Manifest By The Light

(Friday Church News Notes, May 27, 2011, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In responding to the question of why judgment day didn’t come on May 21 as he predicted, Harold Camping says that it did come! Speaking live on his Family Radio broadcast on May 23, Camping said, “God brought Judgment Day to the whole world. It will continue to Oct 21, 2011, and at that time the whole world will be destroyed.” He claims that his previous predictions were correct, as well, because they were fulfilled “spiritually.” On May 21, 1988, judgment came upon the churches, and on Sept. 7, 1994, judgment continued on the churches. Camping and the Global Warming prognosticators have the same win-win formula. No matter what happens, they are right! It reminds us of what the late religious quack “Reverend Ike” used to say, “You can’t lose with the stuff I use.” No doubt, when October 22 rolls around, Camping will say, “The whole world was destroyed yesterday!” The Camping fiasco is reminiscent of the date-setting fervor of William Miller in the 19th century. When his date of 1843 proved wrong, he changed the date to October 1844. Tens of thousands followed Miller’s predictions, and many diverse, unscriptural “adventist” groups sprang up within this excited religious atmosphere. After October 1844 passed uneventfully, Ellen Harmon said she had a vision in which she learned that Jesus’ return then was not to earth but to the heavenly holy of holies to begin investigating the records of human works. Ellen married James White and they founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is still with us today with its many heresies (such as Investigative Judgment) taught by a deluded female prophetess. The normal-literal interpretation of prophecy is the protection from wild-eyed allegorical exegesis, and this method of interpretation teaches us that the Rapture of New Testament saints is imminent, judgment of the world will follow, and all of the mocking of unbelievers will not stop it. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:9-10).