Doomsday prophets will always fail in their predictions

I can remembers the days back in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s when bearded men would walk past me carrying a sandwich board that had the following words written on them: REPENT. THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END.

We rarely see them nowadays. They passed on a long time ago. Nowadays, we see young people spouting those same or similar words. Where do these educated people get that nonsense from?

Well one source is a psycho-ceramic (crackpot) whose name is Harold Camping. This twit, believe it or not is extremely rich and is an American Christian radio broadcaster.

I will quote in part from Wikimedia. He is president of Family Radio, a California-based radio station that spans more than 150 markets in the United States. In 1958, Camping joined with other individuals of Christian Reformed, Bible Baptist, and conservative-Christian Presbyterian backgrounds to purchase an FM radio station in San Francisco, California, KEAR, then at 97.3 MHz, to broadcast traditional Christian Gospel to the conservative Protestant community and minister to the general public. During the 1960s, Family Radio acquired six additional FM stations and seven other AM stations under guidelines established by the Federal Communications Commission One is forced to ask this rhetorical question; “How can a man who is so stupid as to continuously forecast the end of the world erroneously and yet be smart enough to build a corporation as large as the one he is the president of?”

I will quote some more about Camping’s past from Wikimedia In 1970, Camping published The Biblical Calendar of History (later greatly expanded in Adam When?), in which he dated the Creation of the world to the year 11,013 BC and the Flood to 4990 BC, in contradiction to Bishop James Ussher's equally silly chronology, which placed creation at 4004 BC and the Flood at 2348 BC. Camping argued that Ussher's dates "agree neither with the Biblical nor the secular evidence" and thus Ussher's methodology was flawed. Both of their methodologies are flawed.

Camping teaches that a Biblical calendar has been hidden according to Daniel 12:9, Revelation 22:10 detailing the imminent end of the world (with alleged Biblical evidence pointing to the date for the Rapture as May 21, 2011); of the "end of the church age" (which asserts that churches are no longer the vehicle used by God for salvation, 1 Peter 4:17); and of predestination (Ephesians 1:4–5), according to which God determined before the beginning of the world which individuals are to be saved. In Camping's latest publications, he stated that May 21, 2011 would be "the first day of the Day of Judgment" and October 21, 2011 would be the end of the world. Critics call Camping a "date-setter" following his own method of Biblical interpretation. Camping maintains that he follows the Bible's method of Biblical interpretation.

His followers (and he has may of them) continued to listen to Camping despite the fact that he was wrong in his previous prediction of the end of the world. In his book 1994?, he claimed there was a very high likelihood that the world would end in September, 1994, although he did acknowledge in the book "the possibility does exist that I could be wrong." Camping has received criticism from a number of leaders, scholars, and laymen within the Christian community for his predictions on when the Rapture will take place. His critics argue that Jesus Christ taught that no man knows the day or the hour of the Lord's return. unquote

Perhaps there is a little craziness in all of us normal people but with him, his craziness emerges from his mouth like an erupting volcano.

Here is more from Wikimedia. Camping is notable for using Bible-based numerology to predict dates for the end of our world. In his most recent failed prediction, he calculated that the end of the world (which he calls Rapture) would occur on May 21, 2011, and that God would subsequently completely destroy the Earth and the universe five months later on October 21. Camping prophesied that the Rapture will be followed by five months of fire, brimstone and plagues, with millions of people dying each day and corpses piling in the streets. Finally, on October. 21, the world ends exactly as the Book of Revelation says it will — with a bottomless pit, a lake of fire and, at last, a new heaven and new earth. unquote

He has also predicted judgment days on May 21, 1988, and September 7, 1994 and guess what? We are still here. As to his prophesy that millions of people will die each day, that’s nothing new. As many as a hundred million people die each day as a result of old age, wars, drunk drivers, murders etc. It’s been like that for a very long time. But millions of people are also born each day.

Has he not got the message? The world will not come to an end while he is still alive. Admittedly, it will come to an end billions of years from now when our dying sun expands and engulfs our planet but quite frankly, I am not really alarmed about being caught up in the sun’s fury before my demise.

This twit claimed that on May 21st, 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven before the earth was destroyed. What about all the other people on earth? Did he actually believe that God (if there is one) would abandon them?

When the great passing of earth didn’t come about, he was so embarrassed; he and his family took refuge in a motel on that day so that he wouldn’t have to explain to the reporters in front of his home as to how he screwed up with his prediction. Reuters reported on May 21 that the curtains were drawn in Camping's house in Alameda, California and that nobody was answering the door. Camping emerged from his home on May 22, saying that he was "flabbergasted" that the Rapture did not occur, that he was "looking for answers," and would say more when he returned to work on May 23

How did this twit screw up? His exclamation was (get ready for it) “Saturday (May 21) was an invisible day in which a spiritual judgment took place. But the timing and the structure of the Apocalypse are the same as they have always been.”

He then went on to say (are you still standing up?) “We’ve always said May 21 was the day but we didn’t understand altogether the spiritual meaning. May 21 is the day that Christ came and put the world under judgment.” unquote

Most Christians believe that Jesus Christ was born on December 25th but in actual fact, historians worldwide have arrived at the month he was actually born even if they can’t calculate the actual day. It wasn’t in May. It was in November. If you go back to one my articles in my blog, you will see how the historians arrived at that conclusion.

Camping said his company would not return money donated by followers to publicize the failed May 21 prediction. "We’re not at the end. Why would we return it?"

Oh my. There you have it. It was all about money. If he intends to hang onto their money until the earth’s existence comes to an end, no one in this century or the centuries to follow will ever see it. Quite frankly, I would be surprised if he even has any of it in his possession. If not, it is in some bank accumulating interest.

Why would anyone who possesses a sound mind give this twerp any money so that he can continue with his blather about the Rapture and the end of the world? Are they also as stupid as he is? I am afraid they are.

Camping was once well-regarded in the evangelical community, both for his encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture and his radio empire. But in the late 1980s, when he began teaching that churches have strayed from the Bible and embraced false doctrine, he lost much of that support.

It is a known fact that our brain cells begin dying off the moment we are born. It is conceivable that in some people, the loss of their brain cells may have come about much earlier in their lives than they should have. And when they lose more than they should, they began making silly statements.

Camping isn’t the first charlatan who has hoodwinked the mentally challenged. In 1843, people sold their homes and businesses and went about the country preaching the imminent return of Christ. They were the followers of William Miller, a farmer and self-taught bible scholar from New York. Miller understood the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 to refer to the number of years until the return of Christ. Though scholars for two millennial had been in nearly universal agreement that the prophecy referred to the time of Antiochus Epiphanies, Miller insisted it was for fulfillment in his day.

William Miller believed the cleansing of the temple in Daniel 8 was not of a real temple, but rather referred to the purification of the earth by fire at the Second Coming of Christ. Because the "sevens" in Daniel 9 were translated "weeks" in the King James Bible, Miller assumed all prophecies referring to days must mean years. Adding 2300 years to the time of Daniel's prophecy gave Miller a date between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.

He began to teach this throughout the Northeast and gained a wide following. Despite the great excitement, March 21, 1844, came and went without the return of Christ. Miller was devastated, but one of his followers went back through the calculations and found what he believed to be the error. Miller's dating was based on the decree of Artaxerxes going out in early 457 BC, but the decree did not immediately go into effect, so the calculations were off. A new date was set of October 22, 1844.

When even 1844 did not pan out, some of the followers abandoned the movement. Many however tried to find a new explanation. They were too embarrassed to admit their error. They had invested too much to be wrong. Ellen G. White eventually led the Seventh-Day Adventists to the conclusion that Jesus had returned invisibly in 1844, and that He would soon make His presence known. Another group that tried to hold to the 1844 date was led by Jonas Swendahl and was known as the Second Adventists. They believed that 1844 marked not the date of Jesus' return, but of the beginning of the last generation. Swendahl taught that Jesus would therefore return in 1874.

One of Swendahl's followers was a former Presbyterian named Charles Taze Russell. When 1874 came and went, he concluded 30 years was not long enough for a generation. So he added 70 years to 1844 and concluded that Jesus would return in 1914. This and other differences led him to split from the Second Adventists and launch Zion's Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Presence. His followers became known as the International Bible Students, and they went about the country with the message, "Millions now living will never die!" Followers were to leave their churches and fellowship together. All churches were considered apostate, but God had provided a new channel for their instruction, Zion's Watchtower Tract Society.

What began as the International Bible Students has become the Jehovah's Witnesses. The date of 1914 was changed to 1925, 1941, and 1975. What began as calling Christians out of their churches to prepare for Christ's return has become an anti-Christian cult. I believe we are seeing something similar attempted today.

We do live in a day of great apostasy. Churches do more often than not resemble circuses and stage shows, but the church has always had these troubles. The church has also had false prophets who make erroneous predictions get you to follow them.

If on that great moment you want to believe that the world is coming to an end, don’t sell your belongings. You will need them the following day when you realize that the world didn't come to an end.