quite a few years ago i used to listen to harold camping on the radio. my one impression of those days was being annoyed with what appeared to me to be a good bit of arrogance and rudeness on his part in interacting with people who called in.
then, in the years leading up to 1994, i heard that hc had written a book with that year as the title in which he claimed that Jesus Christ would return to earth in 1994. being familiar with where Jesus said to His disciples that'no man knows the day or the hour, not even - i believe He says - the Son of man (Himself), but only the Father in heaven, i kind of laughed this off wondering how hc would feel when the day came and went.
late last year i heard that once again hc was predicting the return of Christ on may 21, 2011 didn't he learn the first time!? after the first reaction of incredulity and amazement at what i'll call his chutzpah...after a while i was drawn to listen to him for the first time in many years. i wanted to take a read on him. didn't he learn the first time'? wasn't he ashamed to repeat 'the monstrous' setting aside of scripture? what kind of man is this? is he a false prophet or a cult leader type? just what is he like!!!?
tuning in i was pleasantly surprised. his spirit was humble. he was earnest for the Lord. he didn't have much time for people who just wanted to argue but was very tender with those who humbly sought to understand God's word better. he seemed to have a genuine heart of an under shepherd who cared for the Lord's sheep. he saw himself as a wicked sinner deserving the eternal wrath of God. he did not claim anything for himself. although he staunchly defended his reasoning and really believed it to be correct, he did not give the least impression of trusting that HE was right, but always said on repeated occasions that only the Bible is right. he said that we who desire to follow God need to humbly but diligently study the Bible and not depend on the teaching of any man, himself included.
....a very pleasant surprise. like a drink of cool water in the shade coming out of the burning heat of multitudes of great orthodox-in-the-faith men who have all their theological t's crossed and their i's dotted but are found wanting in the above qualities.
make no mistake about it. hc is wrong on the date setting, but he is sincerely, you-need-to-trust-the-Bible-not-me wrong rather than false prophet wrong. he seems to be following hard after the Lord. as soon as he came back on the radio after may 21 explaining that he hadn't realized that the coming of the Lord was spiritual (i believe that other date setters have said the same when their dates passed) rather than in a series of great earthquakes and physical destruction around the world. he still holds to october 21, 2011 as the date of the end of the world. if he had not had a stroke in june, hc, i believe, would be earnestly and sincerely teaching this as well....and then beginning to make further adjustments on the 22nd again.
i look at hc as i look at myself and others: we all have our constitutional weaknesses. in listening into his teaching on the book of ruth and other teaching i see a man given to spiritualizing the truth. every word signifies some truth. if taken with a grain of salt...if viewed from the vantage point that all of us are fallible and the best any one of us can do is, to some degree of imperfection, try to see and try to help other men see truth which falls as close to the Truth as possible....hc's teaching for the most part is very edifying. but he does have this spiritualizing bent and it has contributed significantly to his continued mistakenness of date setting.
this has no doubt 'hurt' christians, given the unsaved cause to make fun and possibly blaspheme God. God is big enough to use all these things for His own glory in the long run. if each person who has unduly put their trust in hc rather than in the Lord takes a thoughtful look, that person will soon be 'righted' when reflecting on hc's continual pointing away from himself the Living Word and the written word His Spirit inspired.
likewise hc's teaching that the devil has entered all the local churches and that all true believers in them should get out and gather informally in their homes the pith of this seems to be his impression that the leadership of the churches is wicked...so we are to do without leadership, buildings, committees etc.
this teaching to abandon the local churches at this time has at lea this can be answered by going to hebrews 10.25 where we are commanded:
1. NOT to FORSAKE the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but
2. to ENCOURAGE one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.
my personal view of the current church in so much as i have had actual contact with different groups is that for the most part these groups have a name that they live but are dead as john writes the message of Jesus to the church of sardis in revelation 3.2. Jesus does not cast that church aside but encourages them in their dire position to WAKE UP and to STRENGTHEN THE THINGS THAT REMAIN which must otherwise die. i believe that is exactly what should happen in most local churches today. they are on a slippery slope to becoming a synagogue of satan. why?
1. let's start at the top. the leaders, be they ever so orthodox and correct in what they say they believe are not preaching to the actual sins of the people. ie. when is the last time you heard a message on greed.
2. the leaders are not showing by the example of their lives what a disciple of Jesus should do. when is the last time you had a pastor who simply put a little box on the back wall into which the church could put any offerings they wanted to give for his support? do they not join us in living a life beyond food and raiment.
3. the people, including myself!, are not consistently obeying the clear commandments of scripture. ie. when is the last time time you rebuked another believer for their sin or were rebuked by another believer for yours in accordance with Jesus' command in luke 17.3?
the part of the church i have experienced in my life seems markedly like the pharisee dominated synagogue system of Jesus' day which involved:
1. the open judging of other's sins
2. an attitude of self-righteousness
3. a life of hypocrisy
4. a clinging to 'position' and power whether in the church or out of it
5. a practice of the commandments and teaching they themselves make up
6. a hatred of the truth
that is a broad brush. there is still some, spiritual life and some exceptional believers but rampant death and spiritual decay throughout.
j.l.duncan and mark r. talbot talk about 'pastoral discipline'. that is a misnomer. pastors do not discipline but rather the church matthew 18.17 teaches that and if the bible says that the church is to administer discipline...'you (spoken to the disciples) are to treat him as a tax gatherer and a sinner...then there is no such thing as pastoral discipline. if the bible says that each true believer has the anointing and is in no need for man to teach him why are pastors determining correct doctrine in the church?
hc's mistakeness is in the letter, He is true to God and His word in spirit. mistaken on the date of the consummation of the world and the local church under the rule of satan, he is right on about the fact of the church's low estate (a la revelation 3.1,2), the leadership's authority in the church apart from the Bible and the imminent possibility of the 'return' of Christ for any living man (lk 12.41-6)
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