The Coming and Going of May 21, 2011: Why Harold Camping's Doomsday Prediction Will Fail.
William Miller predicted Jesus’ second coming would be on October 22, 1844. Rev. M. Baxter of the Church of England predicted the Battle of Armageddon would occur in 1868. Former Millerites turned Seventh-day Adventist set 1874 as the year of Christ’s return. Jehovah’s Witnesses struck out with predictions of Christ return in 1914, 1925, and 1975. Hal Lindsey in The Late Great Planet Earth predicted the rapture would occur before December 31, 1981. Lester Sumrall said I Predict 2000. Edgar Whisenant thought between September 11 and 13 of 1988. The Korean Hyoo-goo movement predicted October 28, 1992. Grant Jeffery though the end would be in 2000.1 The common denominator of these doomsday predictions, and all others, they are 100% wrong 100% of the time. So when Harold Egbert Camping predicted the rapture would occur in September 7, 1994, no one should have believed him then, and now that he is saying its May 21, 2011, we can be certain this doomsday date prediction will also fail.
Harold Camping uses convoluted millennial mathematics to come up with his May 21, 2011 prediction, which includes going to 2 Peter 3:8, misinterpreting it to mean “a days is that a thousand years and a thousand years a day,” then presuming to know the flood “occurred in 4990 BC” he reason “if we go seven days, that is 7000 years from there, we land on the year 2011.”2 In an NPR feature, he declared, “Oh, it will be a horror story beyond measure...With all the proof that God has given us and all the signs, I am absolutely certain it is going to happen. There is no Plan B.”3 However, 2 Peter 3:8 is not offering a key to measuring time. Peter is noting with God “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand like one day.” It is simply incorrect to think “like” means “equals.” This kind of faulty biblical interpretation is part and parcel of doomsday false prophecies. What Peter wants to communicate in 2 Peter 3:8 is that God is merciful and gives people all the time they need to repent, so that when judgment day comes, those condemned would have never repented under any circumstances.
No one knows the date of Christ’s return. The great tribulation that the Jesus Christ spoke about in Matthew 24:1-28 concerns the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. John also received an apocalyptic vision about the same great tribulation, which he wrote about in Revelation 6-19. The Jewish people who rejected the person and work of Jesus committed a great sin, for He was their long awaited Messiah, who also performed a once for all sacrifice for their sin. It was certainly a great abomination to continue animal sacrifices in the temple after God incarnate had performed the last sacrifice to atone for the sin of the world (Heb 6-10). Within a generation of Christ saying “not one stone here will be left upon another” the city and temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome (Matt. 24:34).
When the Lord spoke about “the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY” (Matt. 24:29-31), He was not communicating about the second coming per se; rather, He was using images from the Old Testament prophets to tell of a divine judgment in history concerning the destruction of a sinful nation (Isa. 19:1 cf. Matt. 26:62) and the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy concerning the succession of nations culminating with the emergence of a kingdom that would never be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14). Christ used final consummation language in reference to a coming divine judgment in the near future; however, there is a manifold application to this truth, and there is warning for all to repent or face ultimate tribulation in eternal condemnation.
Since we know what Christ predicted about the near future came to pass, we can be certain that what He predicted about the distant future shall likewise come to pass. We do not know when this will happen, but the Lord said, “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” The author of Hebrews wrote, “inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been ofference once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” (Heb. 9:27-28). Paul also writes, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
We do not know when judgment day will commence, but we are certain it shall come, for the Word of the Lord never fails. “Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18).
1. Cf. Richard Abanes, End –Time Visions: The Doomsday Obsession (Nashville, TN: B&H, 1998), 335-340.
2. Harold Camping Open Forum, 29 June 2004
3. NPR, All Things Considered, “Divining Doomsday: An Old Practice With New Tricks,” http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=136239062
Harold Camping uses convoluted millennial mathematics to come up with his May 21, 2011 prediction, which includes going to 2 Peter 3:8, misinterpreting it to mean “a days is that a thousand years and a thousand years a day,” then presuming to know the flood “occurred in 4990 BC” he reason “if we go seven days, that is 7000 years from there, we land on the year 2011.”2 In an NPR feature, he declared, “Oh, it will be a horror story beyond measure...With all the proof that God has given us and all the signs, I am absolutely certain it is going to happen. There is no Plan B.”3 However, 2 Peter 3:8 is not offering a key to measuring time. Peter is noting with God “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand like one day.” It is simply incorrect to think “like” means “equals.” This kind of faulty biblical interpretation is part and parcel of doomsday false prophecies. What Peter wants to communicate in 2 Peter 3:8 is that God is merciful and gives people all the time they need to repent, so that when judgment day comes, those condemned would have never repented under any circumstances.
No one knows the date of Christ’s return. The great tribulation that the Jesus Christ spoke about in Matthew 24:1-28 concerns the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. John also received an apocalyptic vision about the same great tribulation, which he wrote about in Revelation 6-19. The Jewish people who rejected the person and work of Jesus committed a great sin, for He was their long awaited Messiah, who also performed a once for all sacrifice for their sin. It was certainly a great abomination to continue animal sacrifices in the temple after God incarnate had performed the last sacrifice to atone for the sin of the world (Heb 6-10). Within a generation of Christ saying “not one stone here will be left upon another” the city and temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome (Matt. 24:34).
When the Lord spoke about “the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY” (Matt. 24:29-31), He was not communicating about the second coming per se; rather, He was using images from the Old Testament prophets to tell of a divine judgment in history concerning the destruction of a sinful nation (Isa. 19:1 cf. Matt. 26:62) and the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy concerning the succession of nations culminating with the emergence of a kingdom that would never be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14). Christ used final consummation language in reference to a coming divine judgment in the near future; however, there is a manifold application to this truth, and there is warning for all to repent or face ultimate tribulation in eternal condemnation.
Since we know what Christ predicted about the near future came to pass, we can be certain that what He predicted about the distant future shall likewise come to pass. We do not know when this will happen, but the Lord said, “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” The author of Hebrews wrote, “inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been ofference once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” (Heb. 9:27-28). Paul also writes, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
We do not know when judgment day will commence, but we are certain it shall come, for the Word of the Lord never fails. “Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18).
1. Cf. Richard Abanes, End –Time Visions: The Doomsday Obsession (Nashville, TN: B&H, 1998), 335-340.
2. Harold Camping Open Forum, 29 June 2004
3. NPR, All Things Considered, “Divining Doomsday: An Old Practice With New Tricks,” http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=136239062
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