I recall years ago watching the 1st, Home Alone movie, and the boy star, Macaulay Culkin, who to a store clerk, who questioned if he was alone, exclaimed in a tone of defiant confidence, "I don't think so!" To Harold Camping and followers who claimed they've got pegged down the date of the world's end I'd say the same, "I DON'T THINK SO!" In saying this however I do not make light of Christian beliefs which holds there'll some day be some type of new world, an end and yes a new type of beginning. I say without apology that I consider myself a Christian and the belief that Christ will some day govern the world has been a standard belief of Christians for thousands of years. 
The troubling thing about Camping and his followers is why they'd consider it wise, in light of the very scriptures they claim to treasure and hold dear, that they'd take a position which very clearly stands contrary to the very thing Jesus Christ said shouldn't be done, that being, date setting. What exactly is it Mr Camping doesn't understand when it comes to what Jesus said in Mark 13:32 "But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." Is Camping's motive for date setting based on a need for some vain type of self-exaltation? Could it be as well his followers are the even more foolish? Consider his age of 89. While it's true there are many elderly who have their mental faculties in tact regardless of age, isn't it also true some fall prey to a certain degree of senility? Even at age 72, 17 years prior to all this, Camping claimed a certain date for the apocalypse but keep in mind he was 72! I don't say this to make light of those entering their more elderly years, but I'd contend it is a fair question that's asked concerning those you'd elect as leaders. In the political spectrum there are many who question whether anyone should head a nation who's past age of 65. So here you had Camping in his seventies claiming inside information about an apocalypse and now he's one year short of being 90 making another prediction, and they'd take what he spouts off so seriously?
I wouldn't suggest many of his followers are not good people but shouldn't they try to have some perspective? Isn't there a bigger picture they should consider? I'd ask them who exactly is it that you're following and taking what they say hook line and sinker? It's now been reported that Camping has apologized for having his date wrong by saying, "Ok, so I got the Apocalypse date wrong...it's not the end of the world!" He further adds, that the date was not as he puts it, "worked out as accurately as I could". He claims he knows he could have done it better? Really? And he considers it's a small thing that he didn't? 
Yes such a very small thing indeed that many of his followers sold much of their possessions, running across the country and even the world at their own expense to share a message they proclaimed concerning his date, and shouting from the housetops it was guaranteed! Quite an investment, his followers paying for big billboard signs making themselves look foolish, for a guy now saying concerning the date he could have done better. Will he guarantee this as well as he did about his second wrong date? Undoubtedly he's telling his people they can take it to the bank but the question is do they have any money left their in their accounts. Sorry Mr Camping...you've spent it all but it would have been better if you would have offered rather a 100 % money back guarantee! I'm sure those who took you seriously would appreciate it.
No comments:
Post a Comment