October 21st, 2011

How many days until The End?

Amazingly, despite the obvious lack of violent natural disasters and 200 million raptured believers, Harold Camping still believes that he was correct about the day. He says he misunderstood the exact nature of what would take place on May 21, but that Judgement Day did in fact happen as predicted. He now says it took the form of a more spiritual coming/Judgement that we can't see. He was wrong about physical earthquakes and etc., but he claims that the dates and everything else is still God-revealed truth.

This new insight, of course, brings up the question. If he misunderstood the nature of Judgement Day, how can we believe that he correctly understands the nature of October 21. Perhaps it will also be a "spiritual destruction" that we can't see?

Quotes from Camping's open interview May 23rd

On May 23, 2011, Camping held a special public Q&A forum for reporters. Here are a few of the "highlights":

Regarding the end of the world:

"the end is 5 months away now."

When asked about setting a new date (Oct 21):

"...we've always said October 21 was the day, that's not new. I'm not setting a new date at all. I'm only saying that we didn't understand all together the spiritual meaning of what, eh.: May 21 was a day when Christ came and put the world under judgement. Absolutely, there's a big change in the world. They're under judgement where they were not on May 20, they are under judgement; and that, that, that, that hasn't changed it's only that uh were' seeing this as a spiritual thing happening rather than a physical thing happening and but the, the, the timing, the structure, the proofs, the signs; none of that has changed at all. None. None at all. And, and it's just amazing what God has has shown us in so far as it proofs and timings."

Speaking of May 21st, "Judgement Day":

"...I was wrong. It was to be understood spiritually, not, uh, not uh, uh physi, physically and yet the sense of it is still the same. That judgement has come. It the world is now under judgement where it was not prior to May 21. Spiritually there is a big difference in the world that we can't detect it all with our eyes, but we can know from the bible."

When asked who is a true believer, who will be saved:

"The fact is there's only one kind of people that will ascend into heaven and that has nothing to do with any religious. They could be a Hinduist, they could be a Muslim or whatever. If God has saved them they're going to be caught up. And God, in fact it's interesting, this is very significant: in the bible, again and again, when it talks about the end of the world, it says the last shall be first and the fist shall be last. That's repeated several times and that has some *very* important spiritual significance. Because 'the last' are those who know the least about the bible, who have probably never heard the bible before till they got the message through uh the media and through Family Radio activity that May 21 is Judgement Day. And uh, and uh they, uh they, they, they they they got that came from the bible and so they they have heard the word of God, and if God has decided to save them, and God knows whom he, whom he is going to save, they don't have to know all about the bible. They don't have to know about, about uh, uh all the things that we learn in the scriptures, they just have to know God has spoken and I, (speaking now as a person praying for salvation) 'oh, God have mercy on me, have, God have mercy on me' and that can be any, any one, at, at all it isn't [illegible word] in fact those who are 'the first' they're the ones that've had the bibles all their years and they have, they're not, the're not, they don't have an understanding of the truth of the bible. They have their own understanding."

Q: "Does it worry you that you have hurt the credibility and made a mockery in some ways of religion?":

"oh, no, I don't no, no, excuse me just like what I've said before there is no pastor in the world, that, that -- that's not the right statement. Most pastors would never admit they make a mistake because they are trying to run a bi., uh, preserve their own credibility in the eyes of those who are listening or maybe they insist they are maintaining the present credibility of the bible. But the fact is they're not. They're not."

Comments

It is true that October 21 is not a new date. Mr. Camping has said all along that May 21 was Judgement Day, but that the end would be October 21. Camping is not asserting a new date, he is affirming his original timeline with a "minor" tweak: Judgement Day was more "spiritual" than it was physical.

What does the Bible say about Christ's second Coming?

Christ's first coming was literal, something we could see:

Christ's second coming will be physical, like His first coming: