“The View” on Harold Campings Doomsday Prophecy
A Family Radio spokesman had “guaranteed” that the May 21st rapture date was “the day”! May 21 was the date Harold Camping had predicted would bring the judgment of God upon the world. That day was to be marked by an immense, global earthquake, but the day came and went without worldwide incident—and without the occurrence of the rapture of the Church.
Though some of his followers depleted their savings to help prepare for May 21 and suffered humiliation for the false prediction, on Monday, Camping remained undaunted. In fact, he came out with a new prediction. Camping now claims that the actual judgment day is October 21. According to him, that is when God will destroy the world.
So how does he explain his “miss” on May 21? Well, he missed, but he didn’t. Camping’s current explanation of the failed prediction of May 21 is that Jesus really DID come on May 21—and God DID complete His judgment—only in a spiritual way rather than in a physical manifestation. So, apparently, he didn’t really get the prophecy wrong; he just misunderstood the information before him.
Based on his new understanding, he escapes being a false prophet. (Well, there is that time in 1994 when he predicted the end of the world. But, wait; that was just another instance of mistaking the data before him. He wasn’t really wrong then, either.) With this new explanation, he can put off ultimate humiliation—at least for another five months; and then, perhaps he can come up with another explanation.
Mr. Camping never would have been in this position had he approached the Bible seeking to understand it with a “plain sense,” or contextual, interpretation. That is, if he had looked for the clues of the Author’s (God’s) intent of His meaning of verses and passages within the context, he would never have predicted the rapture and judgment of God on May 21, nor would he be predicting the end of the world on October 21.
It is true that the Bible is a unique book in the sense that it is ultimately authored by God (using the personalities and writing styles of the humans He chose to communicate His word), originally given without error and perfect in its communication. However, since God sought to communicate to people via the Bible, He conveyed His truth in ways humans would understand. Because of this, the Bible is to be interpreted like any great literature, looking for clues in the context for the meaning intended by the author. But that is NOT what Harold Camping did!
Instead, Camping misused verses such as Daniel 8:14; 2 Peter 3:8; and Revelation 9:5 to arrive at his speculative conclusion. The Daniel and 2 Peter verses provided him with the computational application (though very wrong!) he “needed” to arrive at his failed rapture prediction, while the Revelation verse (pulled completely out of context!) enabled him to “see” the October 21 prediction.
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