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Harold Camping Now Blames God for Failed Predictions

November 2, 2011 at 8:03 PM 2 comments

Amazing how people like to blame God for just about everything that happens in their lives.  Some of course like to blame Him for things that don’t happen as well.  Such is the case of renowned failed prophet, Harold Camping.

Camping – as most know – predicted that Jesus would return on May 21st and when that failed to materialize, he quickly stated that Jesus had returned albeit spiritually.  He’s not the first one to attempt to cover his tracks by playing that card.  He also stated that October 21st was the real day and so the world waited, this time with no bated breath.  As October 21st came and went with no visible signs of the Lord’s return, Camping had nothing to say to the media.

Now, just under three weeks later, Harold Camping has announced that he’s quitting his position at Family Radio.  Frankly, in my opinion, due to the nature of his false prophecies and even false teachings that he routinely spouted on his radio program, he should have quit long ago.

The man has shown over the years that he has no real grasp of how to study the Bible at all.  He – like too many people – fail to take into consideration the culture and times in which the Bible was written and while at times, he might have taken the time to look up a word in the original Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, simply knowing the definition of a word does not provide a concrete meaning since the final meaning is often based on context.

At any rate, Camping is now quitting because he is likely embarrassed.  He is quoted as saying, “We’re living in a day when one problem follows another. And when it comes to trying to recognize the truth of prophecy, we’re finding that it is very, very difficult. There’s one thing that we must remember. God is in charge of this whole business, and we are not. What God wants to tell us is his business.” [1]

It almost seems as though he is placing any type of “blame” on God, as if it is somehow God’s fault that he (Camping) was unable to figure out the exact date since he went through all the math he felt was necessary to get to the correct day.  The difficulty though – as if often the case – is that Jesus said no one would know the day or hour (Mark 13:32).  Of course, Camping explains this away by indicating that Jesus meant something else entirely.

Camping’s mathematical calculations were based on the “seven-day warning” that Noah received prior to entering the Ark.  Camping then notes that it has really been a “7,000-year warning.”  Obviously, Camping has taken each of the original seven days of Noah’s time as 1,000 years each for our time.  Why?  Who knows.  Sounded good at the time, I’m sure.

There is nothing wrong with being prepared for Jesus’ return.  Jesus Himself said He would return and John has stated that we actually purify our minds by focusing on this future event (cf. 1 John 3:1-3).  It’s no different from thinking about things in our life that we strongly look forward to occurring.  While we wait, we continue taking care of business, but we know that the event we look forward to will occur.  This is the way it should be when considering the return of Jesus.  It should purify us because it immediately separates us from those things that keep us from glorifying Christ.

Think about something you’ve longed for in your life.  Over the years of my life, there have been any number of things that I’ve enjoyed looking forward to having.  Yet, in looking forward to those things, I did not stop living.  I did not sit in a corner refusing to do anything until the thing I wanted to come to pass came to pass.  We might do that as children, but once we gain some maturity, we realize that while said event is going to occur, we still need to continue working while we “wait.”

Too many people heard Harold Camping’s failed predictions – and one website calculated his failed predictions to total 12 – and lost heart.  How ridiculous it is to live your life believing that there is nothing here worth living for or working for so they idle away their time by thinking of what “will be.”

There are so many parables in the gospels that Jesus speaks of looking forward to His return, but working while we wait.  Waiting there does not mean sitting down and doing nothing.  It means being occupied.

I recall during our courtship, my wife and I looked forward to our wedding day.  I made a paper chain with 78 separate links along with a poem that said “The Length of Time Until You are Mine” and every Friday I would go to her apartment, have dinner, and then remove seven links.

We greatly looked forward to being married and starting our lives together, but we did not quit our jobs.  We did not ignore our friends.  We didn’t turn our backs on our responsibilities.  We may have felt like that at times here and there, but we marched onward.  Eventually, the day arrived and we were married just over twenty-five years ago.  Since then, there have been any number of things that we have looked forward to experiencing and each time, we looked forward for them while we continued living our lives.

This is what the Christian is supposed to do.  I believe in the study of Eschatology (the end times).  I believe that in many ways, we are moving very quickly toward that time when human history will experience its last seven years prior to the physical return of Jesus.  I believe that when He returns, He will judge the nations and then establish His Millennial Kingdom.

I also know that one day, I may actually die (as opposed to be carried off in the Rapture).  In fact, I could die tomorrow or the next day, or next month.  I have no clue when this body of mine is slated to give up its soul.  In some ways, I would like my life to continue for a while because of my wife and our children.  In other ways, when the Lord takes me, He takes me and that’s that.

While I do not “grieve” over the fact that the Rapture has not occurred yet, neither am I saddened that I have not died yet either.  I’m here and while I’m here, I work and hopefully, I’m involved in things that bring glory to His Name.

Having recently relocated to Georgia, I can say that the scenery here is gorgeous.  It has been quite a few years since I’ve seen the spectacular fall colors as nothing compares to the East Coast during this time of year.  I really like living and I enjoy living here.  There is much to be thankful for and I hope I am thankful enough.

I am saddened when people like Harold Camping have any type of following and moreover, I am even more saddened when it becomes clear that people do not do their own study, but simply depend on what others say.  This is not what the Bereans did in Acts 17.  In that chapter we learn that after Paul had preached, the people there in Berea took the time to search the Scriptures to determine whether or not what Paul had taught was truth.  If it wasn’t, they were going to ignore it.  If it was, they would embrace it.

As it turns out, the Bereans found that what Paul had taught them was indeed the truth, so they embraced it.  Too many people are unwilling to do this and it shows.  They also wind up paying at times, a terrible price.

Think of all the charlatans like David Koresh, Jim Jones, Father Divine, and others too numerous to mention.  They took advantage of people and the one reason they were able to do this is because the people they took advantage of shirked their responsibility to study the Scriptures for themselves.

The Bible is not a book of magic.  It is not so difficult to understand that only the learned can comprehend it.  There are certain methods that need to be employed in the study of Scriptures.  We need to learn about and understand the culture of the times in which individual books were written.  We need to have at least some grasp of actual history.  We need to be willing to do word searches if we do not know the original languages and we need to use the context.

Too many people come to the Bible as early church father Origen did (who became known as the father of the allegorical method), believing that the Bible has layers of meaning and it is our job to uncover that meaning.  Even Camping seems to think this to some degree.  He says, “Amongst other things, I have been checking my notes more carefully than ever. And I do find that there is other language in the Bible that we still have to look at very carefully and will impinge upon this question very definitely.” [2; emphasis added]

I do not know that Camping means by his reference to “other language in the Bible.”  Certainly, it is clear that Harold Camping chooses to see Scripture in allegorical terms.  While there are parables and hyperbole, as well as numerous types of figurative language in Scripture, there is normally only one meaning for each of those things.  The Bible is always to be taken literally; not literalistically, but literally.

Idioms are an important example of figures of speech.  When we read Scripture, we need to understand what the particular idiom being used means when it was written, not what it might mean today.

The word “good” or “bad” changes meaning over time, depending on the vernacular.  We all know how word meanings change over time and we also know how slang plays an integral part of communication.

If I say “I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse!” people would understand that I’m very hungry.  I have a large appetite.  No one – except those who did not understand me to be using figurative speech – would believe that I was actually intending to eat a horse.  They would understand me to simply be very hungry.

However, if someone from another country came here and did not speak English very well, they would likely also not be aware of our idiomatic verbiage.  If they heard me say that, they might become confused or even concerned if they understood the words “eat” and “horse.”  There again, they would be gaining understanding of my words based on the use of those words in their language.

The Bible is actually a book that is really not at all difficult to comprehend, but like the study of anything, people have to be willing to put the time in and use the correct methods.  It’s no different from using mathematical operations.

While in grade school, most of us learned PEMDAS, which stands for Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.  You may have learned another nonsense phrase but it was meant to help you remember the Order of Operations in mathematical calculations.  The P stands for parentheses, the E for exponent, the M for multiply, the D for division, the A for addition, and the S for subtraction.

When I taught math, I stressed this to my students.  If they did all the individual calculations of a problem correctly, but failed to follow the Order of Operations, they would get the problem wrong.  They needed to do two things correctly in order to arrive at the correct answer: 1) follow the Order of Operations, and 2) correctly perform the calculations.  This would guarantee the correct answer.

Too many people, when approaching Bible study fail miserably simply because they do not use the proper method of study.  Harold Camping is unfortunately one of those people and his failed predictions prove it.

I’m glad he is quitting – better late than never.  Unfortunately, the people he has led to believe that the Rapture was going to happen when it was not are left with far less money in their wallets and bank accounts and confused and bewildered.  Camping does not seem to care though and views it as their problem.

Certainly, in some sense, it is their problem because they listened to him in the first place.  They failed to “check his work” as I expected each student in my math class to check their own work before they turned it into me for grading.

People simply tuned into Harold Camping’s radio program, heard what he said, and accepted it as the gospel truth.  They are responsible for their lack of research.  Camping is responsible for his and because he wound up causing many to stumble, he comes under the greater condemnation as the teacher.

The Bible is very clear here:  “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment,” James 3:1.  I truly do not believe that Harold Camping “gets it” at all.  He has spoken as if he presented the very words of God.  The things he promised did not come to fruition.  He is responsible for that and the fact that he has opted to step down is a good thing.  Maybe now people will have learned that what they hear, they must prove according to the Scriptures.  To not do so, is to fall into the trap set by people who have no clue about what the Bible teaches.

People like Harold Camping are a tragedy.  Jesus warned that many false prophets will come and go.  Camping is simply one of them.  People need to be aware that there are more where he came from and we will see them.  In fact, as the time of the end approaches, we can expect to see a great deal more of them.

[1] http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/241983/20111102/embarrassed-harold-camping-blames-god-doomsday-failure.htm

[2] Ibid

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