By Chris Mangan

Those of you who have read my previous article on Rapture Ready titled “Camping’s Rapture Ruse” (thanks for the title, Terry) will remember the two scriptures that I had quoted from the New Testament in showing clearly that Harold Camping is a false prophet.

I’m pleased that a number of other people have also written articles against Camping, such as Jack Kinsella, Bill Keller, and Jason Lovelace, with special mention to Pastor David Epstein of Calvary Baptist Church for his recent sermon criticizing Camping. All of us on this website take what Camping is doing very seriously and we all know that he’s wrong! It saddens me, however, that a number of people, christians included, can be deceived by this man. I regard him as the “Bernard Madoff” of the spiritual set. As Madoff deceived with his financial money games, Camping does the same damage with his date-setting obsession.

For those of you who believe in testing everything said about the Scriptures (and all of you should), then it will not be a surprise that if you do an advanced Google search using the terms “false prophet” and “Harold Camping”, that a number of web pages will appear. I’ll just select one page, this webpage is from The International Business Times. The website is below:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/150713/20110524/harold-camping-may-21st-doomsday-wrong-prediction-october-21-2011-judgment-day-rapture-false-prophet.htm

This one paragraph in the I.B. Times article says it all:

“The unrepentant minister did not make any apology even after a member of his inner coterie had suggested that he owed at least an apology to the public. He also abdicated all responsibility for ruining the lives of many hundreds of his followers who disposed of their properties thinking that the world was going to end on

May 21.”

Unrepentant! That's a mark for someone who will not be corrected! We all make mistakes, I firmly believe in apologies and want to hear them when the other party is wrong; and I have also apologized when I have been wrong. The mark of a true christian is owning up to the mistakes made, and let's face it: we have all sinned and offended God and others as well, so let me be the first to say "I'm Sorry". Harold Camping, however, hasn't done this!

I knew that as the May 21 deadline approached that nothing biblically relevant would happen. There simply is no way to predict days, weeks, months or even years, as many cults have done. Instead, Camping defended himself and his false prophecy with the article further citing:

“. . . Camping put some more brave but vicious spin on the whole joke, saying that the rapture did indeed take place, but in a spiritual sense. Many observers had predicted that Camping would likely say this once the promised Armageddon fails to show up.”

The article further quoted him as saying:

"On May 21, this last weekend, this is where the spiritual aspect of it really comes through. God again brought judgment on the world. We didn’t see any difference but God brought Judgment Day to bear upon the whole world."

The bottom line to all of this false prophecy is what I had been concerned with: that people would think that what Camping was saying was genuine biblical prophecy; and it wasn’t! Camping is playing his ‘math games’ again. I wish that more christians would study serious bible prophecy books written by scholars, of which Camping is not a scholar.

The method of interpretation that Camping is using is called the Ammillennialist school of interpretation; this method uses the Allegorical method, which views everything in the Bible as an allegory. In his book, "Things to Come", subtitled "A Study in Biblical Eschatology" which is and was a text book on biblical prophecy used at Dallas Theological Seminary, J. Dwight Pentecost goes into detail in the very first chapter by quoting other scholars as follows:

“Ramm defines the allegorical method thus: 'Allegorism is the method of interpreting a literary text that regards the literal sense as the vehicle for a secondary, more spiritual and more profound sense.’”

In this method the historical import is either denied or ignored and the emphasis is placed entirely on a secondary sense so that the original words or events have little or no significance. Fritsch summarizes it thus:

According to this method the literal and historical sense of scripture is completely ignored, and every word and event is made an allegory of some kind either to escape theological difficulties or to maintain certain peculiar religious views . . . “

Pentecost thus concludes: “It would seem that the purpose of the allegorical method is not to interpret scripture, but to pervert the true meaning of scripture, albeit under the guise of seeking a deeper or more spiritual meaning.” Pentecost then lists the dangers to this method of interpretation, again quoting other learned scholars:

“Angus-Green express the same danger when they write:

“‘There is . . . unlimited scope for fancy, if once the principle be admitted, and the only basis of the exposition is found in the mind of the expositor. The scheme can yield no “interpretation,” properly so called, although possibly some valuable truths may be illustrated. The above quotation suggests, also, a second danger in the allegorical method: the basic authority in interpretation ceases to be the Scriptures, but the mind of the interpreter. The interpretation may then be twisted by the interpreter's doctrinal positions, the authority of the church to which the interpreter adheres, his social or educational background, or a host of other factors.”’ (Bolding and Underlining, CM)

I cannot stress enough the harm that Harold Camping is doing, and is continuing to do; to people who, incredibly, still sincerely believe in him. Many families' finances have been destroyed; some families have been broken apart; some individuals have left their jobs, some have left their churches, and their livelihoods; only to find disillusionment and alienation.

I thank God for his mercy to me because, many years ago, I almost joined a cult. That cult was named The Worldwide Church of God, run by Herbert W. Armstrong. Armstrong’s obsession was controlling his flock using an IBM 360 computer, getting enormous tithes from his followers, and having himself and his top ministers jet-setting all over the globe in Lear-jets. He also believed in Anglo-Israelism based on the false teaching of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. You can read about that topic in "The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible".

I had researched Armstrong during that time and had found a very revealing article in Harpers Magazine, the ‘April’ issue of 1975, titled “The Plain Truth About the Armstrongs and the World Tomorrow”. This article opened my eyes, and I then decided to find the error in other cults as well, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists who, at that time and in some cases still, were misled by false prophet Ellen G. White; Christian Science, which is really New Age; and "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", also known as the Mormon church.

For myself, within just a few years, because God had given me an interest in Bible Prophecy and Doctrine. I came to read and understand many books written by real scholars who had no ulterior motives other than to communicate God’s Word properly.

I now have more than 117 books. I would like to provide all of you reading this article with a brief listing of just a few of these books, which all of you should consider reading:

* “Things to Come” by J. Dwight Pentecost

* “When Will Jesus Come?” by Dave Hunt

* “The Return of the Lord” by J. F. Walvoord

I could provide more titles, but let these three books suffice. All three authors have one thing in common: they are all Dispensationalists; not Amillennialists, such as Harold Camping is. We Dispensationalists have come to this school of belief after careful consideration of the Scriptures, and it is my hope for everyone reading this article that all of you will learn Biblical Prophecy in a proper fashion, and not in the false, negative, and destructive way that Harold Camping is teaching this important and timely subject.

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Chris Mangan