Below are recent news articles concerning Camping:
AOL News (01-01-2011) :
May 21 Is Judgment Day? Harold Camping's Latest Doomsday Prediction
Washington Post:
May 21, 2011: Harold Camping says the end is near
San Fransico Chronicle (01-01-2011):
Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011
[ Bad title ***ATTENTION: HAROLD CAMPING IS NOT A BIBLICAL SCHOLAR***]
Here is a quote from the article, see if any of this makes any sense:
The number 5, . . . equals "atonement." en is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011. "Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years." Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year. Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500. Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500. Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared. "Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved. "I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.
Huffington Post (01-04-2011) :
May 21, 2011: Judgment Day Rumors Spread Across The US
Watch this ABC News story :
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7842772
Let me just say that this guy is so out there, that I can’t believe that I am even responding to this issue. But since he has made the news, I feel the need to provide a response.
How did Harold Camping come up with the year 2011 as the year for the return of Christ?
Camping states:
In 2 Peter 3:8, which is quoted above, Holy God reminds us that one day is as 1,000 years. Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God that would come when He destroys the world on Judgment Day. Because Holy Infinite God is all-knowing, He knows the end from the beginning. He knew how sinful the world would become.And here [ http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/waat/waat.pdf ] p. 57
Seven thousand years after 4990 B.C. (the year of the Flood) is the year 2011 A.D. (our calendar).
Thus Holy God is showing us by the words of 2 Peter 3:8 that He wants us to know that exactly 7,000 years after He destroyed the world with water in Noah’s day, He plans to destroy the entire world forever. Because the year 2011 A.D. is exactly 7,000 years after 4990 B.C. when the flood began, the Bible has given us absolute proof that the year 2011 is the end of the world during the Day of Judgment, which will come on the last day of the Day of Judgment. http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/judgment/judgment.html
Camping says, Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God that would come when He destroys the world on Judgment Day.”
What? Who in all of Christian or Jewish history would have ever come up with that interpretation? Peter didn’t say a day is a 1,000 years. Peter is simply saying that the passing of time does not affect God or his promises. There are those that mock the idea that the Lord will return and Peter says, “But do not let this one {fact} escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:8-9). Mr. Camping needs to chill out and wait patiently for God’s time and quit trying to put a date on it by twisting Scripture. Camping doesn’t do that with other days in the Bible does he? No.
Thomas Schreiner in his commentary on 1 and 2 Peter states, “The text does not say that one day with the Lord is a thousand years. It says one day with the Lord is like a thousand years. We do not have a literal statement here but a comparison, an analogy. Second, the proposed interpretation does not make sense in context. Peter would then have been saying that the day of judgment lasts one thousand years, which is a rather strange notion. Finally, such an interpretation does not fit well with Peter’s response to the false teachers. What Peter did say cogently responds to the teachers. Even though the Lord has not returned yet, one should not conclude from this that he will never arrive. The Lord does not reckon time as humans do. What seems agonizingly long to us is a whisker of time to him." (p. 380)
God simply told Noah to get in the ark because in seven days the rain is going to begin (Gen 7:1-4, 10). There is nothing symbolic about the future rapture being 7,000 years later! The news agencies should know that Mr. Camping does not represent the view of any Christian group of the last 2,000 years. No one in church history has read Genesis 7:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 to come up with a date for Second Coming or the end of history.
Below are some more outrageous statements made by Harold Camping:
The “house of God” is a reference to all the local congregations, which have been abandoned by the Holy Spirit and placed under the rulership of Satan. They are being punished because they have departed greatly from the true Gospel. Thus, they are under judgment. But that is far different from the day of judgment, the five- month period from May 21, 2011 to October 21, 2011, when each and every human being all over the entire earth will receive the final punishment for his sins. This punishment, of course, will not come upon the true believers, who will be raptured, or caught up in the air to meet Christ, on May 21, 2011. (page 17)
The church age ended in 1988, so, no one can become saved while under the authority of a local congregation. In fact, God has placed Satan in the churches to rule there. Thus, God has commanded those who desire to be obedient to God to come out of the local congregations. (page 18)
http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/glory/glory.pdf
From his latest book, We Are Almost There, we read these statements:
He (Satan) could not deceive the nations during the complete period of the church age, which was symbolically described as a period of 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1-3). The 1,000 years must be understood as a symbolical or spiritual number that signifies “completeness.” The actual period he was bound was 1,955 years (from A.D. 33 to 1988). (page 14-15)
As we continue in this study, we will learn that the church age ended on May 21, 1988 (A.D.). (page 28)
Thus, May 21, 1988, was the official end of the church age and the official beginning of the great tribulation. (page 44)
So, Camping takes the 1,000 years mentioned in Revelation 20 and says that it is symbolic and actually it was 1,955 years. Of course this comes to 1988 and everyone would understand this and also know that the church age is now over!
The church age ended and the 8,400-day great tribulation began the day before Pentecost in 1988, which was May 21, 1988.
The first 2,300 days of the great tribulation began on May 21, 1988, and ended on September 7, 1994.
The second part of the great tribulation, which consists of 6,100 days (8,400 - 2,300 = 6,100), began on September 7, 1994, and ends on May 21, 2011.
The final five months of the earth’s history begins on May 21, 2011, and will end on October 21, 2011.
We thus far have set forth the basic outline of the important time junctures leading to the end of the world. We have also shown the Biblical information that causes us to arrive at this time information. (page.50)
Thus, in Genesis 7, God is effectively saying that all of mankind in the whole world have seven days to get into the safety of Christ, who alone can save us from the wrath of God. But wait a minute. Did not God insist in II Peter 3 that we must absolutely know that a day is as a thousand years? Let us substitute
7,000 years for seven days. Therefore, effectively, God was telling Noah that all of mankind who would ever live in the whole world have 7,000 years to get into the safety of Christ, if they are to escape the wrath of God. What year would be exactly 7,000 years after the flood of Noah’s day? Would you believe it! Long ago we learned that the flood occurred in the year 4990 B.C., and 7,000 years later brings us to the year 2011. Remember, we add the Old Testament years to the New Testament years and subtract 1 year, because there is no year zero.
4990 + 2011 - 1 = 7,000 years
Thus, we must understand that God is definitely declaring that He expects that all of the elect of God would absolutely know that the year 2011 is to be the end of the world. (Page 58)
His book ends with this:
We indeed can be certain that the rapture will occur on May 21, 2011, and the final day of the history of the world is October 21, 2011. (page 63)
http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/waat/waat.pdf
For some good articles to read that critique Camping, see Alpha and Omega Ministry
Watch the Youtube of James White’s seminar on Harold Camping from 2002
And
Letter to Harold Camping (Family Radio) True Prophet or False?
by P. G. Mathew, M.A., M.Div., Th.M.
