(Image via Wikipedia)

Today is the real ‘probably’ definite day it all comes down according to false teacher Harold Camping. May 21 was just a ‘spiritual’ warm up:

“A lot of things we didn’t have quite right will probably be finished out on Oct. 21.

“It wont be spiritual on October 21st, the world is going to be destroyed all together, but it will be very quick.”

Hopefully it will be all over for Camping’s dangerous ‘ministry’ at the end of the day. Hundreds actually died last time on May 21 thanks to Harold Camping’s false prediction. Hopefully no one loses their lives this time around.

You probably didn’t hear about the hundreds that died in May since the main stream media in America ignored the story. While the majority of Americans were making fun of Camping’s doomsday message, half a world away in Vietnam, thousands of Hmong Christians gathered on a mountain top in northern Vietnam to wait out the end after hearing Camping’s teaching on short wave radio. Unfortunately they were attacked by government forces since it was deemed to be an illegal gathering. Here’s one report of the incident:

After listening to a translation of Camping’s prediction 7,000 of these people (known in the West as Montagnards) gathered on a mountain praising God their suffering at the hands of the communist regime was about to end because Jesus was returning that day in May to establish a new kingdom,.

The police and military police slaughtered many of them at gunpoint – beheading two pastors. Others were arrested. I am told by Hmong pastors that so many were shot dead that they were buried in mass graves bulldozed over in an episode that I read about in Britain but did not understand the magnitude of until I got here.

Response: Camping’s predictions were laughable to most of us, but as a direct result of his false teaching, hundreds were slaughtered in Vietnam.

We look upon Harold Camping as a joke but over short wave radio his message was gladly received by a people hoping to finally be free from communist rule. Few Christian programs reach into that mountainous region of Vietnam, so Camping’s program received far more attention than it should have. Missionaries in the area tried to tell the Hmong pastors that the teaching was false but it was far too appealing to ignore plus the message gained authority coming over the short wave radio like it did.

For us, Camping is just a humorous false teacher, but the results of his false teaching are anything but funny. Hopefully we will finally be done with the dangerous Harold Camping and his ministry when the clock strikes midnight and bring us in a new day- October 22, in the year of our Lord 2011.            *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -Camping Now Says The End Is Coming on October 21
2. -The Fallacious May 21, 2011 ‘World is Ending’ Debacle

A heckler in the crowd shouts out that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and that Obama is ‘The Anti-Christ.’

Is President Obama ‘The Anti-Christ’?

No!

In fact, the president takes this occasion to reaffirm his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

Barrack Obama is not my favorite president and probably my least favorite ever. However, he does not meet the Biblical qualifications for the end-time diabolical figure referred to as ‘The Anti-Christ.’ That being said, he is nevertheless an avid supporter of World government.

According to reports, this particular critic has shown up and protested the president on a number of different occasions. It has even left some to wonder if it’s not a put-up inside job, particularly considering how the President responds along with the crowd.

See the video, President Obama responded in good humor to the heckler while the crowd tried to drown the protester out with shouts of “four more years.”

President Obama:

“First of all I do believe that Jesus Christ is Lord..I do believe in that.”

This is not something that The real Anti-Christ would ever say. I am getting tired of those who claim that the President is not sincere in his Christian faith and totally outraged by those who continue to believe that he is some kind of closet Muslim.

The President is a liberal ‘main-line’ Christian and nothing more or less. He certainly is not an evangelical or a conservative Catholic and he may be somewhat immature in his faith. He may not be ‘my kind of Christian’ or yours, but he is a professing believer and we should take him at his word. Nevertheless, that does not mean that we cannot judge him by his actions and his deeds and how they square with Biblical Christian teaching.             *Top

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2. -President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast

(Getty Images via @daylife)

May 21 came and went without any announcement by Harold Camping. We are still here but now he is claiming that the real date was October 21 all along and May21 was just the beginning of the end:

“We’ve always said October 21 was the day. The only thing we didn’t understand was the spirituality of May 21. We’re seeing this as a spiritual thing happening rather than a physical thing happening. The timing, the structure, the proofs, none of that has changed at all.”

Camping introduced the new date on his radio show on Monday claiming that God decided to be merciful and not bring physical destruction over the next 5 months but that it would be all over on October 21, 2011.

In spite of the obvious May 21 failure, Camping accepted no responsibility nor admitted any wrong:

“I don’t have any responsibility. I’m only teaching the Bible. I’m telling … this is what the Bible says. I don’t have spiritual rule over anybody … except my wife as the head of the household.”

He also indicted that his organization would not be spending any more $money on billboards and ads promoting the new date which he now says was the  real date all along:

“We’re not going to be passing out tracts. We’re not going to put up any more billboards. We’re not going to be advertising in any way. The world has been warned. We did our little share and the media picked it up. But now the world has been told, it’s under judgment.”

Response: I can’t believe the arrogance of this guy. Definitely not a humble servant like Jesus taught his followers to be. He is completely unable to admit that he was wrong.

First he writes a book and claims that it is all coming down in 1994. Then when that one doesn’t work he claims that the real date was May 21, 2011. Now he is saying that he knew it was October 21 all along? Amazing!

He has been wrong twice now but twists the truth instead?:

“We’ve always said October 21 was the day”

No he didn’t!

Worse yet he defames the Bible. By saying “this is what the Bible says” he is actually blaming his failures on the Word of God. Search the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation and you will never find May21 or October 21 or any other date for the end of the world.

Hundreds of followers find their lives in disarray without even so much as an apology or a simple ‘sorry’ from Camping. His latest pronouncement shows that he is delusional at best or just another false teacher taking advantage of folks at worst.

I would bet on ‘delusional’ except now he plans to keep the money he has taken from his contributors and not waste it on the new October 21 date. That tells me that he doesn’t even completely believe it himself. Otherwise he would ‘put (the rest of) his money where his mouth is’. Therefore he is false teacher and this is the last time that he will get any attention or publicity here.          *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -It is Over Today for the Dangerous Mr. Camping (Hundreds Died Last Time)
2. -The Fallacious May 21, 2011 ‘World is Ending’ Debacle

    (Getty Images via @daylife)

Today while I was at my grandson’s little league game I over heard several parents talking about Camping’s unfortunate prediction of the end of days. They were laughing about it and were putting together plans for a ‘Rapture party’ tonight.

Then this evening I turned on the TV just in time for the 6 PM news. Guess what the top story of the night was on that network? Yep! The newscasters were yakking it up over the fact that the ‘end of the world’ deadline had passed. Meanwhile Camping and his group are silent as they should have been all along.

It is amazing to me how far and wide this story spread and how it actually entered into the ‘water cooler’ category –something that everyone is talking about in popular culture.

I hate it that the words: ‘Jesus’, ‘Bible’, ‘Rapture’, ‘Coming back’, ‘Judgment’, and ‘Christian’ are associated with this debacle. Not really laughing matter subjects as far as I am concerned. Think of all of the good stuff that has happened in the Christian community in the last several years that would have made a far better story to have received this kind of exposure.

It is time to pray for the folks that really took this serious and quit their jobs, sold their homes, and spent $thousands supporting Camping. They really need our prayers about now.            *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -The Fallacious May 21, 2011 ‘World is Ending’ Debacle
2. -It is Over Today for the Dangerous Mr. Camping (Hundreds Died Last Time)

                                    (Harold Camping via Wikipedia)

This is like watching an accident about to happen and not being able to do anything to stop it.

You may have seen a billboard or read the entire back page ad in USA Today like I did, or listened to the frantic radio warning that I just listened to on the way home from work. Every where you turn seemingly something or someone is referring to Harold Camping’s prediction that the world is coming to an end tomorrow on May 21, 2011.

When I first heard about Camping’s claims 3 or 4 months ago I just laughed it off. After all who is going to really believe this guy after he already got it wrong in predicting the end once before? Apparently I was wrong, it is no laughing matter after all since hundreds of gullible folks seem to be caught up in this debacle and are obviously spending $thousands of their hard earned money spreading this fallacious message.

First of all, you will not be able to find even one credible Christian Bible scholar any where who will agree with Camping’s calculations. Any attempt to calculate an accurate Biblical timeline from Creation to the present is doomed for failure since there are demonstrable gaps in Biblical chronology.

Bishop James Ussher tried to come up with a Biblical Chronology in the 17th-century and Bible scholars ever since have shown the many ways in which he was wrong.Yet Camping picked up Ussher’s work and tweaked it to come up with his dates? First with 1994 and we all know how that one worked out and now May 21, 2011.

Two Scriptures to Consider

There are two scriptures I always appeal to when folks are trying to predict the end. Both were proclamations by Jesus himself concerning the end times:

1. Mark 13:32 –“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Jesus did not claim to know the end date but Camping does? I don’t think so.

In his USA Today ad Camping claims that this scripture is not referring to Jesus at all but the ‘Son of Perdition’ or Satan. A crazy interpretation that the context does not support in any way.

He also claimed in the back page ad the “The original Greek did not use capitol letter in the  word “son”.” Obviously Camping has never looked at the some of the earliest New Testament Greek manuscripts which have every letter in caps.

2. Matthew 24:14 –“And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Has the Gospel been proclaimed to every nation and people group in the world yet?

No. Not according to most missionary organizations.

It is getting there, but there are still groups and nationalities of people that have not been reached. It might yet happen in this generation but this scripture has not been completely fulfilled.

Also, what about all of the Bible prophecies that have not been fulfilled yet? Is God going to end the world as we know it without completely fulfilling all of his word and promises? I don’t think so.

Observations

When Sunday rolls around and we are still here, many Camping followers will have their faith severely tested and will have to put their lives back together again. Some reportedly quit their jobs, sold their homes, and some students stopped going to school. For many, their lives will never be the same. Hopefully those who contributed $money will have receipts for their next tax return.

Meanwhile Harold Camping will probably go back to the drawing board and start calculating all over again. I just bet that he will not have suffered financially in the process.

As a result of this debacle, Christians who believe in the Bible will unfortunately be associated with this nut case. Worse yet, some folks who might have been persuaded by the real authentic Gospel message will be hardened against it and in the end fewer may come to the faith because of antics of this arrogant false prophet.            *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -End of the World Recap
2. -It is Over Today for the Dangerous Mr. Camping (Hundreds Died Last Time)

     (Gog and Magog by zoer via Flickr)

A few months back a number of folks who study Biblical prophecy including myself were openly wondering if the re-alignment taking place between Turkey, Iran, and Syria didn’t constitute the rise of a new axis of Islamic power in the Middle East. A definite shift to the balance of power in the area and a serious potential threat to Israel.

Turkey had been one of Israel’s only ‘friends’ in the area and now even rabbi’s in Israel were wondering if we were seeing some kind of ‘Gog and Magog’ (Ezekiel 38-39) alignment taking place in the north.

Fortunately Israel didn’t have to watch her back in the South and be concerned about Egypt.

However now Egypt is in turmoil and folks like the Muslim Brotherhood are rising up and claiming that the peace treaty with Israel will soon be void and that Egyptians will be preparing for war with Israel if they have any say in the new government.

We really don’t have any idea how this is all going to play out. However, if the ‘Gog and Magog’ (Ezekiel 38-39) passage is any indication then maybe it won’t end up so bad for Israel after all?

Egypt is not among the nations that attack Israel in the Ezekiel prophecy even though nations all around her are involved. For some reason Egypt doesn’t join in the attack. Maybe the Muslim Brotherhood will not have that much power after all in a new Egyptian regime to come. Hopefully that will be the case.            *Top

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Today in Iran they are ‘celebrating’  ‘Great Satan’ Day marking the 31st anniversary of the capture of the American embassy by Islamist students. As usual mass protests are scheduled by the government and the authorities get to harangue the USA before hand picked crowds of thousands of students bussed to the capital for the event.

As usual the President of the USA will be hung in effigy and burned. But this time the image is going to be that of Barack Obama instead of George W. Bush. A strange sight indeed considering that the current administration has reached out to the Iranian leaders as no President has before and even recently declared a Sunni opposition group to the Iranian regime as ‘terrorists.

Nevertheless, The USA continues to be identified as the ‘Great Satan’ by the Iranian authorities and Israel of course is the ‘Little Satan’ but today the USA gets all of the spotlight.

Interestingly after 31 years some of the intensity of the former ‘celebrations’ seems to be lacking. Todays students are full of smiles and having fun. Gone is the utter rage that we have seen on these occasions in the past. This kind of reminds me of a ‘burning man’ event accept for all of the regimentation and control.

Why ‘Great Satan’?- The Title Comes From Shiite Eschatology

Most of us in the America laugh at the event and wonder why we are considered the ‘bad guys’ since they were the ones who attacked our embassy and took our personnel hostage. We were the violated party yet we are still called the ‘Great Satan’?

Actually the term comes from Shiite Muslim eschatology. According to their ‘end-time’ scenario in the last days before the coming of the Muslim ‘Messiah’-the Mahdi’ also called the ‘Hidden Imam’ or the ‘12th Imam’ in their current cultic understanding. An infidel power will be dominating the world politically, economically, and militarily. That end-time power is called the ‘Great Satan’.

The current leaders believe that they are in the end-times and that the 12th Imam is coming back soon. In fact the Ayatollah Khamenei (Iran’s supreme leader) claims that the ‘Hidden Imam’ has appeared to him and told him so!.

The current Iranian leaders including President Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollahs identify the USA as the ‘Great Satan’ that must be defeated by the coming Mahdi who according to their eschatological scenario becomes the one world leader and Islam the only authorized religion. But first the ‘Great Satan’ must be utterly defeated and all Jews and Christians that will not join Islam must be killed.

The students are smiling today but the implications of their end-time religious convictions are anything but joyful.            *Top of the Blog

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