Sigh…another end times prediction has come and gone. In case you missed it, May 21st was supposed to be the beginning of Judgment Day. Family Radio founder and owner, Harold Camping, had declared that through special revelation and a keen sense of mathematical calculation he had come up with the day that Jesus would return.
Now he has altered that prediction – since it didn’t happen – to say that the world was judged spiritually and that now all that waits for us is final judgment. There are two notes about his new prediction. The first is that, once more, he has set a date. When it didn’t happen in September 1994, he moved it to May 2011. Now that it hasn’t happened again he has moved it back to October 21, 2011. Third time is a charm? I doubt it. This is the new ‘end date’ for the world according to Camping.
The second note is that, according to Camping, no one else can be saved from this point on. This is building on what he has taught in the past regarding the church no longer being the home of Christians but, instead, ruled by Satan. This is clearly against the Biblical promise of God’s Spirit being poured out on all flesh and the Satan not prevailing against the church (Matthew 16:18).
Well, I must confess that I did not skip my usual weekly tasks of writing sermons and preparing for Sunday’s services last week. This is not because I don’t believe or want Christ to return. On the contrary, we pray the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday (“thy kingdom come”) and I often find myself praying, at other times, for that final day.
After all, the way that it is described by John in Revelation 21:3-4 what Christian wouldn’t long for the new creation? “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And, yet, date setting and hoping for Christ’s return is not new. Ever since Jesus ascended, after his resurrection, many have been speculating when it would happen. His own disciples, prior to the ascension asked if the time was then (Acts 1:6). Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica about the end but encourages them to keep from being idle and focusing too much on that last day.
Harold Camping’s date setting is wrong. Jesus himself said that the day could not be known. Matthew 24:36, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” But this is not his most fundamental error. He claims to have special knowledge straight from God regarding certain numbers repeated in the Bible that prove his predictions.
It’s not the dot-to-dot nature of his Bible study that concerns me most (though it is wrong) but the fact that he claims to have special knowledge not found in the Bible. This is an important point for Christians to remember. Yes, we might learn something that other generations have missed in Scripture (though doubtful) but we must subject what we believe and teach to Scripture itself. This is called the ‘rule of faith’ or ‘scripture interprets scripture.’ If someone claims something that is contrary to clear Biblical teaching then there is reason to distrust that person’s claim.
This is why the Bereans are spoken of so well in Acts 17:11 because they “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” I want to encourage you all to be students of the Bible. I will give the same advice that I gave to the congregation this past Sunday. If you hear a claim from someone about receiving special revelation from God – doubt it.
It is one thing to begin in Scripture and, from there, to come to understand certain truths about who God is, who Christ is, what he has done and the promises he has made to come a second time. But it is quite another thing to claim insight into the mind of God and into his secret will. Scripture tells us that the secret things belong to the Lord (Deuteronomy 29:29) and when Christ will return is certainly one of those secret things.
