Apocalypse Revised: Lemmings Beware

-- by Micheal

Harold Camping was wrong about the date of the Rapture, again. He let his overconfidence in his cleverness paint him into a corner. How could he now just admit he was flat-out wrong? True to form, he has fudged on the event that took place on May 21st, rather than admit his convoluted numerology was wrong.

Now, Camping claims that May 21st was the deadline for salvation. The world will be destroyed on October 21st. Anyone who wasn't saved by May 21st, is just plain doomed.

This is far from the first time that date-setters have spiritualized their (apparently) failed predictions. When William Miller's prediction of the Rapture occurring in 1844 didn't pan out, those Millerites who did not drift away in The Great Disappointment spiritualized it. Christ didn't return to EARTH, but he descended from one level of heaven to one closer to earth. See? The date wasn't wrong. Miller just misunderstood Christ's travel plans. Christ would make the next step closer to earth in the near future. Please stand by.

A disappointed former Millerite, Nelson Barbour regained his zeal for dates. He predicted that Christ would return in 1874. Christ did not appear. Instead, this "event" was spiritualized. Christ did not APPEAR, you see, but instead set up his invisible "millennial" kingdom in which he rules the earth -- invisibly. The Rapture, Barbour said, would occur in 1878. When this did not happen, there was yet another great disappointment among his Adventists.

Many fell away, including C.T. Russell, who, disappointed and angry as he was, carried on the doom banner with his new splinter group, later named Jehovah's Witnesses. Russell, keeping Barbour's date of 1874 as the start of Christ's invisible reign, figured it would last 40 years (not a thousand, per Revelation 20:2-7). Therefore, the world would end in October 1914. While 1914 was not a good year, the world didn't end. This date, too, got spiritualized. Something ended in October 1914. It just wasn't the whole world. Russell's successors would predict the end(s) many more times. 1925, 1941, 1975, etc. Something, we're told, really did happen on those dates. It just turned out to be spiritual (and invisible) and not fire falling from the skies, moon turning to blood, or ANY of the stuff in the Book of Revelation. Don't any of these guys read the whole book?

Now Camping is following in the tradition of failed date-setters. Keep the date, but move the goal posts. Now the date to watch is October 21st. He says it's the end of the world, but as we've seen, just what happens on a particular date is very much ripe for revision.

Doom For Dollars?

Fox News reported that Camping's organization took in $18 Million in donations in 2009. His organization has a stated worth of $104 million. $34 million of that is socked away in securities. If the world is going to end soon, why would Camping be buying stocks and securities? Think about it. How many thousands of hapless lemmings have given Camping their life savings (I mean, who needs it if the world is ending, right?) to pay for Camping's ad campaign?

Lemmings Awake! Turn back! Don't give Camping and his organization any more of your money. It smells like a cruel scam. Even if Camping were sincere, (and he's been sincerely wrong twice now), it's still pointless. If the world is going to end in October, your money won't do any more good in HIS stock portfolio than it will in your scanty checking account.

If you think the world is ending soon. and are truly worried about the lost souls around you, tell them what you know about Christ. That's what Jesus said to do (Matthew 28:19). Of course, now that Camping has made the gospel look incredibly stupid, this will be an even tougher job than it was before. Thanks Harold.

How many thousands has Camping actually convinced to stay aboard the train to hell because he made salvation look stupid?