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Harold Camping: A Man with No Shame! - John S. Torell

 

I wrote an article about Harold Camping being a false prophet in 1994 that was in response to his book, “1994?” that he had been hawking on Family Radio or as it is officially known, Family Stations, Inc., since 1992. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote:

“I have been a daily listener to Family Radio since 1969 and Camping’s heresy has gotten so bad that he has lost control of himself. Some of the wonderful staff either quit the network or were fired, as he streamlined the organization to be a group of rubberstamping ‘yes-men,’ who would admire and accept everything Harold would come up with. In 1992, the religious spirits from Satan completely took him over as he wrote a book titled, ‘1994,’ in which he predicted that Jesus’ second coming was to take place between September 15th and 27th in the year 1994. Camping pushed his book frequently on the radio, teaching from it on his program, “Open Forum” and other Bible teaching sessions. When September 1994 rolled around and Jesus did not return, Harold worked like a showman who is caught and said that he had not understood the message from God, but predicted a new date which was good. The date was afterward changed eight times until he settled for the year 2008. Look at the following dates:

1.   September 6, 1994?  (Subsequently extended a few days, given the slight variations in the ancient calendars). 

2.    September 15, 1994, the Jewish Day of Atonement? 

3.    September 25, 1994, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles? 

4.    October 4, 1994, the actual birthday of Jesus as calculated by Camping? 

5.   December 25, 1994, our traditional celebration of Christmas and Christ’s incarnation and birth, based on the statement in Revelation 11:10 that the enemies of God’s people would ‘send gifts one to another?’

6.     February 25, 1995, the Jewish feast of Purim?

7.   May 3, 1996, when he was so sure of this date that he devoted several Open Forum programs to explain how the ‘four watches’ (alluded to in Mark 13:35) extended the date until September 6, 1994. 

8.    His current teaching, that September 6, 1994 was the right date after all, but it was for the beginning of the Great Tribulation, not Judgment Day.  Simple arithmetic would put the return of the Lord no later than 2008.”

Very few people listening to Family Radio in 2010 remember all the fancy footwork that Harold did in 1994. He changed the dates of the return of Jesus eight times and then finally settled on the year 2008 is not something Harold Camping wants to remember or anybody else for that matter. The year 2008 came and went, and true to his arrogance, it didn’t bother Camping at all that he was wrong again. Once a person has become a liar, it is easy to lie again, and so he set the new date of Jesus’ return to May 21, 2011.

In his 543 page book, Camping outlined in great detail that Jesus was going to return to the earth and this would be the end of history. Here is an excerpt from his conclusion:

The material set forth in this book has been researched with great care. Care was constantly exercised to make sure that no Biblical data was forced or fudged to make it fit into a preconceived idea. Every attempt was made to be faithful to the Bible. The results of this study indicate that the month of September of the year 1994 is to be the end of history.”[1]

Harold Camping is not a man that worries about being a liar and shame is not a word in his vocabulary. Even though the Bible refutes him in three places, setting a date for the coming of Jesus does not bother him. Look at these Bible verses:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” Matthew 24:29-36

“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Mark 13:26-32

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Acts 1:6-7

In the same book, Harold writes:

“We must be cautious. There could be something that has been overlooked. In view of the many paths that I have found that focus on 1994, it seems extremely unlikely that we have overlooked something. However I modestly and humbly acknowledge that such a possibility exists.”[2]

And then he writes the following:

“At the beginning of this study I said that during the last twenty years I have answered the question concerning the end of the world with the statement. ‘I will be very surprised if we reach the year 2000 A.D.’ After having done this study I now say equally carefully, ‘I will be surprised if we reach October 1, 1994.’

“The conclusion that we are only months away from the end of the world and Judgment Day is, of course, super awesome. Suddenly more than five billion people individually must face the fact that very soon they will stand before God to give an account of their lives. Wonderfully, those who believe they are saved have a little time to examine themselves in the light of the Bible teachings to make sure that they truly are saved. If there were ever a time for self-examination, it is now.

“Anyone who decides that he does not believe the fact that the end is so close can do so, but he will be like the proverbial ostrich that sticks his head in the sand. His unbelief will not in any way change the reality of the fact of Christ’s return.

“By God’s mercy there are a few months left. However, if this study is accurate, and I believe with all my heart that it is, there will be no extensions in time. There will be no time for second guessing. When September 6, 1994, arrives, no one else can become saved. The end has come.”[3]

Harold Camping has made the following statements:

1.  The month of September 1994 is the end of the world.

2.  There is a possibility that he could be wrong on the timing.

3.  He will be surprised if October 1, 1994 rolls in and Jesus has not come.

4.  He finally sets the date of the return of Jesus to September 6, 1994.

Camping knew very well that thousands of Family Radio listeners believed what he had been telling them, but he was a “smart cookie” and made sure that there was enough wiggle room if his predictions did not come through and made this damnable statement:

It should be emphasized that this is not a time for theological debate. Someone may say, ‘I don’t believe it will happen because this is not what we Baptists or Methodists or Presbyterians, or whatever, teach.’ The time for that kind of argumentation is long past. The only thing to do is carefully check out these things using the Bible alone as your guide. There is no time left to trust your pastor or your church. You must trust only the Bible.”[4]

Harold Camping is a horrible liar! If a person only trusts in the Bible, he will find three specific references where Jesus said that no one would be able to predict His second coming. But when people brought up this argument to Camping, he dismissed it with his droning voice saying something like, “…this is not what Jesus meant, and I know better than you.” The sad thing is that thousands of the radio listeners believed this lie and were fooled.

Camping has pulled in a large sum of money from this book sale since he sold it for $14.95 and hawked it on the radio for two years. Sometime after his prediction had failed, I bought a used copy of the book of lies for one dollar because I knew even back then that someday he would come back with a new spin and a new date.

Another sad thing is that his book was translated into many different languages, one of them being the Russian language. The Soviet Union had just broken up in 1991, when Camping and his companions poisoned the Christian Church in Russia, which at that time was gobbling up everything coming from the West, since they were fed up with the Communists. The Devil is cruel, as he inspired Camping and his followers at Family Radio to destroy the Christian faith in Russia. Today, the majority of the Christians in Russia will have nothing to do with anything that comes from America and for this we can thank Harold Camping, the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley and the entire “name it and claim it movement” led by Kenneth Copeland and the rest of the clones from Kenneth Hagin’s Bible School Rhema in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

SOME BACKGROUND ON HAROLD CAMPING

Harold Egbert Camping was born on July 19, 1921, in Colorado, and while a child, his family moved to California. He graduated from the University of California, Berkley, in 1942, at the age of 21 with a B.S. Degree in Civil Engineering but has never had any formal theological education.

When researching for information on Camping, it becomes clear that someone has carefully chosen what information is available to the public. When he graduated from college in 1942, WWII was raging and all able bodied male Americans were drafted, but what Camping did during the war has not been revealed to the public.

Camping is married with seven children and 24 grandchildren, but nothing is known about the family. He has not released the names of his wife or children. We don’t even know what year he was married.

Sometime after WWII was over in 1945, Camping started a construction company and named it, “Camping Construction Company.” According to official information from Family Radio, he later sold his corporation, but I have been unable to find any official website of this company and the only thing search results on the web found is a lawsuit between Camping Construction and Labor Unions in the 1980’s and possible lawsuits relating to asbestos injuries of workers.

It is also a lie that Harold Camping is the founder of Family Radio. The truth is that the Family Stations, Inc. was founded by Richard Palmquist, who filed the Articles of Incorporation and negotiated for tax exempt status with the IRS. At that time Harold Camping was the owner of Camping Construction Company and Palmquist met with Harold in April 1958 and asked him to help finance the start of a Christian radio station in San Francisco. On February 4, 1959, Palmquist and a small staff started to operate radio station KEAR in San Francisco. The station was purchased with a $20,000 down payment and monthly payments thereafter. Palmquist remained at the radio station until around 1964 when Harold had firmly entrenched himself in the corporation due to the financial help from his construction company.

In 1978, Camping showed his business craftiness, when he sold the original station KEAR (97.3 FM) to CBS Inc. for two million dollars. This was a unique three way transfer, with Family Radio picking up radio station KMPX for one million dollars, as CBS Inc. sold its KCBS-FM (98.9) to the Golden Gate Radio company for $850,000.00.

Recently the old KMPX was traded for a powerful AM station in the San Francisco Bay Area, creating a multi-million dollar cash surplus, which is now being used by Camping to fund Family Radio and buy time on foreign radio stations around the world and spreading his message in more than 30 foreign languages.

In 1961, Camping began to host the “Open Forum” program, a live weeknight call-in program. This is now the platform he uses to teach his theological doctrine.

When Harold sold KEAR in San Francisco, he moved the headquarters to Oakland at 290 Hegenberger Road and was also the headquarters for Camping Construction Company, which was then blended with Family Radio.

In order to further mislead the listeners, the call letters KEAR were transferred to the new station in Oakland, and was transferred again at the last swap. The public has continually been held in the dark as to what was going on behind the scenes. It would be difficult for Camping and his underlings to ask for money from the listeners every hour if the people knew that they have cash reserves in the millions of dollars.

Camping and his wife have been members of the Alameda Bible Fellowship, which is a Christian Reformed Church (Dutch). In this church he served as an Elder and a Bible teacher, but he was expelled from the congregation in 1988 when he began to speak about the second coming of Jesus in 1994.

According to the official story from Family Radio, Camping sold his construction company and devoted his time and effort to being the President of Family Radio, its General Manager and hosting Open Forum. When this sale took place is not revealed to the public.

According to Family Radio, Harold Camping receives no salary even though he works full time for the network of some 140 radio stations in the United States. So how does Harold make a living and support his wife? It looks like his corporation doesn’t exist anymore and they were involved in a number of lawsuits in the 1980’s. Does Harold come from a wealthy family and live on inherited money?

Most likely Camping is doing the same thing as the top leaders in the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City wherein they have free housing and utilities, drive cars that belong to the church; they have clothing and food allowances and are given petty cash for personal needs. They have medical insurance with no out of pocket expense and all traveling is paid by the church. They live in homes that are furnished with everything needed from kitchen appliances to television sets. So who needs a salary with all these perks? Most likely this is the set up in which Harold Camping has been operating; he has been living high on the hog for many years while the radio listeners are told he draws no salary

Harold Camping is a shrewd operator, who has tightened his hold on the network. When I moved to Sacramento in 1975, Family Radio had a local station to which I listened on a daily basis. They carried some of the programming done at the headquarters in Oakland but there was a station manager in Sacramento with a small staff and they produced a number of local programs. The only local program remaining on some stations is “Prayer Time,” when a person from the area takes prayer requests. In time, Camping closed down local management and only broadcasting engineers were retained as he moved all production to Oakland. In order to make programs that fit all time zones, you never hear the Family Radio announcer give the precise time, instead they will say, “It is 15 minutes past the hour.”

In talking to people who are still work at Family Radio headquarters in Oakland and to those who have quit, they all tell the same story, Camping is a dictator who doesn’t allow dissent. Anyone not in agreement with him is fired.

Harold Camping is a reckless man who doesn’t care if the Family Radio network is destroyed, which in 2010 is worth around $122 million. By hyping that Jesus is now coming for sure on May 21, 2010, which is posted in large letters on their website homepage, he has encouraged thousands of people to refinance their homes and cash out as much as possible with the intent of never paying off these debts. Other people are running up their credit cards, claiming that they are robbing the Devil because they won’t have to pay this money back. Young people are making the decision not to marry and have children since the time is almost up.

It is obvious that the income is down at Family Radio, but Camping who is now 89 years old, doesn’t care that he is running the Family Radio network into the ground; he is convinced that Jesus is coming back on May 21, 2011. Nor does he care that he is wreaking havoc in the Christian community. He now has a reprobate mind and has become demonized to the point that he can no longer think clearly. He doesn’t even realize that he has become a mouthpiece for the Devil. God has spoken that when people reject the truth and begin to love the lie, God will send them strong delusion. Look at these Bible verses:

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12

BACK TO 1992

When I heard that Camping was teaching that Jesus would come back September 6, 1994, I decided to call Family Radio and asked to speak to someone in a management position. I asked if it was true that Camping was telling his listeners that Jesus would be coming back on September 6, 1994 and that this was the end of the world. The person told me that this was true and that they were getting ready for it. I then asked, “Is it possible that Camping can sign over Family Radio to me as a pastor, so that I can take it over when Jesus comes?” The answer was a firm “NO.”

I then asked, “Why do you ask for money to expand the network beyond September 6, 1994, if you are so sure that Jesus is coming back?” The person speaking with me said, “Not all of us here believe that Jesus is coming back on that date.” I then asked, “Why can’t Camping be removed from the station?” The answer was that this was the wish of many of the employees, but the Board of Directors was in the grip of Camping and no one could do anything. That was the end of my phone call.

SEPTEMBER 6, 1994

September 6th came and went and Jesus did not return to the earth. Harold was back on the air the next day and said there had been an error in his calculations. After much re-checking, he had found that Jesus was going to come before October was over. Well, October came and went and Jesus still had not come back.  Meanwhile, Family Radio kept asking for more money so they could continue.

There was no apology or retraction; instead, Camping changed subjects on Open Forum and totally ignored what he had been propagating for six years.  No one held Harold Camping responsible for falsely setting dates for Jesus’ return and misleading Christians to sell their homes, refinance or run up their credit card debts. Shame on all the staff and the board of directors at Family Radio!

HAROLD IS NOT DONE YET

After this colossal fiasco, Camping licked his wounds and the demons in him came up with a new scheme that he slowly began to reveal on his radio programs. Hoping that no one would remember his book, “1994?,” he wrote a new book in 2008 called, “We Are Almost There!” There is no place in this second book where he mentions anything about his first book and that he completely bombed out on his predictions. He is following the other cults like the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have over the years turned out many books with different predictions. When something does not happen, or a book is found to have errors, new books are printed and the old books are collected and discarded. Let me quote from his second book:

 “…There are exactly 50 years from one jubilee year to the next jubilee year. 1994 is the first jubilee year after 1948. It is exactly 2,000 years after the jubilee year of 7 B.C. when Christ, who is the very essence of the jubilee, was born.”[5]

Let me provide you with a short description of the Jubilee year for those of you who do not know what it is: When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, it was divided up and each family received a piece of land. Through poverty, a number of families were forced to sell their land, and in order to offset this, God instituted a law that at the Jubilee year, all property sold or lost would revert back to its original owner with any cost involved. Also, all Hebrew slaves were to be set free during this year and there was to be no farming during the year of Jubilee.

In looking at these numbers, you will see that Camping has made some great mistakes in his calculations. When we add 50 years to 1948, the correct number should be 1998, not 1994. Secondly, how can 1994 be exactly 2,000 years from 7 B.C.? 2,000 years from 7 B.C. is 2007.

Even a grade school student is able to pick up these mathematical errors. By looking at these errors, it should be clear that Harold doesn’t know what he is doing and no one has been checking his numbers.

THE END OF THE CHURCH AGE

Harold Camping is a shrewd businessman and will go to any length to get money for his empire. He began to teach that the church age had ceased to exist on May 21, 1988 and that all churches had been taken over by Satan. All Christians were to leave the churches. What was insinuated was that they should only listen to Harold because he was the only one that had the truth. Camping advocated that people should stop giving money to the churches and send it instead to Family Radio. In his book “We Are Almost There!,” he writes the following:

“…We will discover that some time earlier than 1994, God was finished using the churches to represent the kingdom of God. Thus, the wonderful jubilee year 1994 was a horrible year for the churches. All over the world, God was again saving countless numbers of people, but the churches remained under the spiritual rule of Satan. Truly, God was forever finished using the churches to represent the kingdom of God. The situation was just as it was in 1877 B.C., when the land of Canaan came under the complete rulership of the heathen, and in the year 587 B.C., when the land of Judea came under the rule of the king of Babylon…”[6]

With a stroke of his pen, Harold Camping nullified the following verses in the New Testament and in reality declared that Jesus had lost his body. There is no end to his arrogance and pride.

“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:15-23

Harold then goes on to say:

“…However, as we have already noted, the year 1994 was a jubilee year, at which time the Holy Spirit was poured out (Ezekiel 39:25-29; Joel 2:28-32), and a final great period of world wide evangelism was to take place. We would like to believe that this meant that the churches would again be used of God. However, as we are learning, the local churches that came into existence all over the world were typified by the temple, and God assures us that the time would come that the temple would be destroyed and there would not be left one stone upon another (Matthew 24:1-3). Nowhere do we read that the temple, spoken of in Matthew 24, was rebuilt after it was trodden down. That is, never again would God use any church to bring the Gospel to the world…”[7]

Using his radio empire, Camping continually drones on and on how believers in Christ should leave their church; pastors are to resign and stop being pastors, elders and deacons are to resign and no longer operate as elders and deacons. Harold Camping believes he has the final truth and Family Radio is the only organization left to rally around and should therefore be the only recipient of money from Christians.

THE GREAT TRIBULATION

Harold Camping is a better liar and deceiver than Joseph Smith (the founder of the Mormon Church), Charles Taze Russell (the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses), and Mohammad (founder of Islam). Here is what he writes in his book:

“…The information we have examined thus far assures us that the jubilee year 1994 was the end of a period of 2,300 days, during which virtually no one was being saved anywhere in the world. That fact helps us to discover the date of the end of the church age, which must coincide with the beginning of the 23-year (8,400-day) great tribulation. A time of 2,300 days is a few months longer than six years. Therefore, the end of the church age must have occurred six years earlier than the year 1994. Thus, it must have occurred in the year 1988.

“…to discover the precise day in 1988 when the church age came to an end, we must remember that the church age was linked to the ceremonial day of the feast of weeks, which is also called the day of Pentecost…

“…Since in the year 1988, Pentecost occurred on May 22, the last day of the church age would have been the day before May 22, which was May 21…

“…Thus, May 21, 1988, was the official end of the church age and the official beginning of the great tribulation…

“…Following the 2,300-day period, there are 6,100 days (8,400 – 2,300=6,100) remaining of the 23-year (8,400-day) period of the great tribulation. These 6,100 days, therefore, will end on May 21, 2011…”[8]

But Camping is not yet done because there is more spin in what he tells people:

“…Earlier we learned that the last day of this earth’s existence, as indicated by the observance of the feast of the tabernacles (feast of the Bible) is October 21, 2011. Thus, after the great tribulation there must be a final period of 153 days, which we will discover is the day of judgment, when God finishes His punishing process on the unsaved…”[9]

In order to make sure that the Christians listening to Family Radio are leaving the local churches, Camping wrote the following:

“…But the year 1994, in which God began the final 6,100 days of great salvation all over the world, was also a year of horror for the churches all over the world. The Holy Spirit was poured out so that outside of the churches, that is, completely independent of any church anywhere in the world, a great multitude, which no man could number, would become saved. At the same time, within the churches, the judgment process would continue. Satan, who had been installed in all of the churches at the beginning of the great tribulation, would continue to rule. God would continue to send a ‘strong delusion, that they should believe a lie’ (II Thessalonians 2:11). God would continue to prepare those in the churches for punishment.

“It is an enormous horror story for the churches. They, themselves, do not recognize this. They believe they are faithfully serving Christ. But the Bible gives us the truth. There never again will be the possibility of salvation occurring under the authority of a local church…”[10]

DOING AWAY WITH THE LAKE OF FIRE

In his final destruction of the Bible, Camping teaches that there will be no eternal torment for people who are unsaved; instead, they will simply cease to exist. He gives them a “hell” which will be in operation during the last five months of the earth while all of “Camping’s Christians” have been raptured and having a good time in heaven.

Camping has done away with the Antichrist, the False Prophet, the Mark of the Beast, the 1,000 years Kingdom, the Great White Throne Judgment and the Lake of Fire. According to Camping, these persons and events do not exist since he believes the Book of Revelation is an allegory and only those parts which fit his scheme are left in. Again, let me quote directly from his book:

“…Thus, we must understand that God is definitely declaring that he expects that all of the elect of God would absolutely know that the year 2011 is to be the end of the world…

“…Bur there is more to be said. We have learned that there is a five-month period of time that immediately follows the 8,400-day great tribulation period. What is happening during that time? This final month that begins on May 21, 2011, is intensely focused on God’s salvation plan as well as on His judgment plan. We will discover that on the first day of that five months, which is May 21, 2011, all of the true believers are to be raptured to be forever with Christ. We will also discover it is the day when the judgment of hell begins for all of the unsaved…

“…The essence of hell is to receive the payment of eternal destruction, to be destroyed forever. That is why these unsaved people are ruled over by Abaddon and Apollyon (Revelation 9:11), which are names that describe the essence of hell. Because they are in hell during these final five months of hell on earth, it is guaranteed that all of the unsaved will be destroyed forever. They never, never again will be alive. They, as well as the entire universe, will be annihilated. They cannot hurt the true believers who have the seal of God on their foreheads because the true believers are never to experience hell. The true believers will be raptured (caught up into heaven), the moment this final five months of hell on earth begins.”[11]

CAMPING HAS DESTROYED FAMILY RADIO

At this time it is almost impossible to save the radio network from destruction. If the staff and the Board of Directors were to silence Harold Camping and inform all the listeners that he is a false prophet and what he has been teaching since 1988 has been utter nonsense, most listeners would be so dejected that they would stop supporting the radio network. Many have gotten heavily into debt because they have believed Camping’s lies; others have sold off their homes and put everything into a final push to live for Jesus. People want to know why the staff or Board of Directors didn’t do anything to stop Camping when his predictions in 1994 did not come to pass?

What will happen when his prediction fails on May 21, 2011? Thousands upon thousands of listeners will be dejected, angry, and feel cheated that they will walk away from Family Radio forever. The staff who stayed with Camping have dug their own graves and no one will trust them in the future. They have burnt the bridge behind them and God will hold them just as responsible as Camping himself, who has a terrible judgment coming. Camping has no fear and wrote the following in bold letters:

 “We indeed can be certain that the rapture will occur on May 21, 2011, and the final day of the history of the world is October 21, 2011.”[12]

There has been some resistance from the staff at Family Radio, and I was given access to two written statements by employees at Family Radio in the mid 1990’s. They did not give their names for fear of being fired by Harold Camping.

“I am a Family Radio employee. You probably already know that some of us who disagree with Mr. Camping are staying on at Family Radio (for now) in the hopes that there will soon be some pieces to pick up and rebuild what has arguably been the premier radio outlet for the gospel message in much of the United States. We do our jobs as well as we can under the circumstances, not hiding our disagreement, but bearing up under the pressure to conform to a blasphemous heresy. It is our hope for the future that keeps us here, not cowardice and not agreement with Camping. There are many ways to work toward the goal of restoring the orthodox gospel message to Family Radio, and some of us have chosen to remain for now. Rest assured that if the time comes when it is clear that there is no hope of the true gospel being restored to Family Radio, I will leave, not looking back.” Anonymous

“I know quite a lot about this subject, since I’ve been an employee of Family Radio for 18 years. You don’t know the pain we’ve been going through. The 1994? debacle was bad. I’ve personally been verbally assaulted by people in the church who assume I agree with Harold Camping, because I work for Family Radio. I calmly try to tell them that, no, I do *not* agree with him. But now it’s worse. Now Family Radio employees are hearing things like “Hey man, you work for a cult. Why don’t you quit?” The answer is: most of the people that work for F.R feel that Mr. Camping is just plain wrong, or has gone delusional in his advanced age. We are praying that the board of directors will do something about the situation. In the meantime, we are holding on - waiting for the situation to be resolved so we can rebuild Family Radio to the faithful ministry it used to be. We aren’t quitting in droves because we feel that Family Radio is still doing a lot of good, and still deserves to be supported. Yes, in the future if things get worse (and believe me, they can) then the decision to leave will become more attractive. That is a personal decision. But the point here is that the attention so far has been on how Mr. Camping’s teaching has degenerated, and not on the faithful employees who are trying to do God’s will under bad circumstances.” Anonymous

A FINAL WORD FROM JESUS TO HAROLD

There can be no more fitting words to close this expose on Harold Camping than to quote Jesus himself:

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Revelation 22:17-21

Harold Camping has been adding to what is written in the Bible and has also taken away portions of the Bible. There are two strong judgments that will befall him; first, all of the plagues described in the Book of Revelation will be given to him, and secondly, his part will be removed from the Book of Life. Instead of being saved and taken to heaven, Harold will end up in the very Lake of Fire he denies exists, and for eternity he will remember his false teachings and curse himself for doing it. The sad thing is that those people at Family Radio who did not stand up to Harold, but protected him and promoted his teaching will also share his fate in the Lake of Fire. If Harold, his staff and the Board of Directors will repent and ask God to forgive them they will be forgiven, but it is too late once they are dead!


[1] 1994?, Harold Camping, pp.532-533

[2] Ibid, p.532

[3] Ibid, p.533

[4] Ibid, p.534

[5] WE ARE ALMOST THERE!, Harold Camping, first edition February 2008, p.39

[6] Ibid, p.41

[7] Ibid, p.43

[8] Ibid, p.44

[9] Ibid, p.45

[10] Ibid, p.54

[11] Ibid, p.58

[12] Ibid, p.63

 


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