May 21st, 2011
Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 6:27 am
Wikipedia: Harold Egbert Camping (born July 19, 1921) is a Christian radio broadcaster and president of Family Radio, a California-based religious broadcasting network that spans more than 150 outlets in the United States as well as a website.
Camping's trademarks include his deep, sonorous voice coupled with a slow cadence. He has also used mathematical predictions applied to the Bible to predict dates for the end of the world. His current end times prediction is that the Rapture will be on May 21, 2011 and that God will completely destroy the Earth and the universe five months later on October 21. He had previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in September 1994. [Oh, but then he claimed that his calculations must have been wrong.]
Me: Some other things Mr. Camping believes are things such as annihilationism (everyone sent to Hell will be annihilated and will not suffer there for eternity), the fact that all churches are apostate so no one should be attending any but rather holding personal Bible studies and listening to his radio program (of course), and for those of you hardcore Calvinists (like me
), he also denies total depravity and holds to free will. But at least he doesn't say that salvation is by anything other than God's grace. 
Here's his formula for knowing the end of the world (setting aside the fact that Jesus Himself said, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."):
Mr. Camping believes that the "Church Age" ended in 1988--forty years after Israel became a nation. He says that because the Church Age is over, now people can know the day when Jesus will return. He explicitly says, "He will not come like a thief in the night. We know that he will come on May 21st." He claims to know beyond the shadow of a doubt; the thought that he might be wrong doesn't even cross his mind, so he says.
Here's how he came up with the date: He takes the number of Atonement--5 (please show me where Scripture says that), the number of Completeness--10 (doesn't the Bible indicate that it is 7?), and the number of Heaven. Then he multiplies those numbers together and squares them. This comes out to 722,500.
First of all, where in the Bible do we get those numbers? Second of all, where in the Bible does it say to multiply those together? Thirdly, where do we see that we should then square the resulting number?
Okay, now that we don't have that cleared up, here's the rest: that number, 722,500, is the exact amount of days between the alleged day of Jesus' crucifixion (April 1st, A.D. 33) and May 21, 2011. Wow!! That is groundbreaking!
Wait a second. Where are we told that that's the day of the crucifixion. One, it's actually believed to be somewhere during the winther time, because if you recall, Peter is warming his hands by the fire when he denies Christ. Either it was a really cold day in the spring, or it wasn't on April 1st. Second, it's pretty well known that Jesus was not born in the year 0. It's more likely that it was between the years A.D. 5 and 8. Therefore, since we're pretty sure that Jesus died at age 33, I don't think Mr. Camping is correct.
So first we take the stretch that he's right about us being able to know the day. Okay. Then we take another stretch to believe him about those numbers. Then we have to believe that he's right that you have to multiply them together and square them. Then he has to be correct about the date of Jesus' crucifixion. Then he has to know for sure from the Bible that connecting the two together will give us May 21st, 2011.
And I've heard him say, "The Bible couldn't possibly be clearer on the subject!" It may sound like I'm creating a straw man and tearing him down, but this isk actually what he says! Does anyone actually believe him?
Camping's trademarks include his deep, sonorous voice coupled with a slow cadence. He has also used mathematical predictions applied to the Bible to predict dates for the end of the world. His current end times prediction is that the Rapture will be on May 21, 2011 and that God will completely destroy the Earth and the universe five months later on October 21. He had previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in September 1994. [Oh, but then he claimed that his calculations must have been wrong.]
Me: Some other things Mr. Camping believes are things such as annihilationism (everyone sent to Hell will be annihilated and will not suffer there for eternity), the fact that all churches are apostate so no one should be attending any but rather holding personal Bible studies and listening to his radio program (of course), and for those of you hardcore Calvinists (like me
), he also denies total depravity and holds to free will. But at least he doesn't say that salvation is by anything other than God's grace. Here's his formula for knowing the end of the world (setting aside the fact that Jesus Himself said, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."):
Mr. Camping believes that the "Church Age" ended in 1988--forty years after Israel became a nation. He says that because the Church Age is over, now people can know the day when Jesus will return. He explicitly says, "He will not come like a thief in the night. We know that he will come on May 21st." He claims to know beyond the shadow of a doubt; the thought that he might be wrong doesn't even cross his mind, so he says.
Here's how he came up with the date: He takes the number of Atonement--5 (please show me where Scripture says that), the number of Completeness--10 (doesn't the Bible indicate that it is 7?), and the number of Heaven. Then he multiplies those numbers together and squares them. This comes out to 722,500.
First of all, where in the Bible do we get those numbers? Second of all, where in the Bible does it say to multiply those together? Thirdly, where do we see that we should then square the resulting number?
Okay, now that we don't have that cleared up, here's the rest: that number, 722,500, is the exact amount of days between the alleged day of Jesus' crucifixion (April 1st, A.D. 33) and May 21, 2011. Wow!! That is groundbreaking!
Wait a second. Where are we told that that's the day of the crucifixion. One, it's actually believed to be somewhere during the winther time, because if you recall, Peter is warming his hands by the fire when he denies Christ. Either it was a really cold day in the spring, or it wasn't on April 1st. Second, it's pretty well known that Jesus was not born in the year 0. It's more likely that it was between the years A.D. 5 and 8. Therefore, since we're pretty sure that Jesus died at age 33, I don't think Mr. Camping is correct.
So first we take the stretch that he's right about us being able to know the day. Okay. Then we take another stretch to believe him about those numbers. Then we have to believe that he's right that you have to multiply them together and square them. Then he has to be correct about the date of Jesus' crucifixion. Then he has to know for sure from the Bible that connecting the two together will give us May 21st, 2011.
And I've heard him say, "The Bible couldn't possibly be clearer on the subject!" It may sound like I'm creating a straw man and tearing him down, but this isk actually what he says! Does anyone actually believe him?
Simple as that.
