Here is my prediction that I will make for what will happen after May 21 comes and goes and Harold Camping is again wrong about setting the date for the return of Jesus:
1. Camping possibly will offer a modified position saying that after studying the Scriptures he now sees that he was off a bit on the date and so he will set another date. He has done this before when his other dates were wrong. Sadly, his followers will allow him to name another date yet again.
2. Many will be greatly dissappointed. I know of one man via Facebook who has bought into Camping’s errors and he has nearly given away all of his belongings, has quit his job, and is going around trying to share the gospel with as many people as he can (which usually seems to be more about judgement coming on May 21 then about Jesus or His atonement). This man will wake up May 22 to see that Jesus did not return when Camping said he would and now he has sold everything and is broke and will walk around in shame.
3. Some will wrestle with the Scriptures about Jesus’ coming. Make no doubt about it, Jesus will come back (Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) but I also believe that many of the passages used by those who hold to the rapture of the Church, dispensationalism, etc. were meant for the first century Church. The “time texts” are so grossly overlooked in modern prophetic writings (Revelation 1:3; 22:10; cf. Matthew 24:34; 1 John 2:18). What does near mean? Was Jesus lying when He said that He would return to those standing there with Him in Matthew 16:27-28? The famous atheist Bertrand Russell said that Matthew 16:27-28 shows that the Bible has errors and that Jesus was mistaken because this didn’t happen as Jesus said it would. Had someone shown Russell that Jesus did return in judgment against Israel in A.D. 70, perhaps Russell would have searched further into Christianity. It is because of men such as Camping that I hold to partial preterism.
4. The media will mock Camping and sadly all of Christianity.
5. Date setting will continue. Cults have been setting dates for years (see the terrible history of the Jehovah’s Witness over this one).
6. Some will teach that Jesus did return but He returned another way. Perhaps they will say that He came back invisibly like the Jehovah’s Witness teach concerning their failed prophecy that Jesus would return in 1914 or soon thereafter. The JW’s instead teach that Jesus did return but no one saw Him and He now lives in Brooklyn, New York leading God’s anointed movement, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. I wonder if Jesus pulls for the Yankees or the Mets living in Brooklyn?
7. I noticed that Camping and his grew wisely left a loophole on their signs by posting Jonah 3:9 as a reference. Camping and his followers will happily announce on May 22 that God has heard our cries and He has seen that we have repented and He is not coming in judgment. What joy that will be to Camping and his followers! So rather than saying that they were wrong about the date, they will in turn say that God heard the repenting hearts crying out to Him and He is withholding His hand until a later time. The fact that their are wrong on other issues involving the secret rapture will not be debated.
8. And finally, Camping might announce that the way that God is now beginning His judgment is by removing the Holy Spirit. This would mean that we couldn’t see this take place and that it would take time for society to see the implications of the Spirit being gone. Of course, if you are a pre-tribulation theory believer, this will do damage to your theory that the Spirit will leave with the Church in the rapture. Camping and dispensationalists base this theory on 2 Thessalonians 2:7. They say that the Spirit or perhaps the Church must be removed to allow the Antichrist to come upon the scene. While I don’t believe that there is a person named Antichrist who will appear, the verse is problematic and not the purpose of this blog or post but I do reject Camping’s views that the Holy Spirit must leave the world to set up the end times events they see described in Revelation.
© 2011, Matt. All rights reserved.
