Another “date setter” for the Rapture appeared a few years back. This time the false teacher’s name was one Harold Camping, a radio broadcaster and president of Family Stations, Inc., a California-based religious broadcasting network. This is the article we printed during his outlandish prediction – proving the forewarning of Jesus that there would be false teachers and prophets who would outlandishly predict his coming, in spite of the fact that Jesus said no man would know the day or the moment but his father in heaven only. The reason is that we must live in a solemn expectation of his arrival at any moment.

It is a wonderful example of the Father’s wisdom to help us stay on the beam, walking correctly in the light of His solemn word and loving promises of eternal salvation, that we might obtain deliverance from all the tremendous temptations that are now occurring and will only increase with each passing day until the end.

The 89-year-old Camping is convinced that his reading of the Bible reveals the exact timing of the Rapture and the end of the world. The result of his insanity is to make a mockery of the Rapture and lay it bare to open ridicule by all the world. And we at The Outcast Eagles roundly reject such idiotic and non-scriptural claims.

But this is only one reason why The Outcast Eagles has nothing but disdain for false prophets like Camping. His folly can injure the faith of potential believers or discourage those who do believe in the promise of the Rapture but might be taken in by his lunacy and driven away from faith when it does not come to pass as this self-styled prophet says it will.

Camping’s web site says: “This web site serves as an introduction and portal to four faithful ministries which are teaching that WE CAN KNOW from the Bible alone that the date of the rapture of believers will take place on May 21, 2011, and that God will destroy this world on October 21, 2011.”

A link leads the reader through a very complex order of scriptures and commentary to support the author’s claims that he has discovered some “new truths” about the 2,000-year-old promise that Jesus made concerning His appearing and gathering of faithful believers.

The scriptures are familiar because Jesus is reported to have taught them in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke written in the First Century A.D.

One statement in particular, which has been openly circulated among Christians through all ages is the following: “But of that day and that hour [of the Rapture] knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”

The only way Camping could know when the Rapture will happen is if he is the Father. Frankly, any Christian with a head on their shoulders knows that is absolutely not possible. Everything else he says then should be manifestly false.

But ignoring the direct unequivocal words of Christ, Camping continues on smugly justifying the idea that he now knows the day of the Rapture and the day of the earth’s destruction. By declaring the earth will be destroyed he only accelerates his stupidity. The earth’s destruction is never prophesied in the Bible. Rather it says, all things shall become new.

Camping supports his insanity by pointing out that the Bible states that it will be as in the days of Noah at the time of the end. This is truly prophesied, but it does not mean that God will totally destroy the earth. From this shaky platform he lurches to his conclusion that God will tell his people the exact date of his return, because in the Old Testament God often told the exact timing of noted events, including informing Noah that in seven days the rains will begin to fall.

Because of this and based on a complex hidden Bible calendar which he discovered and understands, he claims the Rapture will occur “…on the seventeenth day of the second month on the Biblical calendar. In the year 2011 that day falls on May 21.”

Also based on this calendar hidden within obscure revelations of the Bible he claims the Tribulation is exactly 23 years long and is broken up into segments that begin on May 22, 1988, runs through September 7, 1994, through May 21, 2011 with the Rapture, and concludes with the world’s end on October 21, 2011.

Camping and many other supporters have marketed a national campaign of advertised warnings on billboards and bus stop benches throughout major cities, pamphlet distribution and even RV caravans carrying the announcement. They claim it is their Christian responsibility to warn as many people as they possibly can.

History has long been filled with “date setters”. Some led to the creation of Seventh Day Adventist and Jehovah’s Witness Religions and every prediction was always consistently accurate in their failure to be true.

The battle over the souls of men is truly a spiritual one that rages in the realm of Satan and his fallen angels. A favorite tactic is to make the promise of the Rapture look foolish and to belittle all those who have laid trust in this marvelous promise of God to His faithful Bride. Satan has wished to discourage all those from keeping their “lamps trimmed and filled with the oil of the Holy Ghost in preparation for the bridegroom’s appearance.”

Spirits consistently consort with prideful men who lust after recognition of the idea of being held in high esteem because they are considered to be special with God and “in the know.” Satan is well pleased with the arrangements, through man’s efforts to know the day and hour many people become numb and unbelieving to the fact that Jesus is coming.

Regardless, Christ’s call for His Bride is imminent and clearly promised in the Bible. Signs continue to stream forth declaring His return. One reason why it is wrong to predict a future date for His appearing is that the Father wants the Bride of Christ to be ready each and every day and not anticipating that it will come next week, next month or next year, for it could happen in the next breath.

Often Christians who are immature and unlearned are deceived as they become lured into following these “date setters” and when the awaited day passes they lose heart and are left confused. This is very pleasing to Satan who knows that his time is short and will be only stepping up his efforts to try and discredit what ought to be the highest hope of all sober and serious minded Christians.

Why do we report on this crazy prediction of the day of the Rapture by the false prophet Harold Camping? We know it will help the Bride to stay ready and to “Take heed lest any man deceive you.”

Jesus says: “And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.”

This passage can rightly be associated with false predictions of the exact time of the Rapture because these are in essence saying “Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there”.

God’s word says “…there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4) This scoffing lies in the hearts of modern man, helped along by repeated failings of Rapture day predictions. Christians are often seen as fools by the world and rightly so if they were carelessly involved with the many false prophets of the day. Remember the Bible has directly declared that no man knows the day nor the hour, only the Father in heaven. Not even Jesus knows. He waits for the call, even as we wait for the sound of the Trumpet signaling His appearing in the clouds to gather us home to heaven.

Camping is a fool and all those who follow him are foolish and unlearned in the Word of God. A word to the wise: live with anticipation and enthusiasm because the Rapture could happen in this very minute or hour.

 

Some New Testament References to False Prophets

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Matt.7
[15] Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Matt.24
[11] And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
[24] For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Mark.13
[22] For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

Luke.6
[26] Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

2 Pet.2
[1] But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

1 John.4
[1] Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.