Harold Camping Pamphlet in Louisville
As it turns out, Family Radio's campaign to spread Harold Camping's false teachings in Louisville is not limited to the billboard[s] mentioned in my previous post.
This past week, Pastor Tray Earnhart of Kosmosdale Baptist Church received the following pamphlet in the mail [Tray briefly mentioned this pamphlet in yesterday's sermon in order to refute the tendency toward such end-times speculation]:
Apparently, Family Radio is randomly mailing their pamphlets to Louisville pastors.
Camping's errors concerning the Church are not mentioned in this particular pamphlet (aside from a passing reference to people not being able to trust spiritual leaders), which makes sense; it seems that the idea is to get pastors to promote Family Radio (or Family Radio's website), and then members of churches will be persuaded to leave their congregations and depend on Camping's organization for their spiritual nourishment.
The focus of the pamphlet is on end-times date-setting. Camping arrives at his 2011 date for the rapture by asserting that Noah's flood occurred in 4990 B.C., quoting God's warning from Genesis 7:4 that the flood will occur in seven days, then turning to 2 Peter 3:8, which says that a day to the Lord is as 1,000 years; from this he concludes that the rapture will happen exactly 7,000 years after the flood, which, subtracting one year, since there is no year "0," is 2011. Camping further calculates that the 17th day of the 2nd month in which the flood began (Gen 7:10-11) corresponds to May 21.
The above reasoning ignores the facts that (among other things) 7 days are not mentioned in 2 Peter and two verses after 2 Peter 3:8 the Bible plainly declares that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief" (i.e., unexpectedly). There is no reason to combine the history recounted in Genesis 7 and the illustration in 2 Peter 3 in the way Camping has done.
In the last third of the pamphlet, readers are urged to repent and to seek God's mercy, using Jonah as an illustration. The gospel of who Jesus is and what He has done on behalf of sinners is never mentioned. It is also implied that acceptance of the May 21, 2011 date for the rapture is part of accepting the gospel in the same way that Ninevah had to accept Jonah's prophecy in order to receive the Word of God.
This past week, Pastor Tray Earnhart of Kosmosdale Baptist Church received the following pamphlet in the mail [Tray briefly mentioned this pamphlet in yesterday's sermon in order to refute the tendency toward such end-times speculation]:
Apparently, Family Radio is randomly mailing their pamphlets to Louisville pastors.
Camping's errors concerning the Church are not mentioned in this particular pamphlet (aside from a passing reference to people not being able to trust spiritual leaders), which makes sense; it seems that the idea is to get pastors to promote Family Radio (or Family Radio's website), and then members of churches will be persuaded to leave their congregations and depend on Camping's organization for their spiritual nourishment.
The focus of the pamphlet is on end-times date-setting. Camping arrives at his 2011 date for the rapture by asserting that Noah's flood occurred in 4990 B.C., quoting God's warning from Genesis 7:4 that the flood will occur in seven days, then turning to 2 Peter 3:8, which says that a day to the Lord is as 1,000 years; from this he concludes that the rapture will happen exactly 7,000 years after the flood, which, subtracting one year, since there is no year "0," is 2011. Camping further calculates that the 17th day of the 2nd month in which the flood began (Gen 7:10-11) corresponds to May 21.
The above reasoning ignores the facts that (among other things) 7 days are not mentioned in 2 Peter and two verses after 2 Peter 3:8 the Bible plainly declares that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief" (i.e., unexpectedly). There is no reason to combine the history recounted in Genesis 7 and the illustration in 2 Peter 3 in the way Camping has done.
In the last third of the pamphlet, readers are urged to repent and to seek God's mercy, using Jonah as an illustration. The gospel of who Jesus is and what He has done on behalf of sinners is never mentioned. It is also implied that acceptance of the May 21, 2011 date for the rapture is part of accepting the gospel in the same way that Ninevah had to accept Jonah's prophecy in order to receive the Word of God.
Labels: apologetics
posted by Andrew Lindsey | 5:48 PM
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