Into the Woods

April 17, 2008

             No Camping Sign            ”Let’s go camping!” I used to love hearing that phrase,love the outdoors. But if you came here thinking you’ve found the newest blog on tent popping -so sorry. Just a little word play in the title,an abbreviated form of Harold CAMPING and his Depart OUT doctrine. But we do feel Mr. Camping is lost in the “woods” called Allegorical Wonderland with his entourage, known here and elsewhere as Campingites, and need a light of truth to navigate out of that Black Forest. But first a little aside-for those ready to accuse us of a verbal personal assault on  Mr. Camping and those who embrace his teachings,please read our About page.  Other sites,because it either didn’t fit their format or couldn’t stomach the heated  debate a lightning rod topic such as this generates, have relent.”If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”(Harry S Truman)-and so they did.

     A little backround for the uninformed.Harold Camping comes from a Dutch Reformed backround and  was in the construction industry(owner of Camping Construction) before co-founding  Family Stations, Inc. in 1958,a non-profit world-wide radio ministry better known as  Family Radio.He’s president/general manager and has devoted himself to full-time unpaid ministry after leaving his business some years ago and has hosted a call-in program “Open Forum” since 1961(you do have to admire the dedication). And it is this program which has become his primary “soap box” to spew abberrent teachings. To be fair, there was a time when Mr. Camping fell within the pale of orthodoxy,in Reformed school of thought, but began to stray off the reservation with his hyper-allegorical method of interpreting Scripture-with a dash of numerology thrown in. This method is purely subjective, given to the whims and mood of what one may “see” in a passage at the moment, and only limited to ones imagination. It is this very method that has produced his “The church age has ended”-(aka-”Depart Out Doctrine”-that one should leave his/her church because God is essentially through with the church ,circa 1988) , his previous book  ”1994?”(that Christ would return in the fall of 1994) and current “Time Has an End”-his “magnum opus”,if you will,with revised calculations now pointing to a 2011 return of our Lord (in the fall,of course). (Where’s Mr. Rodger’s when you need’em-” Can you say False Prophet?!”). In fairness-as in 1994? Mr. Camping gives himself some wiggle room in this statement:

In parallel fashion, God is warning the world that, in all likelihood, in the year 2011, the whole world will be destroyed. …………. Having said all of the above, the end-time dates presented in this study are not being offered as absolute fact. They are being offered based upon our present knowledge of Biblical truth. Continued study of the Bible may result in correction being made at some future time if any errors have been made. We must never forget that the Bible is given not only to teach us doctrine but also to make correction in whatever doctrine we hold. Wherever we have correctly understood the Bible, however, the resulting date absolutely will be correct.  (From Time Has an End- H.Camping).
     
      OK-we have” in all likelihood “,” based upon our present knowledge of Biblical truth”  - should insert “ever changing” between “present” and “knowledge”. But wait!” STOP THE PRESSES!” Drum Roll,Please! Harold has just come out with a new book! A grand summation it seems of  his last five bodies of work,entitled-
We Are Almost There!” . You have The End of the Church Age..and After,  The Fig Tree , The Wheat and the Tares, I Hope God Will Save Me (ah..He will,just repent) and Time Has an End -all rolled into a tight little egg roll,so to speak, for easy consumption. And now, he’s finally done it with this cherry,from very beginning of his new work:

WITH NO APOLOGIES, IT IS THE INTENT OF THIS BOOK TO WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE ABOUT THE ABUNDANT BIBLICAL EVIDENCE THAT THE END OF THE WORLD IS ALMOST HERE. THE END OF THE WORLD IS THAT AWESOME AND TERRIBLE MOMENT WHEN JESUS CHRIST, THE SUPREME RULER OF MANKIND, WILL COMPLETE THE JUDGMENT PROCESS THAT BEGAN IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN WHEN ADAM AND EVE DISOBEYED GOD. (From We Are Almost There!-italics added).

 He’s done it! He’s boxed himself in,painted himself into the proverbial corner!-the end of the world is almost here…. for  him being 2011. Mr. Camping,it seems , has no where to go after this one-if, Lord willing, he out lives this “prophecy”( as of this writing he’s 86 years old).

        To make this short -(and leaving the Church and annihilation for another post)- again ,Mr. Camping is lost in the deep, dark forest off the beaten path forging ahead on his own to oblivion. It would do well those who tag along behind him to take heed to the following verses:

But of that day and hour no one knows, no,not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” -Matt.24:36(NKJV)

“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor hour in which the Son of Man is coming” Matt. 25:13(NKJV)

“And He said: “Take heed that you not be deceived. For many,will come in my name, saying’I am He’, and, ‘ The time has drawn near.’ Therefore do not go after them.”  Luke 21:8 (Bold added,NKJV)

For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.” 2Corinthians 11:19,20(KJV)

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2Corinthians 11:13-15(KJV)

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2Thess 2:3,4(KJV)

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Isaiah 14:13,14(KJV)

A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.” Ecclesiastes 10:14,15(KJV)  

The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.” Proverbs 14:15(KJV)

                          And with this I’ll end-BE A BEREAN!!    “And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.” Colossians 2:4