No, you’re right if you said the above title is correct—except for the parenthetical remark. Since the 1840s, many people have taken issue with Jesus’ declaration in Matthew 24:42: “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” William Miller convinced his followers that he had scientifically calculated from Old Testament prophecies when Jesus would return. However, 1843 came and went, and the Lord did not return. Miller figured that his calculations must have been off one year, and the hysteria continued until the Lord failed to return on the next designated date, either.
So it has occurred every time that someone boldly contradicted the teachings of the Scriptures. Without fail, those who set these days have turned out to have spiritual egg on their sad and embarrassed faces. The same will happen with Robert Camping and Family Radio (see http://www.familyradio.com), a group that is making the brazen statement that Judgment Day is coming on Saturday, May 21, 2011. The viewer does not have to search a long time to find the information he seeks on this topic when visiting this website. Displayed in red letters is the crucial date. The year 2012 is circled in red with a line drawn through it, and there is a countdown of how many days are left until the end of the world. This writer is neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but he predicts that these folks will fail as dismally as everyone else who has ever dared to contradict the Holy Scriptures.
One can click on the article under review. A man named Robert Camping seems to be behind this organization. He turns 90 on July 19, 2011; so he will probably not have many years to live down his vain predictions. Oddly enough, he was born one year after the Jehovah’s Witnesses published the 1920 book, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, which involves more busted predictions. It never seems to occur to men like these or their followers that Jesus meant what He said.
The Problem of Date-Setting
Anyone who decides that he wants to predict the end of the world immediately has two problems—selecting the right date and finding a way to get around Matthew 24:42. The document under review deals with this second question. The writer points out that the church was to concentrate on preaching the gospel rather than knowing the end times and that anyone who tried to select a time was always wrong. Obviously, since he has a time, something has changed. What?
He cites Ecclesiastes 8:5, which was written 1,000 years before Jesus came to this earth or any New Testament book was written. The verse states:
He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful, And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment,
The first thing that anyone interested in spiritual truth should do is to make certain that he reads Scriptures in their context. Most errors originate because someone reads a verse, lifts it out of its context, and begins making applications of it that were never intended. Jehovah’s Witnesses do this regularly; a great percentage of the time, if one will read just a few verses of the context, he will see that the idea being promoted is not in the text. So it is here: Family Radio ends verse 5 with a period instead of a comma. They also omitted the next verse, which is: “Because for every matter there is a time and judgment, though the misery of man increases greatly.”
Of course, the first thing that anyone should think of is: “Did Solomon write about the second coming of Christ?” Right, the idea is laughable. He did not write about neither the second coming nor set a time for the Judgment. By lifting the verse out of its context, Camping suggests that he is applying the passage correctly.
Probably he does know better than to apply the passage the way he does; therefore, he did not finish the sentence. When anyone reads Ecclesiastes 8, he sees that the context is obeying the command of the king. It is not the command of God that is under consideration in verse 5 but the command of the king. The conversation then shifts to man not knowing the day of his death. The verse is not teaching that those who are obedient to God have some sort of secret knowledge. Such is preposterous. The citing of this verse utterly fails to establish that anyone today would know the day or the hour of Jesus’ return, a claim which defies the Scriptures.
As to the time being calculated, the author makes claims, some of which are totally without merit. He says that “about 35 years ago God began to open the true believers’ understanding of the timeline of history” (2), which means (apparently) Camping. The rest of us are not true believers because we do not have his special “insight.” So what did he learn? He provides four dates, as listed below:
Creation – 11,013 B.C.
The Flood – 4900 B. C.
The Exodus – 1447 B.C.
Solomon’s death – 931 B.C.
The last two dates are close to what many scholars (but not all) think, but the first two have no foundation whatsoever. All one has to do in order to see the fallacy of the first two dates is to consider the genealogy of Genesis 5, which meticulously provides the years of Adam to Noah. Regardless of the date of the Creation, the Bible lists only 1,656 years between the Creation and the Flood. Yet Family Radio says that God revealed to true believers that it was more than 6,000 years between the two events. The problem with these people is that they do not believe what the Bible teaches on any subject—whenever they decide to ignore it.
The type of thinking shown in this document is analogous to this line of reasoning. The Bible teaches that you should give me $1,000. “Wait a minute!”” you protest. “The Bible says no such thing.” I respond by saying, “Well, God revealed this fact to true believers.” Do you want to consider yourself a true believer? If so, just send your thousand smackers to the church address. Now, no one would be so foolish as to waste their money upon some unsubstantiated claim when it involves their money. Why is it, therefore, that they will listen to charlatans who are peddling false doctrine?
The Old “Sealed Book” Gambit
Every date-setter who ever lived cites Daniel 12:4, 9, in which the prophet was told to seal up his prophecies “until the time of the end.” The allegation is made that the date selected for the end of the world is not new information; God already revealed it, but men have not understood it until now. The writer cites Luke 24:45 as a time in which Jesus opened the understanding of His disciples, which is true.
But it does not resolve the difficulty; it only removes it one step. Instead of God giving a new revelation, He just opens the understanding of what has now been revealed. The question is, “To whom did He give that special understanding?” Apparently, God gave it to Camping and his true believers. Of course, anyone could claim to have new insight into the Scriptures; however, all such claims must be evaluated as to their trustworthiness. Next, Family Radio moves on to explaining this newfound “understanding,” and guess what? It involves an interpretation of the book of Revelation. Surprise! Surprise!
Now the explanation just turns plain bizarre. The writer seeks to explain to us the silence in heaven from Revelation 8:1. “This period began on May 21, 1988” (4). What?! Where did this marvelous bit of information come from? But wait! Allegedly, during the next six years “very few, if any people, were saved.” Oh, sure, you remember that. Churches were all about ready to close down because no one obeyed the gospel for more than 6 years—not! This guy is missing the string section of his orchestra, but he has plenty of percussion. On May 21, 1988 heaven rejoiced because the silence was over and people were being saved once again. Who can believe this nonsense?
Yes, on May 21, 1988, the last 23 years of the world’s history began, and the Holy Spirit was poured out all over again (5)! Yes, it’s the early and the latter rain, don’t you know? The author cites two verses (Zech. 10:1; James 5:7)—neither of which has anything to do with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first one even mentions showers of rain and the grass in the field; the second verse should likewise be read in its context. Like a bad dream, the explanation becomes less clear and lucid as the explanation unravels. Apparently, the Holy Spirit revealed to Camping all of this information; the reader has no idea how vast his ego is, but he is about to learn.
The Church Obsolete?
So, souls resumed being saved on May 21, 1988, but that is not occurring “in any church” (5). It is obvious that the writer never distinguishes between manmade churches and the church of the New Testament, but any church includes the one for whom Christ died. Jesus not only promised to build His church (Matt. 16: 18), but He gave His blood for her (Acts 20:28). Furthermore, He is the Savior of the body (Eph. 5:23), which Paul defines as the church (Eph. 1:22-23). Since He built the church, died for her, and promised to save her, how can the church suddenly be irrelevant?
The church is also the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). But, no, this newly-acquired “wisdom” was not given to the church; it was given to the “true believers” instead. The implication is that there are no true believers in the church, the body of Christ. Wow! If it weren’t for Camping and Family Radio, we would all be clueless. Thus, he pits himself above the Lord Jesus Christ and His church.
Rapture?
Just as God sent Noah and Jonah, so has he sent Camping and Family Radio to warn of the “Rapture” and the first day of the Day of Judgment. No major translation uses the word rapture, although in the Greek disciples will be “caught up” to join the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:16-17). That verse does not teach “the rapture” as defined by most religious groups, however. Notice that it occurs at the last trump, that Christians depart earth for the heavens (and do not return), and that Jesus comes to the earth but does not set even one foot upon the earth.
Now what is this—the first day of the Day of Judgment? Is there a second day of the Day of Judgment? If so, how many more days of the Day of Judgment might there be? And why is it called The Day instead of the days of judgment? Never mind; there is probably some new understanding that explains that, also.
The upshot of this malarkey is that people—Christians—are supposed to believe this gobbledegook as if the “true believers” were like Noah or Jonah. Well, excuuuuse me, but none of these words has any foundation whatsoever. The way the author of this doctrine grabs Scriptures out of context and tries to make them fit together is both sloppy and unconvincing; he makes Jehovah’s Witnesses look like expert theologians by comparison. Whoever accepts such far-out thinking certainly has no love of the truth or respect for the Word of God, or he would object vociferously to this abuse of the Scriptures.
Final Warnings
The rambling continues by warning that anyone following any church will be lost on May 21st. The writer stumbles onto a truth when he says that churches teach “a plan of salvation that is contrary to the Bible” (6). Denominational churches stand guilty of that charge because they eliminate from it repentance and baptism, the two things Peter mentioned on the Day of Pentecost as absolutely necessary (Acts 2:38). “Faith only” is an invention of man and not taught in the Scriptures when the full context is considered. (See Salvation By Popular Vote.)
Family Radio also knows and has declared that the Holy Spirit has abandoned all churches (6). He was never with those originated by men, but He remains with those who are faithful (and some do exist). Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit, according to the Spirit’s own word (1 Cor. 3:16). If the Holy Spirit has withdrawn from the church, then there are no Christians, period.
He further chides churches for teaching their members that no one knows when Christ will return. Churches may or may not teach that doctrine, but it remains true—not because of what any “church” does—but because Jesus said it. The Bible says it, and it will still say it on May 22nd.
Jesus Meant What He Said
What did Jesus mean in Matthew 24:42? Did He not mean what He said? The point was to always be prepared. He gives an illustration about an unfaithful servant (Matt. 24:42-51). If this illustration were insufficient, Jesus gives another one about the five wise and the five foolish virgins; the foolish ones were unprepared. They knew that the bridegroom was coming, just as we know Jesus is returning. But they did not know when He would come, just as we do not. They needed to be prepared, but they were not. They did not have enough oil in their lamps and so were excluded. The five wise virgins had oil enough to last when the bridegroom delayed (Matt. 25:1-13).
Men will continue to set dates based on either new “revelations” or new “understandings” of things heretofore sealed up. God did not tell us when the time would be for a reason. If anyone pays attention to this “true believer,” what are the odds that he might repent May 20th? And if he is wrong (which he most certainly is), how many will proceed with a life of sin on May 22nd? This is precisely the problem with setting dates.
As a further consideration, has Family Radio canceled all its contracts as of May 21st? Surely they will not plan to be broadcasting after the Lord returns. How much do they really believe their own doctrine? Those who know, read, believe, and study the Scriptures will not accept any portion of this date-setting bilge. In fact, we can all meet for lunch and have a good chuckle on Sunday, May 22nd.
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I WENT FISHING
Tom Leavins
I have not been fishing for a long time,
And I never did mind the slime.
I put forth the effort and had some fun,
And brought home my catch
When the day was done.
Sometimes I got wet and didn’t catch any,
But looking back over the years,
I’ve caught plenty.
I guess you might say I love to fish,
And it’s great to see them fried up in a dish.
But now my Lord has called me
To fish for a different kind,
And it’s strange because these are blind.
And so I had a different catch today,
His name was Bob, and God washed his sins away.
[P.S. Written at the time of his baptism into Christ. Bob O’Neal died in an accident a young man (March 21, 1997) and had repented the Sunday before his death.]