Give it up, Harold!

[PrisonerOfHope]

Harold Camping Update: Rapture Will 'Probably' Finish Oct. 21
By Ray Downs | Christian Post Reporter

Harold Camping, the Christian broadcaster who boldly announced that the world would end on May 21, only to later say that he was "flabbergasted" when the rapture did not occur, is now telling everyone to get ready for the real rapture, which is set to occur on Oct. 21 – probably.


harold camping
(Photo: The Christian Post/ Hudson Tsuei)
Harold Camping responds to his failed May 21 Judgment Day prediction during a press conference Monday, May 23, 2011, at Family Radio headquarters in Oakland, Calif.


Some time after being released from a nursing home in June after suffering a stroke, Camping, released an audio message on Family Radio's website saying, "We would have not been able to be used [by God] to bring about the tremendous event that occurred on May 21 of this year, which probably [will] be finished out on Oct. 21 that's coming very shortly. That looks like it will be ... the final end of everything."

Camping, not sounding quite as strong in his voice or as confident about his rapture prediction in his audio message, expressed gratitude for prayers from supporters .

The California Bible teacher, who confessed that he has "restudied" his predictions, said in the recording that the rapture will be quick and quiet. "Probably there will be no pain suffered by anyone because of their rebellion against God," Camping said.

He added, "This is very comforting to all of us because we all have children, we all have loved ones that are dear to us that we know are not saved and yet we know that they'll quietly die."

As for "the true believers," like those who have been praying for his recovery, Camping said in the message that believers "will quietly receive the new heaven and the new earth."

"I really am beginning to think as I restudied these matters that there's going to be no big display of any kind. The end is going to come very, very quietly probably within the next month. It will happen that is by Oct. 21," he said.

This latest announcement set off quite a firestorm on a Facebook page about Camping and his predictions where people took to mocking the minister, calling him a fake, a false prophet and more.

One Facebook user decided to take Camping to task.

"The more this Camping charactor [sic] opens his mouth the more stupid he sounds," Alice Carey said. "He needs to give up the prophecy business and find something else to worry about like feeding the hungry or working with abused animals."

Jayson Leary took the opportunity to rant against media-savvy ministers who are known for gimmicks and controversy, and to tell people they should instead follow the ways of Jesus.

"Folks the choice is clear," Leary wrote. "Are you gonna follow fundamentalist media twits, or are you going to follow instead the carpenter rabbi from Galillee? I vote for following the carpenter rabbi from Galilee."

Justin Vaught compared Camping to the infamous Westboro Church. "I love this shameless rhetoric from this guy. Always puts a smile on my face, very entertaining," he wrote. "Although I don't find him anywhere near as ignorant as the 'God hates fags' folks."

"Still the world would be a better place without both," he added.

Kevin Lynch was blunt in his reaction to Camping saying, "Harold. I think God is saying stop."

However, not everyone was so quick to ridicule the radio minister. Some were sympathetic toward Camping.

"A coworker hit it on the nose in May," Hoskins wrote. "This is coming from a man that is most likely a devout Christian that is scared of dying in a painful way & has convinced himself this is a more painless way to get to heaven. When I thought about it like that, I got a more sympathetic view of Camping."

Camping, a trained civil engineer who started the Family Radio network in 1958, has been wrong about the end of the world date twice before. In 1992, he predicted that the world would end in 1994 and even wrote a book, aptly titled, 1994?

Although Christians hold conflicting views about how the world will come to an end, the accepted theological view is that the Bible does not offer clues as to the exact day or date of Jesus Christ's return, as Camping continues to purport.

Family Radio released a statement on Sept. 20, informing visitors that Camping had "improved substantially" and was being cared for at home by his wife. This latest audio message was likely published some time afterward, according to RadioSurvivor.com, which first reported on the audio clip.

www.christianpost.com/news/harold-camping-update-rapture-will-probably-finish-oct-21-57197/

[baydoll]

Don't know if this has already been posted or not but old Harold apologized:


Family Radio Founder Harold Camping Repents, Apologizes for False Teachings

Bible Teacher Confesses He Was Wrong to Predict Christ's Return; Says God Has Not Stopped Saving People

Christian Post > U.S.|Sun, Oct. 30 2011 12:20 PM EDT

With his speech sounding somewhat slurred and labored, Family Radio Stations Inc. founder and chairman Harold Camping sought to address in a recent message why Christ failed to return on Oct. 21 as the Bible teacher had predicted. Camping confessed, after decades of falsely misleading his followers, that he was wrong and regrets his misdeeds.

In addition to attempting to correct his erroneous teachings on the Rapture and God's day of final judgment on the world, Camping, 90, also confessed, "incidentally," that he was wrong to claim that God had stopped saving people after May 21 – the date which God's so-called "spiritual" judgment had begun.

This is undoubtedly a radical shift for Camping, who has staunchly claimed since 1992 that he had discovered a special numerical system in the Bible that allowed him to calculate the exact dates of certain events, such as the Great Flood, the Crucifixion and the day of Jesus Christ's return to Earth.

Camping first falsely predicted that the world would end on Sept. 6, 1994, then again on May 21, 2011, and finally on Oct. 21.

When Camping's final doomsday predication failed to come to pass, Family Radio soon removed its teachings regarding the failed May 21 rapture, which also included the claim that God had stopped saving people after that date and that the world was headed for a final judgment on Oct. 21.

On Oct. 24, 2011, The Christian Post also reported in an exclusive interview with a member of Camping's Bible ministry that the Alameda, Calif., Bible teacher was no longer able to lead Family Radio or his ministry.


A transcript of the audio message, published to Family Radio's website on Oct. 28, 2011, is below:

We're living in a day when one problem follows another. And when it comes to trying to recognize the truth of prophecy, we're finding that it is very very difficult.

Why didn't Christ return on Oct. 21? It seems embarrassing for Family Radio. But God was in charge of everything. We came to that conclusion after quite careful study of the Bible. He allowed everything to happen the way it did without correction. He could have stopped everything if He had wanted to.

I am very encouraged by letters that I have received and [am] receiving at this time concerning this matter. Amongst other things I have been checking my notes more carefully than ever. And I do find that there is other language in the Bible that we still have to look at very carefully and will impinge upon this question very definitely. And we should be very patient about this matter. At least in a minimal way we are learning to walk more and more humble before God.

We're ready to cry out and weep before God: 'Oh Lord, you have the truth, we don't have it. You have the truth.' And this is another place where we have to cry out for... There's one thing that we must remember – God is in charge of this whole business, and we are not. What God wants to tell us is His business. When He wants to tell us is His business. In the meanwhile, God is allowing us to continue to cry to Him for mercy – oh my, how we need His mercy – and continue to wait on Him. God has not left us. God is still God. But we have to be very careful that we don't dictate to God what He should do.

In our search in the Bible, we must continue to look to the Bible, look to the Bible. Because there is where truth comes from. And God in His own timetable and in His own purposes will reveal truth to us when it's His time to do it. In any case, we do not have to have a feeling of calamity or a feeling that God has abandoned us. We are simply learning. And sometimes it's painful to learn. We are learning how God brings His messages to mankind, and my my, we have claimed to be a child of God, and therefore as we search the Bible, we're bound to feel the darts of the Lord. Sometimes He gives us the truth and sometimes He gives us something that causes us to wait further upon Him.

Whatever we do, we must not feel for a moment that we have been abandoned by God – that He is no longer helping us or interested in us. Oh my, what an encouragement it is to go to the Lord again and again – "Oh Lord, I don't know anything. You teach me." And that's the attitude that has to be apart of each one of us. And God will not abandon us, He will provide, but we have to be just very careful that we don't dictate to him when that has to happen.

Incidentally, I have been told that I said back in May that people who did not believe that May 21 should not be the rapture date, probably had not been saved. I should not have said that, and I apologize for that. One thing we know for certain, is that God is merciful, merciful beyond anything that we would ever expect. And so, we can pray constantly, and should be praying constantly: "Oh Lord, we look to Thee for Thine mercy, and we're so thankful that we know that Thou art so merciful."

How wonderful to know that God is still on the throne, that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that He hears every one of our prayers. And let's not hesitate, let's be, if anything, let's pray more than ever for God's mercy, and keep praying and God will provide. But God is in charge, and we must always keep that in mind.

www.christianpost.com/news/family-radio-founder-harold-camping-repents-apologizes-for-false-teachings-59819/