Camping admitted in a private interview that he no longer believed that anybody could know the time of the Rapture or the end of the world, in stark contrast to his previously staunch position on the subject.[19] In March 2012, he stated that his attempt to predict a date was "sinful", and that his critics had been right in emphasizing the words of Matthew 24:36: "of that day and hour knoweth no man". He added that he was now searching the Bible "even more fervently...not to find dates, but to be more faithful in [his] understanding."[20] After the failure of Camping's prophecies, Family Radio suffered a significant loss of assets, staff and revenue.[21] Harold Camping - Wikipedia
Finally, Harold Camping admitting the truth? Well, we hope so, at any rate.
But what did he do when his May 21st prediction failed to usher in the Rapture of Jesus Christ? Take a look at what the CSM had to say:
As crestfallen followers of a California preacher who foresaw the world's end strained to find meaning in their lives, Harold Camping revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.
Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before global cataclysm struck the planet, said Monday that he felt so terrible when his doomsday message did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions — some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 recreational vehicles plastered with the Judgment Day message.
My notes: I am sure he and others had reason to get away from the press and whoever else might be knocking on his door to get answers to the questions on their minds. He had some explaining to do. No doubt he was embarrassed. So just how would he explain this. It's not like he just had a small congregation he needed to address. He had people all over the world that was following him.
On down in that same article, it goes on to say that he had made a special appearance before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire Monday evening, apologized for not having the dates "worked out as accurately as I could have." Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, the light dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a spiritual judgement, which places the entire world under Christ's judgement, he said. The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God's judgement and salvation were completed on Saturday, there is no sense in continuing to warn people about it, so his network would now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on October 21."
My notes: That's it! The reason that the Rapture did not happen on May 21! It was a spiritual rapture, not the physical one. The physical one would happen on October 21!
A convenient way of getting out of the embarrassment, or did he really believe it?
I really think that he believed it, because come October 21, he would be going through this all over again. What was it like that day? What more would he say?
At this point, I don't know. Maybe we will find out, as we continue on. In the meantime, there will be much more to learn from these and other printed sources and from some of the people that knew Camping the best.
One question I still have, was he a false prophet or just a man that really wanted to preach that people needed to repent so that they could be caught up into heaven when judgement came to the earth? I pretty much know the answer to that in my own mind. What about you? What do you think?
Thanks for coming by. Til next time, God bless your new week!
No comments:
Post a Comment