May 21st, 2011

Is Harold Camping right?

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Christian A.
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May 21st, 2011

Post by Christian A. »

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 :D), 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?
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Post by The Top Crusader »

He is obviously correct because the Bible is clear when Jesus said "ONE RANDOM MAN SHALL KNOW THE DAY AND HOUR OF MY RETURN!" \:D/

Oh wait, that isn't in there. >_>

Most of you are too young to recall this, but there was a big hoopla back in 88 when some dude wrote a book "88 Reasons Jesus Will Return in 1988!" or something to that effect. He had a followup 89 reasons the next year but that is the last I heard of that dude, unless this is him again, I forget the guys name. ;)

Interestingly enough, the idea of a "rapture" type event is only 150 or so years old, anyway. But it has been a popular thing to predict ever since then.
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Post by Christian A. »

The Top Crusader wrote:Interestingly enough, the idea of a "rapture" type event is only 150 or so years old, anyway. But it has been a popular thing to predict ever since then.
Yeah, my church doesn't even believe in the Rapture. I'm not sure whether I do or not. My dad is a pretty strong believer in it because he was raised that way all his life. I'm not as strong.
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Post by The Top Crusader »

Yeah, I am open to the possibility, certainly, and was raised probably like your father, but my own research makes me kind of doubt that it will pan out that way... although it would cool so hopefully I'm wrong. \:D/
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Post by ric »

Well, I mean, there are some verses which seem to support the idea of a Rapture. Possibly the term was coined until 150 years ago, or whatever, but, I dunno. I'd rather not get into that now though.

Ya, there's tons of these wackos. I thought the predictors were mostly JWs though. :-
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Post by Taps »

Christian A. wrote:
The Top Crusader wrote:Interestingly enough, the idea of a "rapture" type event is only 150 or so years old, anyway. But it has been a popular thing to predict ever since then.
Yeah, my church doesn't even believe in the Rapture. I'm not sure whether I do or not. My dad is a pretty strong believer in it because he was raised that way all his life. I'm not as strong.
I don't mess with all that Pre-Trib Post-Trib Mid-trib stuff. I believe Jesus Christ is coming back :shrugs: Simple as that.

Well May 21st should be interesting \:D/
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Post by Jesus' Princess »

I believe that Jesus could come back on May 21st, but he could also come back tonight, or in 40 years! No man knows when he will come back, "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. His formula seem strange to me, where in the Bible does it say that if you multiply the numbers of atonement, completeness, and heaven, and then square them, you'll get the number of days until the second coming? (I'd also like to see the verse that gives those numbers)
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Post by The Kings Daughter »

Personally I think Jesus won't come that day, because man cannot predict His coming. \:D/

(I mean He could of course, but.. ;) )
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Post by bookworm »

I’ve been waiting for moths for someone to start a topic on this.
I’ve discussed this subject ad nauseam with my friends so I don’t wish to go into it all again here, but I may ‘if’ we’re still here on the 22nd.
Or I may not because then it won’t matter one way or the other.
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Post by ric »

JESUS IS COMING TOMORROW!!!

Yay, now we all know Jesus isn't coming tomorrow, because I just predicted it. \:D/
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Post by King Butter Turtle »

8 more days! \:D/
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Post by The Kings Daughter »

ric wrote:JESUS IS COMING TOMORROW!!!

Yay, now we all know Jesus isn't coming tomorrow, because I just predicted it. \:D/
ric! I want Him to come tomorrow. :(

I was actually talking about the big predictions people make scientifically(the ones that TONS of people actually believe.. o.o ) and that was just my opinion. ;)
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Post by bookworm »

Mr. Camping’s followers certainly believe it. They’ve been putting billboards about it across the country for months. We finally got one a few weeks ago, right by my college.
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Post by Steve »

Somebody get this Camping dude off of Family Radio. He polutes more minds than heavy metal does.
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Post by Taps »

No kidding :( I'll betchya that he won't be as popular on May 22nd :yes:

EDIT: Wait... doesn't this come on Saturday after this Saturday supposedly?!? This reminds me of an Odyssey Episode...
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Post by Jesus' Princess »

Yes, it's supposedly a week from tomorrow, and yeah, this is like The Second Coming, when Melanie camps out in her tent and waits for Jesus to come back.
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Post by DanP740 »

I calculated it myself, and the end of the world was 4 years ago. He's wrong.
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Post by Danielle Abigail Maxwell »

I love you Dan.

Yeah, someone asked me about this on Thursday. I went "No. No one can predict when Jesus is coming, let alone the rapture. Oh, right, I also don't believe in the rapture." So, with that being said, believing him is just not a wise choice. The point is to be ready for Christ's coming at ALL TIMES. Not just on some day humans pick. *and the rapture - *giggles and laughs** Christ will come when He knows to come. He gave us signs. But even then, we cannot predict Christ's 2nd Coming.

This person just wants the publicity, I swear.

lol. I asked someone a while back on here to show me verses that thoroughly showed that the rapture was real. I got zero verses. Hmm.
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Post by ric »

Not to start an off-topic debate but...1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Basically, if you say you don't believe in the Rapture, you're just saying you believe in a post-trib Rapture, right? :-k
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Post by Christian A. »

DanP740 wrote:I calculated it myself, and the end of the world was 4 years ago. He's wrong.
Did you include the leap years? And any other time the calendar may have changed throughout history? ;)
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