Here’s a sermon I gave at a friend’s college ministry last week…
Beware, Or You Too May Be – Left Below! (When the Simpsons and Harold Camping Collide)
October 17, 2011 By 10 Comments
Leave it to Homer Simpson to help us understand the “end times” better. Beware, or you too may be – Left Below!
This warning filled our TV screens, our newspapers, and our digital news feeds. The world watched as people quit their jobs, gave all their money to advertising the rapture, and traveled throughout the world to spread the message of May 21, 2011. Through various internal mathematical calculations, Harold Camping and followers, convinced themselves that they could predict the second coming of Jesus. On May 22, the world was unchanged except for the poor folks who had given up their various forms of livelihood for this false teaching.
When Harold Camping spoke out about his false prediction, instead of recanting, he’s convinced that God truly did come back. Here is the explanation from the Family Radio website:
What really happened this past May 21st ? What really happened is that God accomplished exactly what He wanted to happen. That was to warn the whole world that on May 21 God’s salvation program would be finished on that day. For the next five months, except for the elect (the true believers), the whole world is under God’s final judgment. To accomplish this goal God withheld from the true believers the way in which two phrases were to be understood. Had He not done so, the world would never have been shaken in fear as it was… [Read more...]
Camping Responds to Rapture Failure: World to Be Destroyed On October 21, 2011 (My Thoughts)
May 23, 2011 By 14 Comments
Source: Black Christian News
Tonight on Harold Camping’s Open Forum Radio show, he gave his thoughts on what most view as a failed prediction. His claim in this situation is that all the dates he predicted were in fact correct. You may be thinking: REALLY? Apparently, Jesus did return on May 21st, but it was a “spiritual coming.” He didn’t return how Camping thought Christ would but the fact of such a ‘coming’ still remains in tact. And on October 21st, Christ will enact the physical rapture “on the last day.”
His view is that from this day forward, the whole world is under the final judgment and the time of salvation coming to the world has ended. Rather than recanting, he is holding out that his interpretation is correct, except the Lord didn’t perform the rapture in the way Camping and others thought. It was only in the “form” of second coming that Camping admits to being wrong, but not in the reality of the day of judgment. This means that the timetable still stands. October 21st will be the final day of human history. God will take “true believers” to heaven and the world is gonna be destroyed. When discussing money, his point was made clear “We’re still in business!”
In sum, The second coming DID take place on Saturday “spiritually,” it will be completed on October 21 with the destruction of the planet and a physical rapture, and all who are “true believers” will be taken to be with God for eternity in heavenly bliss.
KURT’S THOUGHTS: [Read more...]
Why "No One Knows the Day or Hour" is a WEAK Argument Against Rapture Predictors! (Reflections on Mark 13)
May 23, 2011 By 63 Comments
All over the web this past week we’ve observed an interesting back and forth. The “forth” is that Herald Camping wrongly put forth that the rapture was to occur last week Saturday… obviously either no one is a true Christian so no one was raptured or the Family Radio host failed. The “back” by many amazing Christians that rightly knew that the return of Jesus cannot rightly be predicted by anyone but God pointed to this passage (or its parallels):
But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. Mark 13.32-33
Let me be the first to proclaim that I AGREE with the outcome of the “back-ers” on this issue. NO ONE KNOWS when Christ will return. The Bible contains no mathematical codes to detect when the renewal of creation will take place at his coming. God gives zero instructions about interpreting numerical data to yield a formula with outputs being dates and times. Certainly numbers have meaning in the Bible, but ONLY as rhetorical devices, not for dating apocalyptic events that have yet to be fulfilled. To use numbers in this way is irresponsible and unfaithful to God’s revealed story. Obviously, Family Radio is wrong to claim that “we can know.” We simply cannot. [Read more...]
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