Once again I will begin this blog with an explanation: I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and I do believe that through Him, other can find peace, tranquility, hope, and eternal life.
Now then:
Theological charlatans like Mr. Camping need to account for the impact they have on their sheep when they use their bizarre interpretations of the Bible to convince them that the rapture is coming to take them all to Heaven. We have heard many stories of people abandoning careers, families, education, and financial security to pass out tracts and warn others of the impending doom that was to come yesterday. These people now have to reconcile with themselves, those they have walked away from, and with the fact that whatever financial security they had is now gone. The other danger is they may disavow their faith after being so disillusioned. Then, they have to walk away from God. Something tells me Mr. Camping didn’t intend that to happen.
I have had personal experiences with churches believing in rapidly approaching end of the world. A church I attended briefly here in Savannah began a crusade one week by saying we can see all around us that the end times are near, so becoming a child of God is of crucial importance. I listened to that message and was baptized. The very next week, the pastor wheeled in a dry erase board and began to demonstrate a formula that predicted when the tribulation would begin based on calculations of the jubilee years from the Old Testament converted to the Julian calendar. At first, I thought he was relating this as a work in theoretical scholarship, then, thanks to my Dad’s keen eye and ear as he visited with me on one occasion, I began to see that the pastor actually believed this message and was prepping the flock to ride out Armageddon with him on a secret hunting preserve in Arkansas. That’s when I made a graceful departure.
His target date was January 1, 2000, good old Y2K. Anyone remember that? When it fizzled, he returned to Savannah after actually going to his hunting ranch in Arkansas and waiting it out with his faithful few that remained, he denied that he actually believed that the world would end and the journey to Arkansas was a hunting trip. Another friend who had attended the church left just as the pastor began extolling the penitent to stock up on canned goods and for the women not to cut their hair. Nothing is more biblical than a can of Beanie Weanie I guess.
Back to Mr. Camping, I suppose my argument with him is purely philosophical. When I read Matthew 24:44, Jesus tells us we won’t know when he’s coming back. To me, that’s not a coded message to do the math and figure it out. The doomsday people have been wrong so many times yet they still find some wiggle room to excuse their way either into telling their followers they were wrong (see here Jehovah’s Witnesses, my childhood religion) or to say that their own calculations were slightly off and will be better next time (see here Harold Camping’s 1994 prediction).
Again from the Bible, we read in the opening chapter of Acts that knowing when the end will be is not for us to know (Acts 1:7). Call me crazy, but this is very clear to me that I should spend my time living as Christ intended me to and encouraging other to follow Him, not crunching bizarre formulas into a prediction that is based on human interpretations. Doing so in my estimation puts the theological mathematician on a plain that he or she believes they are privy to information that only God knows, thus imbued with some unique power. David Koresh, Jim Jones, Sun Yung Moon, and many others have done the same and are labeled as hucksters and cheats, so in my logical way, I have to add Harold Camping to the list. It’s a natural fit.
The news says Ol’ Harry is nowhere to be found. That’s a shocker. I would stay out of the public eye for a while if I had put all my theological eggs in a flimsy human basket. Now he has the unenviable task of reconciling himself to those who listened intently to his message and changed their lives. Not to mention he has some explaining to do to God who was clear enough when He said we’re not to know the exact dates. We’re not to know, but Mr. Camping apparently has permission to ignore the scriptures that get in the way of his teachings to keep on predicting the end.
Love thy neighbor. Love God with all your heart. And watch. Those admonitions from Christ seems to me to be a lot easier than turning over your life every time a new pulpit says the end is coming on a date and time that they have determined to be “the one”. When it does come, I’m ready for it. Until then, I’m going to try to be the man Christ wants me to be.
And that, friends, is a lot more productive than riding the apocalyptic rollercoaster.
Chip Grefski
