Posted on 05/19/2011 8:20:38 PM PDT by virtuous
Way back when (1984?) my old man gave me a little book called “99 Reasons why the Rapture will occur in 1988”. My Dad wasn’t over-the-top with the actual date and year, but he sure thought the return of Jesus was coming soon. And lived a life worthy of that.
He died in 1988.
We are all dying a little bit every day, that much closer to eternity.
"Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 Jn. 2:15).
Do we not all love some of the things of this world? Do we not all sorrow for unbelieving loved ones for whom, regardless of the date, it will be too late? Yet can we see this within us and use it to spur us on, to evaluate our love for God in comparison to the things of this world? We, all of us, struggle in this way.
Oops - the book was “88 Reasons why the Rapture will occur in 1988”, by Edgar C. Whisenant. And written in 1988!
He wrote a second book in 1989, about why the rapture would occur in 1989!! (Seems he messed up slightly with the Gregorian vs. modern calendar!)
This is buffoonery.
What nonsense would that be?
That this loon can predict the end of the world.
Amen.
LLS
I will be HIS sword if HE will have me.
LLS
I think the end of the world has happened lots of times
I think Camping wrote that book also.
Gotcha. your first statement was a little ambiguous.
I think the Scriptures that I referenced dovetail perfectly with Declaration's outline.
Yes. Many people claim to "know Christ" but they know nothing of Him because they do not read or believe in Scripture (more specifically, the Bible).
For example, a common lie that is perpetrated about Christ was that he was a non-violent person who would never hurt a fly (we heard Bill Maher recently claim this). This is clearly refuted by the actions Jesus took when He cleansed the Temple... which we'd know nothing about were it not for Scripture.
Another common lie was that Jesus was a "socialist" who advocated for government to redistribute wealth to the poor. Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus claim this. Jesus does teach that Christians are obligated to help the poor out of our own pockets and efforts. On top of that, the Parable of the Talents teaches very clearly what Jesus thought about work, money and investing.
I really don't know. To me, whenever someone goes so far off the deep end and makes a blasphemous prediction like this, there's no real way to determine what he'll do next. My guess is that he will pick another date, as you mentioned.
The sad part of this is that he led so many people astray.
So, by your own definition Camping is a false prophet. If anyone has made Harold Camping look foolish, it is none other than ...Harold Camping himself.
I heard he has made several million dollars off this thing. Selling the Rapture is good business it seems.
“My scientist uncle at Harvard studied Campings calculation using a supercomputer there, and tells me that the man could very well be correct.”
Honestly, that statement is one of the funniest things I have read on FR in a while.
“My uncle used a supercomputer to study whether something was right and the answer was ‘maybe’”
I’ve been known to be ambiguous on purpose!
:-)
Numerology has no place in Christianity. Please show us where Scripture says that scoffing at numerologists is wrong...
That said, I think Camping's interpretations are questionable. Here's why:
According to Camping, 23 means destruction, based on two scriptures (23,000 killed in one day as judgment; 2,300 days of misery mentioned in Daniel). Two scriptures seem tenuous for making this connection.
According to Camping, 17 means Heaven, based on connections with that number.
According to Camping, 10 means completeness.
According to Camping, 5 means atonment, based on .5 sheckles for sin offering.
3 means from God, God's will, etc.
Why do hese numbers apply to number of days from the flood? According to Camping, 5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17 = 722,500 days from the flood on May 21st, 4090 BC (according to our calendar).
Why was the flood in 4990 BC? Why is the earth 13,000 years old, as Mr. Camping believes? So you see, even WITH the numerology this kind of thing is rife with error.
Probability-wise, based on strength of correlation between the numbers and their associated conceptional meanings, and a semantical unpacking of them to mean days... I guess Camping's interpretation is as good as any other in its situation at a statistical spike in the probability domain.
It's best, though, to try to be ready in season and out of season, and to live every day as though it were our last.
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