False Prophets Destroy Christian Credibility

Some professing Christians do so much to give others one more excuse to mock God. Something I've known about for a while now is now making the rounds in MSM, giving Christendom a back eye. Tom Breen of the Associated Press reported a while on those who are setting dates for the "end of the world".

If there had been time, Marie Exley would have liked to start a family. Instead, the 32-year-old Army veteran has less than six months left, which she'll spend spreading a stark warning: Judgment Day is almost here.

Exley is part of a movement of Christians loosely organized by radio broadcasts and websites, independent of churches and convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011.

How is Marie going to feel when she realizes she made major life decisions based on false prophecies?

In August, Exley left her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to work with Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio Worldwide, the independent Christian ministry whose leader, Harold Camping, has calculated the May 21 date based on his reading of the Bible.

Yes, and Harold Camping also wrote a book that claimed that 1994 was going to be the year. Look it up. If we were living in a certain time and place, Camping would have been stoned to death as a false prophet. Instead, dupes send him money.

Camping, 89, believes the Bible essentially functions as a cosmic calendar explaining exactly when various prophecies will be fulfilled.

The Bible documents God's love for us, and teaches us how to have fellowship with God. It isn't there so we will guess about the dates of future events.

The retired civil engineer said all his calculations come from close readings of the Bible, but that external events like the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948 are signs confirming the date.

"Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment," he said.

Camping and everyone who believes this should be willing to sign a legal document right now that transfers ownership of all of their worldly possessions as of May 22, 2011 to those who don’t believe this.

The doctrine known as the Rapture teaches that believers will be taken up to heaven, while everyone else will remain on earth for a period of torment, concluding with the end of time. Camping believes that will happen in October.

The doctrine of pretribulational premillennialism (on which the Left Behind series is based) is just one of many models to explain what the future holds. The non-negotiable in orthodox Christian doctrine is that things will not continue as they are now – Jesus Christ will return in visible, bodily form, bringing judgment and an end to this age. Some people are going to have eternal life in fellowship with Him, and others will spend eternity without that fellowship. Other than that, some Christians believe nothing else has to happen before that moment arrives, others think there is going to a special future Tribulation period, and some of those people believe that also believe that Christians will be taken away at the beginning of that period, to return later with Christ.

One important thing is that the Bible teaches nobody knows the day or the hour. Camping tries to get around this, but there is no getting around it.

"If May 21 passes and I'm still here, that means I wasn't saved. Does that mean God's word is inaccurate or untrue? Not at all," Warden said.

Think of how many people are going to be disillusioned. It has happened may times before.

The Book of Revelation, which comes last in the New Testament, describes this conclusion in vivid language that has inspired Christians for centuries.

Some Christians believe that the book, except for the last couple of chapters, is more about what was going on in the first century Church and what the Church was facing in the coming years.

For me, the bottom line is to focus on God like today could be my last day of this life – because it could be, even if it is the end of my life but not the end of the world. But I also need to plan and work as though I’ll have to take care of myself and my family for the rest of the century. I have thrown myself on His mercy, because I have sinned against Him. I look to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, recognizing that He paid for my sins on the cross.

For intelligent Christian teaching and analysis that isn't alarmist nor based on false prophecies, I recommend these websites, among others. And not all of these websites agree on everything, by the way:

Stand to Reason
Christian Think Tank
Please Convince Me
J.P. Moreland
William Lane Craig
Walter Martin
Christian Research Institute
Reasons to Believe
R.C. Sproul
Norm Geisler
Answers in Action