” The Bible is very mysterious about that. The Bible has a lot to say about God, but
we cannot understand it all.
God insists there is one God, and yet, He clearly reveals Himself as three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
This, of course, makes it sound as though Camping is trinitarian. (source for quotation)
Whether Dr. White is right or wrong about his criticism of Camping's comments (not the comments I've quoted above, but other comments that would be inconsistent with them), Dr. White's comment was a criticism of Camping, not a criticism of Oneness Pentacostals, like Manuel Culwell. Mr. Culwell has been told this by me before, if my memory serves me. I don't see any need to turn this comment box into a debate about that subject, though, since (a) this post is not about oneness theology and (b) this post is not even about Dr. White's criticism of Camping for making a comment that exhibits modalistic error.
4) Thanks to PA, CD, and NatAmLLC for your comments. I have removed most of them, partly in fairness to Mr. Culwell, since I'm not letting him debate or spam links to his blog here.
5) I'm not really persuaded that MC qualifies as a troll, but he is certainly not interested in commenting on the topic of this post, and consequently he's off topic.
-TurretinFan
TF,
ReplyDeleteNot to beat a dead horse or stray any further OT, but here is the definition of "troll" I had in mind.
Not that this will persuade you, but some of us are very familiar with MC's modus operandi (as you seem to be also), and methinks the descriptor fits quite nicely in more cases than not - including the preceding (but now deceased) exchange.
In Christ,
CD
I guess my definition of toll may need to be revised.
ReplyDeleteWhere did all the posts go?
ReplyDeleteNatAmLLC:
ReplyDeleteI have removed most of them
NatAmLLC:
ReplyDeleteYou were not out of line, in any way. I deleted Manuel's posts because he's not welcome to take this thread off-topic. Because the other posts did not make much sense without his posts, I removed most of them.
-TurretinFan
oh, thanks for the clarification.
ReplyDelete"I guess my definition of toll[sic] may need to be revised."
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the Pharisees thought Jesus was a troll.
My spelling probably needs to be improved as well.
ReplyDeleteSheesh. And here I thought it would be bad form to point out spelling errors in the combox. What WAS I thinking?
ReplyDelete:-)
LOL
ReplyDeleteTUaD,
ReplyDeleteAre you comparing Manuel Culwell to Jesus Christ, or are you simply (as it were) wondering aloud?
It doesn't take any guess work to know what the Pharisees thought of Christ:
The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?"
In Him,
CD
I think he was just understandably irritated at my deletion of the discussion. I'm sure he wasn't the only one.
ReplyDeletePlease accept my apologies, those who have been irritated by this. I don't want Mr. Culwell to feel free to debate the Trinity here, and this is the only fair way that I can think of to avoid that.
Sadly, I was near some who, in the summer of 1994, did what was expected and went into heavy debt but justified it by purchasing advertising via radio TV, and mall billboards.
ReplyDeleteOne church, in particular, drew members from other churches, and held a sleepover awaiting the dawn
I thought Camping would have repented.
He hurt many.